SLAYER Kerry King Interview on his 1st solo album "It is more difficult than I thought"

Hey, I'm Carri King and you're watching the TV blaring, it's funny, right, it's funny to be 40 years in this business, let alone starting a new band, it's funny, our first show in Europe is coming up. Being on my 60th birthday, um, at the only place I've ever canceled in my life, which is super ironic, um, but putting out a record, you know, uh, I think the only thing I can say about that is that obviously I have not finished. I have a lot

more

music and a lot

more

things to say, a lot more people to get angry and argue with, so let's start this new Endeavor, now let's move on and it takes, I don't know, courage.

I would say to launch a new project. Yes, and it's much harder than I

thought

. You know, I've been spoiled for at least the last three decades, you know, and starting over even though I have a gigantic history and Slayer, um, starting over. you're still starting over, you know you have less bills, you're not ma

king

money, um, you have to figure out how to make sure everyone in my band makes money, so it's worth your time, but yeah, um. I never for a second considered not continuing because at this point in life you know that any record could be your last.

I don't think this is my last

album

, but you know I have to keep going as it is. I hope the fans like it I hope the fans show up I like it I think the fans are going to like it and I think we're going to have a lot of good times and if this lineup was made of friends, can we absolutely say that? That's what meant the most to me about moving forward on this project was getting my friends. I could get anyone in the business. You know, I can get people. I don't know people I've never met, but.

I have enough friends in this business to know that I could put together a band of top musicians who are friends, that after the show we get on the bus and you know, have a drink and you know, you just have fun, there's no drama, you don't know anything , nothing. Something strange is going to happen that we don't foresee. I just hope to go on tour with these guys and have a good time. Who was the most surprised when you called them into the band? I think it was the most surprising moment. That's when I finally gave Mark the gig.

Mark put his name on The Hat very early on and he's the only one who did demos with me and Paul. We'd have him come every six weeks or so and he'd just come and sing. the songs that he had already sung and you know, every time he comes down he improves them, but I didn't tell him until 14 months ago that he got the gig and I was very nonchalant about it, he was at my house in Las Vegas. and I said friend, do you know if you still want the concert. I guess you can have it and he was super excited, super excited, almost like an excited fan.

He was so excited that he accidentally texted his mom and me and I said, I love you. Also man, okay, okay, so we went in and recorded like two months after that, like I said, we made demos and we always improved the demos and then we got to the studio in Hollywood and I was in another room doing something and The Residue of Sayang and the promotion, the promoter, the producer grabbed me and said, Hey, I want you to hear where the song is and I said, "Okay, cool, you know, waiting to hear what I was used to hearing and you know, I hear the first verse". and I ask you: how did you arrive at this record?

It's like I've never heard that before. Well, that's where he started singing and he felt comfortable, so I went to Mark immediately and said, "Hey, buddy, you can recreate this." it's like you're not preparing yourself to fail the first show and ruin your voice and you know cancel shows everywhere and he assured me that he can do it so you know he went on and on and did it. Even crazier performances on the last few songs that he sang, so he apparently he has a lot of confidence in what he can do and I think it sounds great, so you know I can't wait to get out there and start doing it.

Were you supervised too much? everything with your engineer I was there for almost everything um important for you to supervise everything well I'm the only one who knew how everything went um I wrote everything uh Phil in his

solo

s he came in and did his

solo

s and I basically let him go and said: Hey, these They are your parts to have fun. I saw Kyle play bass because we never played together, so there's a lot of stuff. I mean, he had the demos and I'm sure he learned them, but you know, when you play a lot of fast things, if you don't have them, you know the best quality recordings, you might miss a note here or there, so the The only reason I saw Kyle was just to make sure I was playing the right things, um and I had to correct him a couple of times, you know, listen to things differently and I knew what it was like, so I'm glad I did. done because you know a funny bass note might have appeared on the record, but you know he was watching it visually and listening to what he played and ma

king

sure everything was right so that everything was in your mind before you recorded the AL or yeah, you know, I relied on all the clues, but I would send Kyle clues without a basis so he can do his thing, um, but you.

I know we wanted to hear what the songs were going to sound like. I made two guitars. I did the bass. I did all the vocals before Mark came in and rearranged them. Just so we could know where everything was. You know, see if that's where we. I wanted it to be that way and we achieved so much of that that, um, I think for the first time in Paul's history, he knew where everything was going, he knew what it sounded like, he knew what the lead sounded like and I think that contributed to a better overall performance of your part.

Did you record lead guitars on this

album

? So it was mixed between you and Phil, yes sir, okay, did you record these SS and then yours, or yes, he did the first one. He was working. He was still working on vocals with Mark, so he did it. I came in one day and did my own a couple of days later, I think so, for this, this first album, you wrote all the lyrics. M, it was easy for Mark to sing lyrics that he couldn't write, I think so, partially. because I sang Everything beforehand, so not only did I have the lyrics, but I knew exactly how they were going, you know, and you know him coming in and doing his vocal performance, you know if something would change for the better, for us, um, no No you write it in a way that it's like you have to do this, you know, this is the starting point, you know, if it improves on your version, you know better for the final product, anyway, many sources of inspiration for this album. but of course war politics is always the one that never ends uh inspiration right oh yeah you know there will always be things out there that give me lyrical ideas for the next rest of my life.

I'm sure you know this and I'll be home for four and a half years. I'm much more involved in the political jokes of the day than, say, 10 years ago. I'm just at home with nothing to do in a pandemic, all you have to do is watch to know what's going on. really know and catch up on whatever show you're watching on TV, so I had a lot more knowledge about American politics in general, so if it's not as vague as it has been in the past, it's only because I know more about it. regard. I'm surprised there are as many wars as there are right now.

I mean, I

thought

we were headed for a more peaceful society, so that's very shocking to me and I hope it's not a trend, you know, and I hope it's not a continued upward trend. You know, I think it's great, you know there will always be political leaders who want more than what they have and basically that's what war is. The first show will take place in 10 days, is it only 10 days? I am not ready. Have you already rehearsed with the boys? Rehearsal. I'm going home on Saturday. Flight to the west coast on Sunday. Rehearsal on Sunday.

The first time you had all five of us in the same room, apart from the video, but the video we played together, but we weren't connected, so it was fun, it was cool to see us all playing at the same time, even though there was no sound. but you know seeing us all together I felt very comfortable knowing that he looked good you know no one looked out of place and the videos where I saw him for the first time but yes Saturday Sunday I'm sorry is when we played together for the first time You will play at least this summer again in the place you know a lot.

Are you okay with all these shows? You know that many people are waiting for you. I love Hellfest and was very happy to receive the offer. Do you know all this? The European shows were booked with no one knowing who was in my band, no one knowing what the band sounded like and I felt very honored by all of that, um surprised and honored to be able to come here and do it. I'm looking forward to it because you know everyone loves the album, everyone in the band loves the album, so we're all looking forward to getting out there and rocking it and you would play your songs, but also your mixed songs, on the show. help Fest I imagine it will probably play an hour, maybe a little less.

So, depending on the time frame, I'll probably do 10 songs off the album and then you know the remaining handful of Slayer material that I wrote or co-wrote.