There were many “farewell” announcements in the music world last week, but for metalheads the world over, nothing was more surprising than Slayer declaring their pending exit from touring.
Among those metalheads? Scott Ian, and Anthrax is on Slayer’s farewell tour bill!
Ian spoke with WRIF’s Meltdown recently, and he talked about being surprised by the news and his hopes for Slayer’s final ride:
“We’ve obviously been friends for a very long time. Even in the last seven, eight years, we’ve played quite a few shows together…At the time when I first heard about it [the tour] from our agent, there was no inkling that this was going to be some type of ‘goodbye’ tour. It was just like, ‘Do you want to be part of this sick metal package with Slayer, Lamb of God, Behemoth and Testament?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ I got excited. I’m always excited about touring, but that email comes in, and I got excited like a kid! Like, ‘I can’t wait to get tickets to this!’ There hasn’t been a major summer metal tour in a long time. This obviously fills that void in a big way…It wasn’t until the day they publically announced [the tour.] I saw that just like everyone else out there that this is the beginning of the end. I was like, ‘Wow!’ I had no idea…I didn’t know it was happening now. My only hope is that their goodbye tour will take about three or four years to finish.”
As for how he feels about his friends no longer touring, he was understanding but also optimistic:
“I get it. I understand. I’ve been around those guys long enough…And look, obviously losing Jeff [Hanneman] a couple of years ago, that’s something that as great as it’s been, and Gary’s a motherfucker on guitar, and there’s nobody else that could have filled that role better than Gary Holt…But still, they lost Jeff. I understand how after that, certainly for Tom [Araya] and Kerry [King], nothing will ever be the same. I can understand that they were able to come to what was obviously a very tough decision to say, ‘Alright, let’s part an ending on this.’ And you know what? All the best things have a great ending, whether it’s a book, a movie or a TV series. If you don’t stick the ending, it’s almost like, ‘What was the point in the first place?’ I like the way that they’re doing this, and I really think they’re going out in a big way and really stick the ending.”
To see a full list of Slayer’s farewell tour dates, head to Slayer.net.
To listen to this interview in its entirety, go to WRIF.com.
Erica Banas is a rock/classic rock blogger that loves the smell of old vinyl in the morning.
