By AARON VON LUPTON
Not only is he the hardest working member of the now defunct Slayer, but he just might also be the coolest. But as ultra laid back and chill and the now 60-year-old Kerry King – or Kerry Fucking King and he’s better known these days – may be, the axe shredder still insists on being recognized for his new solo efforts and not “just” his contributions to the previously titans of thrash metal – as genre-defining as that band may have been for the past forty years or so. Let’s take stock: After laying waste to a never-ending touring schedule with well-known ditties about vampires, black magic, Satanic rituals and atrocities of war, what did King do but form a supergroup made up of members of Machine Head, Hell Yeah, Death Angel and even former Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph? Now, after going from supporting act on the Lamb of God and Mastodon tour in 2024 to announcing a first-ever headlining tour with Municipal Waste as support in 2025, King’s debut album From Hell I Rise (out now on Reigning Phoenix Music) recently won Rolling Stone’s Metal Album of the Year.
Outside Toronto’s Danforth Music Hall, the almost impossibly nice King goes immediately from the tour bus to greeting fans waiting in sub-Arctic temperatures to sign autographs before heading off to do soundcheck then meeting yours truly at the pub next door for a sit down. These days the tattooed and bearded King finds less time for horror films, despite the Terrifier t-shirt he’s sporting, but is still happy to discuss the early glory days of Slayer when thrash was in its infancy and splatter movies were tearing up the silver screen as much as he is now in his new fist-pumping solo career.
RUE MORGUE spoke with Kerry King in early February in Toronto.
2025 ended on a high note for you. From Hell I Rise won Rolling Stone’s Metal Album of the Year. Were you surprised by that at all?
I really have no idea how they decide on those things but obviously I was happy to receive it. It means we made an impression and that’s what we set out to do. Can I say we totally deserved it? I can’t say for sure, but it does give us confidence going forward. It was definitely a great way to round out our first year.
So, this is Kerry King’s first headlining tour after learning to be a touring band as opener last year.
It’s the next step for us for sure, and I just take everything as it comes. It was cool as hell playing with Mastodon and Lamb of God last year and having that opening slot with them, but I am pretty comfortable going up there as the headliner. We’ll be throwing in some surprises for you guys tonight (which turned out to be a series of old and new Slayer songs as well as “Purgatory” and “Killers” by Paul Di’anno era-Iron Maiden (!)).
How do you consider the sound of the new band? Are you bringing in something new that you always wanted, or do you consider this to be a continuum of Slayer?
I don’t know that I would call it a continuum. I would just say that I have a new excitement and energy about this music. I still get pumped listening to it, and I still get excited to play it live. Maybe that’s all that matters to me right now.
This band is kind of a supergroup. It has members of Slayer, Death Angel, Machine Head … did you write it with these members in mind?
No, not at all. I just wrote it myself with really no one in mind and then worried about that after. These guys … we’ve all been friends for a while, so we get along professionally and personally, and we just like to hang out. That makes everything easier. I think a lot of that is what makes this band work, even more than a style of music.
I’d like to talk a bit about horror now. I heard you have a Freddy Krueger tattoo. Confirm or deny.
Ha, no I don’t. I don’t really have any horror character tattoos like that.
You’re not a massive Nightmare on Elm Street fan?
I did like the first one. That was scary. All the stuff Freddy does is kind of small by today’s standards, like him dragging his knives against the wall, but they made it look scary at the time. One thing I like about Freddy is how he shows you what he’s going to do to you, by doing it to himself first. After that, the movies kind of lost me. There was way too much humor. I guess the third one did have its moments.
You got to be in a horror movie back in 2022 – Studio 666 – which was written by and stars Dave Grohl.
Oh yeah! I play a band tech who gets electrocuted to death. That make up was such a pain in the ass though. It was three days, two hours each, because it has to look a bit different each shoot. It felt so good to get it off. I was there shooting that for about a week for my one death scene. The director, BJ McDonnell, shot a few Slayer videos, so he obviously played a part in getting me in there.
Your character’s name is Krug, which I guess was a Freddy Krueger reference.
Or maybe it was a reference to Krug, the main villain in Last House on the Left.
Something that I think is cool is how you have a reputation for being a fan of modern horror. You’re one of the only people I can think of that would name House on Haunted Hill (1999) as one of their all-time favorites. Do you still keep up with modern horror?
I just don’t have the time now. I was a fan of the Final Destination movies. I honestly can’t remember which death is in which movie, but there are some really creative ones in there. I mean, being burned to death in a tanning bed!
Whenever I think Final Destination, I think “Highway to Hell,” the massive highway pileup death scene.
Oh yeah, part two.
I notice you’re wearing a Terrifier shirt, so I presume you’re a fan of that series?
Of the first one, yes. I thought it was just nasty and brutal enough. I kind of loved it. I’ll never forget the amazing Art the Clown birthday cake I got when I turned 54. I wasn’t as big a fan of the second and third one. The second was just too long and I found the sequels were more about the heroine than they were about the killer.
It’s not really modern anymore but I really liked Event Horizon. That’s one that I go back to all the time. It’s so scary and bloody. I guess you could look at it like Hellraiser in space. With the Hellraiser films, I am a big fan of part III. I think because it was what I wanted the first one to be. I remember it was, “It will tear your soul apart,” and I was like “Okay, cool.” And it starts out pretty cool, but by the end of it I was like, “What the hell am I watching? What is this about?”
But my go to is The Thing. That’s a movie that still holds up today, especially in the effects department. I must have seen it more often than most horror movies. Plus, it’s an example of a good remake.
Do you still have a collection of snakes named after horror characters?
No, because I live in New York now. Who can afford that space in New York? I had to sell them all when I left the West Coast.
Weird question, but can you take us back to 1981? I mean what was it like? Slayer was just getting together, thrash metal was still in its infancy and you had so many classic horror films on the big screen: The Evil Dead, Halloween II, American Werewolf in London, etc. What was the atmosphere like?
It’s hard to go back and really remember but some of those movies Jeff [Hanneman] and I would go see over and over. We saw Evil Dead in the theatre at least three times. Actually, our album Hell Awaits [1985] opens with “join us” being played backwards on repeat. That was our little nod to Evil Dead.
