Kerry King Swears This Time That Slayer’s “Never Gonna Tour Again” or Make a New Record
Hey, you know that whole Slayer reunion that happened this year and how they’re going to play next year’s Louder Than Life to make up for the fact that a fucking hurricane canceled their set this year? If you’re on the fence about seeing them at that makeup show, you might want to get your ticket soon because according to guitarist Kerry King, this shit is fleeting at best.
During an interview with Australian YouTube channel Metal Roos (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), King shared his thoughts about the iconic thrash metal band’s future plans and how this whole return truly is coming to an end.
“We’re never gonna tour again. We’re never gonna make a record again. Mark my word: we’re never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again. Because that was the last thing. We said [back in 2018], ‘This is our final tour.’ It took five years for us to come and say, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of shows, five-year anniversary.’”
That’s true. It was only five years before Slayer decided to come back into the spotlight. That’s not really a whole lot of time to be away in the grand scheme of things, but King shared his thoughts on the importance of the Slayer reunion happening at all — and it all comes down to bringing a new, younger audience back into metal.
“I think it’s really cool. A lot of fans are into it. There’s gonna be haters who say, ‘Oh, they retired.’ Yeah. Whatever. This is all about celebration. Say a kid was 10 years old when we retired. Now he’s 15, 16. [It’s his] first opportunity to see us. I think that’s important.”
Now, you may also recall that the Slayer reunion announcement was made shortly after Kerry King’s solo act was unveiled. That was an absolutely bonkers turn of events that almost saw King’s album From Hell I Rise get overshadowed by Slayer’s return.
During the interview, King didn’t hold back about his thoughts on that whole situation, stating that he wasn’t exactly thrilled that things got announced when they did.
“The [SLAYER] announcement timing was not my favorite, but my band was doing its thing. The festivals SLAYER agreed to play, they wanted to release [the information about us playing there], they wanted to announce [it]. So, the timing wasn’t in my favor, but everything went [as it did], and here we are in Australia [with my new band] kicking ass.”
In all honesty, here’s hoping Slayer actually stays gone for good after Louder Than Life next year. While it’s awesome to see the dudes playing those classic tunes all these years later, maybe it’s time we let the new kids take the reigns and let legacy acts like Slayer rest on their laurels.
