King, Kerry

Kerry King was born on June 3, 1964 in Los Angeles , California. His father was an aircraft mechanic, and his mother worked as an employee of a telephone company. He was the youngest child, in addition to him, the four Kings had two more daughters. ^[3] At school (the future musician attended three schools at different times), according to Kerry, he was an excellent student, he once won a school math olympiad, but from the moment girls got into his field of vision in high school, his studies left in the background: in the 12th grade, he studied mathematical analysis and in the first semester he received A (the highest mark), and in the second semester E (the lowest mark), after which he decided that it was enough to study with him. ^[four]

The boy had a fascination with music from primary school years, he received his first guitar at the age of 13 as a gift from his father, who in this way tried to find his son a hobby and protect him from bad company. ^[4] After graduating from school and not having the desire to continue his education, the guy got into the idea of ​​creating his own team. The first member of his group was Jeff Hanneman , then Dave Lombardo joined the team, and after him the future frontman Tom Araya . The group itself was called Slayer .

Slayer

To record the first Show No Mercy album , Metal Blade Records , with which the group signed a contract, did not allocate any money - King's father became the source of financing, who gave the group a loan. Kerry himself claimed that his father was proud of his son’s profession, but the musician himself gave him to listen to his band’s recordings selectively, hiding the most brutal, because, according to King, his father “is such a guy that he didn’t even swear in the presence of his mother.” ^[3]

After the release of the first record and the first Haunting The West Coast concert tour, Kerry King temporarily left Slayer and joined Dave Mustaine's new band Megadeth . Although Mustaine wanted King to be a regular member of his band, Kerry returned to Slayer after five shows, saying that Megadeth “took too much of his time.” ^[5]

Since then, King has remained the group's permanent guitarist, playing the role of author of music and lyrics.

Participation in other projects

In addition to working in Slayer, King also participated in various musical projects several times as a guest guitarist.

When recording Reign in Blood, the band’s producer Rick Rubin was also producing the Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill hip-hop debut album and suggested Kerry to play guitar parts in the songs Fight for Your Rights and No Sleep till Brooklyn. In particular, according to Rick, the song “No Sleep till Brooklyn” lacked a guitar solo, and he invited Kerry King to write the missing piece for a few hundred dollars. ^{[5] It was} originally supposed that there would be a scene in the video for this song where King would push the gorilla from the stage. However, the musician said that "if someone pushes someone out, then it will be me, pushing out the gorilla." As, in fact, was done. ^[5]

King also recorded a guitar solo for Goddamn Electric on Reinventing the Steel Pantera . He also recorded lead guitar parts for Disorder (rapper Ice-T Judgment Night ), Dead Girl Superstar (for Rob Zombie's The Sinister Urge album), Final Prayer ( Hatebreed Perseverance album), and also for the song "What We're All About (The Original Version)" Sum 41 .

King is an atheist and considers religion a support for people who are “too sick to go through life themselves.” The theme of songs written by Kerry, most often focused on Satanism and the occult, although the musician openly declares that he never believed in either God or Satan . ^[6] In the documentary, The Metalworker's Journey (2005), he called religion “the greatest brainwashing, in America and around the world.” I believe that she is a complete lie. "

Regarding personal qualities, according to Henkk Seppälä , Children of Bodom bass player, King is “a real metal guy, really real, he’s not trying to be different. He is truly a friendly guy, very polite, but firm in his point of view. He is not afraid to contradict. He is real". ^[7]

Together with his second wife, Aisha Kerry King, lives in Corona, California . ^[6] He also brings up a daughter from his first marriage - Shayann Kimberly ( born Shyanne Kymberlee ).

Relations with other musicians

King, among other things, is known for his well-publicized conflicts with some musicians, including a long-standing quarrel with Dave Mustaine , the frontman of Megadeth , who failed to persuade King to leave Slayer for the sake of his group. In a 2007 interview with GuitarWorld.com, King said that “he still admires him,” although he considers Mustaine a “hypocrite.” ^[8] Judging by the fact that in the summer of 2009 both groups gave four joint concerts, this conflict between the musicians has been settled.

Another protracted feud was connected with Robert Flynn of Machine Head , who claimed that Kerry had unreasonably started to sprinkle mud on his group. The guitarist reacted painfully to the release of Machine Head Supercharger , after the appearance of which he began to reproach the group for being sold and "responsible for rap metal ." According to Flynn, King was his idol, and he was surprised that a few months after the accusations began, King continued to insult the team in any interview, even when it was not about Machine Head. ^[9] Soon Flynn burst out with retaliatory accusations, reproaching King for recording the song along with Sum 41 pop punk, as well as calling him “the sexiest woman in rock music” ^[10] . The incident ended at the Metal Hammer Award Ceremony on June 11, 2007. Flynn then stated that the disagreements had gone out of control for a while, but now he and King were friends again. In an interview with Midwest Metal in the summer, King said that reconciliation was not due to the fact that he was simply tired of the conflict. According to him, he opposed Flynn and his team, when he was really upset by their work, with the release of the new album, he changed his point of view, and therefore redefined his relationship with Machine Head. ^[eleven]

In 2006, when the band’s producer Rick Rubin chose to work on the new Metallica album instead of the Christ Illusion Slayer, King called it a “damn punch in the face” ^[12] , and Metallica called it a “sinking ship”. ^[13]

In an interview regarding potential candidates for a drummer position on Slayer , King noted that Joe Nunez from Soulfly did not join Slayer “because he wasn’t allowed by mom,” Adrian Erlandsson ( The Haunted , Cradle of Filth ) “hits [the drums] like a fagot”, Raymond Herrera from the Fear Factory plays as “armless”. ^[fourteen]

The following is a list of tools and equipment that Kerry King has used and / or continues to use currently:

At Slayer concerts, one can often see that Kerry King is wearing leather armor studded with huge nails. The musician himself makes these arm ruffles, the starting material for which is a piece of unpainted cow leather. After making a couple of patterns from cardboard, King draws a pattern of nails, then makes holes with a high-speed Dremmel drill. According to the musician, this model makes holes of such an ideal diameter that the nails do not fall out of it. The first model, which included 2.5-inch nails, weighed about 4 pounds (1.5 kg). ^[6]

Among other things, the musician is known for his passion for snakes , which he has kept at home almost since the founding of Slayer. The musician tells about the beginning of his hobby ^[6] :

The musician was quite satisfied with the content of the pet, which “can be left at home and no one will have to look after him” ^[6] . Then Kerry and acquired the first snake, which gave the name Venom ( Russian. Snake venom ), by the name of his favorite group . By the early 1990s the total number of snakes reached four hundred. In subsequent years, Slayer recorded not so many albums, which allowed the musician to devote quite a lot of time to his hobby. However, by the time the Diabolus in Musica album was being recorded, the guitarist had realized that the hobby began to take longer than the band itself. Therefore, he sold all his pets and for some time ceased to deal with them. When King married a second time, it turned out that his new wife Aisha also contains a snake. This prompted the musician to return to his passion. ^[20] In an interview with Classic Rock magazine in 2007, he admitted that he now contains about 70 snakes and, while participating in the group, is not going to purchase more than a hundred of them.