Kerry King Hates Calling His Solo Band Kerry King
Names are hard. Just ask the members of the band Diarrhea Planet. Or Pissed Jeans. Or Limp Bizkit. But, while those are all terrible band names, they at least made an attempt at coming up with something creative. Naming yourself something as unoriginal as Dave Matthews Band might be even worse. That’s something that Kerry King fully realizes, even though he made the reluctant choice to name his solo project after himself.
In a recent interview with Sweden Rock Online, Slayer-guitarist-gone-solo Kerry King was asked about his decision to call his new band simply Kerry King and King admitted he wasn’t a huge fan of the name choice. Here’s what he had to say (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):
“I hate it. [Laughs] Every time I came up with [a possible band name], it would get all the way to the trademark attorneys and they would say, ‘You don’t wanna do this.’ And I’d be, like, ‘Why? Can’t we buy it?’ If it’s just a little tiny company or something. And a couple of times it just had too many uses. And I said, ‘Well…’ It came time to announce those American festivals, and we had to go with something, so we went with my name. Never in a million years did I wanna do that. But here we are.”
What were the other names he considered?
“Um, the earliest one — the Internet was right — the earliest one was BLOOD REIGN. The next one was KING’S REIGN, which I would have been okay with. And the band loved it. “Cause I kept trying to say, ‘I don’t wanna use my name. I don’t wanna use my name,’ ’cause I’m not a vain dude; I’m not like that. And that one got blown out of the water too.”
Both of those would be pretty cool names, although using Blood Reign would make it really difficult for King to pretend his solo project was completely different from Slayer. At that point, you might as well just call it Slayer II.
If you want to catch Kerry King, or Slayer II: Electric Boogaloo, here’s the rest of the dates on his current solo tour:
Jun 8 – PL Gdańsk – Mystic Festival
Jun 9 – DE Nuremberg – Rock im Park
Jun 11 – DE Hamburg – Große Freiheit 36
Jun 12 – DE Berlin – Huxleys Neue Welt
Jun 13 – AT Nickelsdorf – Nova Rock
Jun 15 – CZ Hradec Králové, Rock For People
Jun 16 – UK Derby – Download Festival
Jun 18 – UK London – Electric Ballroom
Jun 20 – BE Dessel – Graspop Metal Meeting
Jun 21 DK Copenhagen – Copenhell
Jun 22 FI Nummijärvi, Nummirock Metal Festival
Jun 26 – ES Viveiro – Resurrection Fest
Jun 27 – FR Clisson – Hellfest
Jun 28 – FI Helsinki – Tuska
Jun 29 – PT Lisbon – Evil Live Festival, Altice Arena
Jul 19 – Grand Prairie, TX – Texas Trust CU Theatre
Jul 20 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Jul 21 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
Jul 23 – Jacksonville, FL – Daily’s Place
Jul 24 – Orlando, FL – Orlando Amphitheater
Jul 25 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Jul 27 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
Jul 28 – Richmond, VA – Virginia Credit Union LIVE!
Jul 30 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
Jul 31 – London, ON – Budweiser Gardens
Aug 1 – Montreal, QC – Bell Centre
Aug 3 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
Aug 4 – Manchester, NH – SNHU Arena
Aug 6 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre
Aug 8 – Reading, PA – Santander Arena**
Aug 9 – Cleveland, OH – Jacobs Pavilion**
Aug 10 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre @ Freedom Hill**
Aug 13 – Moorhead, MN – Bluestem Center For The Arts Amphitheater
Aug 15 – Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
Aug 16 – Penticton, BC – South Okanagan Events Centre
Aug 17 – Kent, WA – accesso ShoWare Center
Aug 18 – Portland, OR – Theater of the Clouds
Aug 21 – Los Angeles, CA – The Kia Forum
Aug 23 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
Aug 24 – Rio Rancho, NM – Rio Rancho Events Center
Aug 25 – El Paso, TX – El Paso County Coliseum
Aug 27 – Magna, UT – The Great Saltair
Aug 29 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Aug 31 – Omaha, NE – The Astro Amphitheater
