Interview with Tom Araya
From Metal-Is, June 2000

STILL REIGNING IN BLOOD

Backstage at Metal 2000, Earls Court, London, and Slayer frontman Tom Araya is deep in conversation with Iron Maiden's pyro technician. The latter's jaw drops as Tom regales him with tales of the potentially lethal firework effects, triggered by a humble and extremely dangerous domestic light switch, that Slayer used to lay across the front of their stage in their earliest days. Then it's his turn to look astonished when he is told a little trick you can do to cause an explosion using baking flour. "That could be very useful if you're ever kidnapped by terrorists..." he murmurs. Tom Araya, superhero, saves the world, armed only with a handful of self-raising... With that boggling thought in mind, metal-is Editor Valerie Potter gently led the Slayer screamer away for a chat in the band's dressing-room.

Two nights ago, you played the 16,500 capacity Palais Omnisport De Bercy in Paris and tonight, you're playing Earls Court (cap. 20,000), as special guests of Iron Maiden. Last night, you played your own headline show at a much smaller club, Nottingham Rock City. Did you notice a big difference?

A club is no different than a place like this - more intimate, and I think that's something we enjoy a lot. I can actually see the people that we're playing for and that I'm talking to, and I can direct it not maybe at one particular person but a person in general as an audience, and it came across that way last night. After the show, they told us there was a meet and greet, and we ended up walking out to this table with four markers and four chairs, and obviously, everyone who was at the show was in line, so we stayed there for two hours, signing, and every one of them kept saying how brilliant it was, how awesome, how we blew ourselves away from the last time we played there, how they hadn't seen any band play like that in the energy? From start to finish, it was just full of compliments and it made me feel really good.

Being used to playing your own headline shows, do you feel constrained when you're doing these support slots?

No. Actually, we like it when we do kind of a support slot, because we're not the ones that have all the responsibility, all we gotta do is play and we can do whatever the fuck we want - except you have to behave in the backstage area or you'll get in trouble! Our main goal is to fucking blow them (the headliner) away.

You've played with Maiden before, haven't you?

We played with Maiden in Argentina recently - that was the first time. I met Steve Harris there for the first time - he's a really nice guy. The same with Brian, the drummer... What's his name - Brian? Nicko McBrain! I always call him Brian! He's a really nice guy too. And the rest of the band... I've read things. I guess Mr Bruce has a kind of a snappy personality! His remarks about "Is Slayer spelt the same way as shit stirrer?" (in response to Slayer guitarist Kerry King's question to Iron Maiden in 'Kerrang!": 'What took you guys so long to get Bruce back?') That was funny. I saw that and laughed! That's the only time we've ever played with them. We've always asked to see if we could be a part of the tours in the US and apparently, for some reason, I don't know what, I think, like a lot of other bands, there's a fear. Maybe they're a little intimidated by the energy we generate live, so they kind of shy away from us... I'M SAYING IT NICELY! There's other bands too that we have asked... Priest were the only ones who asked us, "Would you like to do 13 shows with us on the West Coast?" "Sure!" All those shows were sold out, so they kind of liked that. They were the only ones with guts enough to have us open for them. We've asked various people - I'm not going to name bands - that you figure would be more than welcome to take the challenge and be supportive, but Maiden is the only one I'll name, since we're doing the show with them!

When you get back to the States, Slayer are going to play on the Tattoo The Earth tour?

Yes, that's what it's looking like. I want to get that final word from Rick (Sales, band manager) as far as that goes, but it seems like it's a pretty definite thing, and it's going to be with various bands - Slipknot, Coal Chamber...

So you're going from an old-school tour to a nu-school tour. Are you pleased that Slayer fit right into place on either bill?

Yes, very pleased - very pleased. We've been going for 20 years, and we've managed to cross over to a younger audience.

How have you managed to pull that off, do you think?

Ahhhh - because we don't sit in the midst of what we do. I think that's the biggest thing. We stay close to home, but every now and then, you throw out a line (mimes reeling in a fishing line) and you bring them to you, you know what I mean? You don't go out to them. With every record, we try to do something new, we don't want to take a step back...

I remember Ian Gillan telling me once that he goes his own way and every so often, he finds himself in fashion again, but that it is essential that musicians follow their own path, rather than chasing trends.

That's exactly it! We're just doing what we're doing, and you're like this highway with this rhythm going along (draws a wavy line in the air with his hand) and every now and again, the rest of the world will catch up with you: "Dude, this is really great!" and then, all of a sudden, you're all alone again, and then everyone goes, "Hey, alright!" again. It's like dolphins!

It's also helped that Slayer present a united front to the worldKeep a united front. You've kept a very stable line-up, apart from replacing drummer Dave Lombardo with Paul Bostaph, for 20 years, which is quite an achievement.

Yeah, we only had one major change. The band's been around for 20 years, ten of those years were with Paul and the other ten were with Dave. The only true difference is Paul's abilities, his drumming technique. He's a serious drummer, which is something I think this band really benefits from. People ask, "How do you get along so well?" We don't see each other on the time off, because we spend so much time together when we are working. I've been in California now since January, working on new material, so I see them every day. We're together this whole month, we go back to the US, we're come together for another month doing a tour of the US and then maybe we'll be together for three months, recording. So when there's down-time, it's my private time that I can spend with my family. I think that's the big thing. And we don't hide anything from each other. We're just flat-out, just say shit, you know? If you have to say something, say it. We'll all listen and we want to hear it. You might get a response, you might not, but voice what it is you have to voice. Otherwise, you're just going to fucking die, you're going to freak out, you're going to think everybody's against you! So we're constantly voicing opinions about things. If something needs to be talked about, we sit down and talk about it. "Why do you do that?" "Grrrrrrrr...." "OK, it's over." No need to fuckin' hang it on, end of discussion, it's done, it's settled, that's behind us now. I think that's basically how we've been. Now that I think about it, we've always been like that. We were always very upfront about shit - about music, merchandise ideas, things that people just say. If they like it, it's like "Hey, that's a really good idea!" If they hate it, it's "It sucks, I don't like it!" We're a very democratic band. If I'm outvoted, you still got to know my opinion! And that's it. End of discussion. Pass. And I think that's what we owe our longevity too, that we can sit down and do shit like that.

You did the Ozzfest last year and as we said, you're doing the Tattoo The Earth tour this summer. What's it like to play on these big package bills? Is it like a travelling caravan?

It actually is. It depends who's organising the festival that's travelling around, 'cause on the Ozzfest, Sharon Osbourne is very well-organised. On a lot of the bands, because there were so many people on that tour, there were certain designated hotels that she would book, so everybody was always together, unless you had some other stuff to do - which was kind of impossible, because you had to agree that you wouldn't do that, that you'd do just that one show! It's organised down to the smallest details. It has to be, there's so many things going on. That's Ozzfest. Now, as far as this Tattoo The Earth thing, I don't know who's organising it, so that alone should tell you what we're going to be facing! Like you said, it's going to be a caravan - but it's going to be a very loose caravan!

It must be fun to hang out with so many bands on those tours.

There's lots of time for that, yeah. The thing we like about those big shows is, like I said, you get there and you play, there's no expense other than the fact that you've got to have your crew. Like I said, we end up doing a lot of our own tours, we don't really get any offers from other bands to support them, so we end up supplying lights, sound, trucks, catering, everything. Then on top of that, we have to hire a band to come along with us, so we have to pay them. We do that a lot on our own, so when we do something like jumping on the wagon and it's not costing us anything but our crew... It's like showing up, punching in, whirrrrrr! - punching out and you're out of here: "See you tomorrow, at the next gig!" It makes life very easy! And like I've said, we've never been allowed an opportunity to do a summer tour like that - such a high profile one, especially, so that was one of the reasons why we did the Ozzfest. There were some dates that were set up here in Europe and when the Ozzfest came up, we were like, "What do we do, what do we do?" It's like, America is where we are from and we're never gonna get offered this opportunity again. We've been offered it three times and been told, "Well, we've found somebody else." This time, they're saying, "We need an answer today" and we're like, "Whoa! Well then, let's do it." We got to play all over the States in the summertime, which is something we've never been able to do, and you're playing to at least, if you're lucky, 20,000 people before the main act comes on. And every day was good, because our kids would rush to the front. All the kids that were there to see us were at the back on the lawn area and then all of a sudden, we'd see them - woooargh! - and they'd all end up in the front . And then when we were done, they'd all get up and leave. They were very disciplined. I liked that part about that!

How's your next album coming along?

Well, we've got 12 songs. We got roughly five or seven songs that are lyrically complete. We've got a few more to write, but this is something that came up and we were like "Yeah, I guess we could" when we found out it didn't matter when we recorded the record, it was going to be coming out in February! So it's coming along great and we hope that once we get back home, we can put a couple of months into it and get it all together. We're doing things a little bit different this time. We're actually thinking about packaging and artwork and stuff before the record's actually done (laughs), so maybe we can get that going too, just to get ahead of ourselves.

Do you think it will be beneficial to the recordings that you will be coming into the studio straight off the road?

Well, we're going to be primed. Paul's going to be in good shape to play, so we'll be ready. We just need to re-rehearse the material and then record it.

Can you throw out any new song titles?

No, I threw out a song title and I know I shouldn't have. I read stuff like that and then later on, you get the record and whatever was said has nothing to do with the record. So I told myself I wouldn't even give out working titles, because we don't know what's going to happen. We don't even know what the album's going to be called yet. Usually, we have pretty much an idea of what we want to call the record, but we don't even have that.

OK - well, can you maybe tell us the kind of things that have been inspiring the lyrics that you've written already.

Well, the songs that I've written... they're all basically about violent sex! But they're all a tribute to my wife - the sex part! She inspires me to write some really fucked up shit. It's the same stuff that I usually write - in a way. My obsession with flesh (gives a dirty laugh)!

There's a story going round that your next album will be produced by Rick Rubin and Ross Robinson.

That's a name that's been thrown around, Ross Robinson. There's other names that are being thrown around too, but we haven't decided yet.

But Rick will still be involved?

We don't know. We're thinking that maybe it might be a good idea to find somebody else. We're checking into it. We'll see.

And there is also a Slayer boxed set on the way?

Yeah, I don't know when it will come out, but that's something that we have been talking about. Obviously, they're trying to archive things and see what they've got. We also want to put special things in there, something that really means something, but we still haven't figured out what that would be. The first thing with us is "What are you going to charge? That's too much. What can we do for this much?" That's basically how we go about it. We can either do a high price item or we can do an item that's affordable with a lot of extra neat little things that they'll appreciate.

You've recently recorded a song, 'Terrorist', with Max Cavalera for the new Soulfly album, haven't you?

Max called up and wanted to know if I would collaborate with him on a song, and it's something I've never really done and it was an opportunity to meet Max, so I listened to the music he had. It sounded really cool and he was saying that in music, we're like terrorists. I kind of laughed: "What, you mean, because we come out with a record, brutalise the world with it and then we disappear for a while, until we come out with another record?" and he goes, "Yeah, like that." He wanted to make more of a Slayer type metal song, so he made it really groovy and rocky and then at the very end, it's really fast. It's actually a really good song.

Have you heard that Korn are playing an instrumental version of 'South Of Heaven' during their European tour, while Jonathan changes into his kilt?! How do you feel about that?

I guess they're trying to keep their audience's attention! "We're still on stage - listen! We're playing Slayer for you!"

Well, it makes an 'interesting' intermission before Jonathan returns with the bagpipes!

What's he trying to say? Is he trying to say that Scotland is hell?! (laughs)

Do you ever get bored with playing those classics like 'South Of Heaven' and 'Angel Of Death' which every Slayer audience expects to hear?

No, it's a lot of fun, actually. Because they're still viable now. Now that we're playing now, you're talking about almost 15 years of technology that's improved on the sound and stuff, so when we come out there and play the old songs live, we play them not only a little faster, but a little tighter, with a little more experience, so the musicianship is a million times better than it was then. We're more focused and concentrated on what we're doing, so those songs right now are really strong and powerful and people go, "When did they write that song?!" Especially the new kids. There's a lot of new kids there, just tripping me out. In that Rock City place, a lot of the kids said that was the first time they'd ever seen us, and that's not the first time we've played there live, although it has been a few years. One guy was like apologising: "You know, I've been a big fan, but it's the first time I've ever seen you play. I'm really sorry, I'll be coming more often now!"

That must be so encouraging for you. It's cool that they even find this music interesting and that they share the same fanaticism of the initial kids that were into it back in '83/'84.

A lot of these kids are the offspring of Slayerheads back then in '84/'85 and if they share the same enthusiasm their parents do, it'll just keep going on and on.

So, in a perverse kind of way, Slayer are almost becoming family entertainment!

That's fine with me! Put me on TV, prime-time!