Slayer’s Kerry King on Learning of Jeff Hanneman’s Death, Playing for Another 10 Years
Slayer guitarist Kerry King was recently a guest on Spotify Metal Talks. During the chat, King spoke in depth about the day fellow Slayer shredder Jeff Hanneman passed away and claimed he'd love to keep Slayer going for another decade.
Kerry King remembers hearing about Hanneman's death from Slayer's tour manager while rehearsing with drummer Paul Bostaph. "So I get to the studio and answered my phone, and my tour manager called me, and I knew immediately," King recalls. "'Cause he said, 'Jeff's gone.' And it wasn't a question; I knew exactly what he meant. And I was stunned, I was surprised — horribly surprised. But at the end of the day, I knew it was coming; I just didn't know it was coming that soon. So I got off the phone and I went inside. It was me and [drummer] Paul Bostaph rehearsing that day. And I said, 'Hey, man. I've gotta tell you something.' I said, 'Jeff's not with us.' And the way I said it, Paul was, like, 'What do you mean?' I'm, like, 'Jeff's gone.' That's how it went. And we rehearsed, because we're diligent about that; we had stuff to rehearse for."
The day of Jeff's passing was the same day as the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods Awards, where Kerry King took the stage and asked for a "moment of noise" from the crowd. "At the end of the day, I think it was the best thing I could have done," says King. "To this day, I have no regrets about doing it. And, you know, just raising my drink up, whether you drank or whatever."
As for Slayer's future, King says, "I still feel like a kid — you know, except for a couple of aches and pains. But it's really weird how you mature and how your concept of age and time becomes different. Now, for me, I would love to do this for 10 more years, 'cause I think I've got 10 more years in me, at least. I hope, and I think that would be awesome to do that." [via Blabbermouth]
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