Kerry King has confirmed that 2024's Slayer reunion won't translate into a full-scale comeback. Speaking to Australia's Metal Roos, the thrash metal icon was completely up front about what the future holds for Slayer.
"Mark my word: we're never gonna make a record again, we're never gonna tour again," he says. "Because that was the last thing. We said, 'This is our final tour.' It [then] took five years for us to come and say, 'Hey, here's a couple of shows, five-year anniversary.'"
Slayer made a surprise return to live stages in 2024 when they were announced for Riot Fest, Aftershock and Louder Than Life festivals in the US. Ultimately, they only played the former two events, as extreme weather conditions forced them to cancel their appearance in Kentucky as Hurricane Helene hit. Louder Than Life have since confirmed that Slayer will return in 2025.
Earlier this year King launched his much-anticipated solo project and released their debut album, From Hell I Rise. Featuring an all-star cast of musiciains including Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda, former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, ex-Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and frequent Slayer collaborator Paul Bostaph on drums, the band made their live debut at Reggie's Rock Club in Chicago, Illinois in May.
The group are set to tour for much of 2025, starting in San Francisco on January 15, they'll tour the US and Canada before heading to South America in May for some select appearances south of the equator. They're then due to tour Europe from July 29 with UK shows in August.
King previously hinted to Hammer that he'd already got ideas for a second solo album - but admitted any notion of recording would be tour dependent. "I will be prepared to record next year, but depending how long the tour cycle is, that’s a grey area,” he said.
“I’m old school, which is why we did an album," he stated. "But I’ve gotta tell ya, there’s nothing that says albums are the path of the future. Maybe we put out four songs, go on tour. Then another four songs, another tour. I’m not sure. I’m planning on doing a second record and we’ll see what the public demands when that happens.”
Elsewhere in his interview with Metal Roos, King was asked if there were any musicians - living or dead - he'd have collaborated with, given the chance.
"I'd go the dead route, because what's fun making up people who're alive?" He quips. "It'd be [Ronnie James] Dio. I didn't know Dio long enough - I didn't meet him until like 2006. I was a huge fan, and when I met him I was wasted. It was comedy!"
"We were in Japan, doing one of the festivals you do there; Beast Feast, Loud Park, whatever it might've been," he continues. "And our production manager was Black Sabbath's old production manager, so he knew Ronnie. So we're at the bar and I'm getting ready to go to bed - you play really early in Japan so [getting] drunk comes a lot earlier than usual - and I was going to bed so I could tell myself, 'Good, you know when to go to bed.' I see [our production manager] over there with Ronnie James Dio and I'm like... 'Fuck! I wanna go meet Ronnie James Dio.' So I go fuckin' stumbling over to the table and I say, 'Charlie! Why don't you introduce me to your friend?' And [Dio] stands up and is like, 'Hey Kerry, how're you?' and it's just like, 'Ronnie James Dio knows my name, fuck yeah!'"
"He's one of my top two singers of all-time," King finishes. "I only give him number two because there's a man called Rob Halford on this planet, who is my hero. For a second guitar player? It's gotta be Dime [much-missed Pantera/Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell], he's my boy.
"We were gonna do a song together before he got taken from us [Darrell was shot and killed during a performance in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 2004]. The day we were gonna do it, was the day he had a lot of press. So I was like, 'Don't worry, we'll do it, we've got time.' We were gonna do Snortin' Whiskey, Drinkin' Cocaine [originally by Pat Travers] and both gonna sing it."
Watch the full interview with Metal Roos below.
