In an interview for the Spring 2024 print edition of Revolver, Kerry King explained why he didn’t ask his SLAYER bandmate and EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt to join his solo band.
King will release his debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, on May 17. In addition to King, the album features DEATH ANGEL vocalist Mark Osegueda, longtime SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph, former HELLYEAH bassist Kyle Sanders, and ex–MACHINE HEAD and ex-VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel.
As for why he didn’t want Holt in his new band, King said: “I started to realise that the more pieces I take from SLAYER, the more it’s gonna be called ‘SLAYER Lite.’ I mean, of course it’s gonna sound like SLAYER; I wrote 90 percent of the last record [2015’s Repentless]. But if I take less with me from SLAYER, there’ll be less for people to stand on, as far as making lazy comparisons.
“If I had to do SLAYER over again after [Jeff] Hanneman [who died in 2013], 110 times out of a 100, I would pick Gary Holt. He was the right guy. But the perception of people, it weighs on me, and I don’t want to deal with that,” he says.
“I love Gary. He’s a great player,” he continued. “But I already had my one dude from SLAYER I was definitely keeping. And Phil [Demmel] had only played four gigs with SLAYER, so that comparison wasn’t going to be there; also, he impressed the f**k out of me when he came out to do those Europe gigs. It was just a couple of days after his MACHINE HEAD tour had ended, and he learned 18 or 20 of our songs on short notice.
“He also had to learn our stage tempos, and where the pyro was,” Kerry added. “If JUDAS PRIEST had asked me to come out in four days and figure all that out, I couldn’t have done it. But Phil did it for us.”
After concluding their last world tour in November 2019, SLAYER, featuring Tom Araya (bass, vocals), Kerry King (guitar), Gary Holt (guitar), and Paul Bostaph (drums), will headline three prominent festivals, Riot Fest, Louder Than Life and Aftershock Festival, marking their first live appearances since then.
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