Kerry King, in conversation with Metal Hammer, has revealed that although Slayer might be retired, he isn’t ready to call it quits just yet, and that he may just have some tour news on the horizon.
In a recent video King posted, he offered up his congratulations to Machine Head on hitting the 30 year milestone as a band.
“So, I hear congratulations are in order for my friends in Machine Head,” he said in the video. “Apparently, it’s 30 years, which is quite an achievement. Not a lot of bands get there. We did… and then we quit too early. Fuck us. Fuck me. I hate fucking not playing.”
King laments the fact that Slayer called it quits when they did, and in saying that, he revealed that he’d been planning his continuation as a performer as early as 2019 when Slayer were on their Final Campaign tour.
“I had picks that I threw out at those shows — The Final Campaign — at the end of the show. And in every city, I threw out two that said, ‘Reborn in 2020,’ because that was my plan — I planned on touring in 2020.”
However, the pandemic proved to throw a spanner in the works, and due to the worsening coronavirus situation in the US, King was unable to follow through with those plans.
“Then the pandemic came up and we were into 2021,” he explains, “because I want everybody to get the bumps out of the road before I go out.
“Here we are at the end of 2021 and I’m looking at the end of 2022 now. And we’ll see what happens next year because it’s evolving.
“I don’t want to go out and feel stuff out, I want to go out and have a good time. I’m not being selfish, I don’t mean it like that. I mean that whatever the new rules are, I want them to be smooth before I go out.”
Though he hasn’t revealed much of the specifics behind what exactly it is that he is planning, but he reckons it will be worth the wait.
“I’m dragging my feet on letting the world know what I’m doing because there’s no rush. I have a tour that I’m considering doing, but I’m not going to announce a band, I’m not going to announce a record, I’m not going to announce anything. But you will see me in the future — it will be fucking good.”
