Tom has 4 sisters and 2 brothers. At a certain point, one of Tom's brothers started to play guitar and that made Tom pick up the bass, and they would jam together. They never talked about making a band together. At that time, Tom was about 13 years old. Tom's brother, John, later formed "Bloodcum" with Jeff Hanneman's brother, Joey. The thrash band never really got anywhere, but they released one record though, "Death's By A Clothes Hanger". Now - John is Slayer's guitar- and bass technician.

When Tom got older he studied to become a respiratory therapist. He also had a job - and went to school so Tom had his hands full. When he joined Slayer in 1982, he had to be on top of all of it. As he said: "What I tried to juggle was to working and studying and also being in the band. There was alot of nights when I'd get home in the early hours of the morning after a gig, unload the equipment, then go and get just an hour's sleep, before having to get up and go to work."

Contrary to what some people may believe, Tom IS NOT a satanist. He is actually a very religious person. And Tom didn't get that from strangers - Tom's parents are very involved with the church, and when Tom was young he used to go to church all the time with his dad. And those memories are still with Tom, and religion is still a big part of his life.

In the early days in Slayer, Tom didn't contribute that much to Slayer's lyrics - it was usually Jeff and Kerry that did the lyrics, eventhough he's been writing lyrics for himselves for quite some time. But around "South Of Heaven" from 1988, Tom's lyrics began to appear on the Slayer records, and it was clear to everyone that Tom have alot to say in his lyrics, and nowadays he does alot of the lyrics. As everyone knows, Tom's main interest is in serial killers. He's written about Jeffrey Dahmer (in the song "213") and Ed Gein (In "Dead Skin Mask").

Despite his somewhat morbid interest in serial killers, Tom is a very funny and friendly person. I've had the pleasure of meeting Tom in Poland in 1998, and he was all smile and laughter. In all the TV-interviews I have, he also smiles and jokes alot and that is very funny to watch.

Tom also collect guns and he seems to have a pretty large collection. He would buy them two at a time and whenever he would have the time, he would go out to a desert place to shoot cans or whatever.

Tom has 2 kids, a daugther Ariel Asa Araya (born May 11th 1996) and a son Tomás Enrique Araya Jr. (born June 14th 1999). He is married and lives in Buffalo, Texas. Tom actually met his wife at a Slayer show some time ago. Tom's philosophy of life is very simple: Life is unconditional and death is only the beginning. You may recognise the line from the song "Gemini"."

In 2006, Tom underwent gall bladder surgery, which made alterations to The Unholy Alliance tour. Originally set to launch on June 6th, the tour was postponed to June 13th. Tom was also unable to finish the vocals for a song entitled "Final Six", which was to be included on Slayer's 2006 album Christ Illusion; later released in the album's special edition. Tom took his children on the tour stating it is "kind of cool to expose them at such a young age. My first concert, I was, like, 17." one of his quotes is "We have been fortunate, fortunate enough to have lasted as long as we have because a lot of bands don't last that long."

On January 7, 2010, Slayer announced on its official website that "Back surgery scheduled for Slayer's Tom Araya, band's tour plans cancelled through April. Slayer camp working hard to reschedule dates for later this year." As Tom is known for his aggressive style of headbanging, he began experiencing back problems while the band was on tour in Australia/New Zealand/Japan in October of 2009. Despite rapidly increasing pains, he continued the tour, but immediately after returning home consulted an orthopedic specialist who diagnosed a Cervical Radiculopathy. He did not want to take the major surgery route at first, so the specialist recommended a series of minimally-invasive procedures. While those procedures resulted in some improvement, Tom continued to deal with intermittent bouts of severe pain, numbness and muscle spasms. The surgical procedure that Tom underwent, called an Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion, is a relatively routine practice and the recovery rate is excellent.

In April 2010 Tom was almost fully recovered, he had a steel plate implanted to his neck so there's no chance of him headbanging anymore. The band started their World Tour in May 2010.

On June 3rd 2011 Tom was given the key to the city of his birthplace Vina del Mar, Chile. In a ceremony the key was handed over to Tom by mayor Virginia Reginato and her representatives. Tom stated about this that he is beyond speechless and feels very honored, this being the first time he was officially recognized by Chile.