Kerry King

Kerry Ray King (born June 3, 1964) is a American guitarist, best known as the rhythm and lead guitarist and one of the founding members of American thrash metal band Slayer.

Biography

King was born in Los Angeles, California to a father who was an aircraft parts inspector and a mother who worked as a telephone company employee. In his teenage years, Kerry moved to Burlington, Ontario to attend Nelson High School and graduated as valedictorian. He went on to move to the USA away from most family. He has been married twice. His current wife is named Ayesha King, and has a daughter named Shyanne Kymberlee King from his first marriage. His main influences are Judas Priest, Venom, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath. In 1981 King was trying out for the position as a guitarist in a band. After the session was over Jeff Hanneman approached him and the two began playing Iron Maiden and Judas Priest songs with the session drummer. Hanneman mentioned "Why don’t we start our OWN band?” Laughs I was like, “…Fuck yeah!" King once had long hair, but then shaved his head when he started balding. His bald head, spiked wristband, long beard and extensive tattoo work (which covers his hands, arms and head) are his trademarks, to such a degree that Blender included a tour of his body ink.

King's acronym, KFK, was revealed to mean "Kerry Fuckin' King" in the January 2007 Issue of Guitar World.

Feuds

King has had well-publicized disagreements with several of his contemporaries, including a long-standing feud with Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, who attempted to persuade King to leave the "posers," "lame spikes," and "eyeliner" of Slayer behind and focus on Megadeth. Recently in GuitarWorld.com's Dear Guitar Hero, King "admires him to this day" as a guitarist, even though he considers Mustaine a "hypocrite".

In 2009 Slayer co-headlined a small, four show Canadian tour alongside Megadeth In January 2010 Dave Mustaine and Kerry King hung out in a bar together for 45 minutes in Temecula, California, getting to know each other again, Which proves that this feud has dropped off for good.

Another feud is with Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn, who claims that King started "talking shit about us out of nowhere." King labeled Machine Head as “sell-outs” after the release of their 2001 album Supercharger. King continued to criticize the band stating "They're responsible for rap-metal", "they fooled me into thinking they're metal", "'they have no integrity left." Flynn has since noted that King has "finally squashed the beef". Another indication the feud is over are some comments King made referencing a proposed tour between the "Big Four" Thrash Metal bands King suggested that Machine Head be included instead of Anthrax^.

In 2006, Slayer's producer Rick Rubin lent production to Metallica's then-untitled Death Magnetic album, instead of Slayer for their album Christ Illusion. King deemed this action a "slap in the fucking face," labeling Metallica as a "sinking ship."

During an interview on drummers, King stated that Soulfly drummer Joe Nunez could not join Slayer because "his mother wouldn't let him", that Adrian Erlandsson "hits his drums like a fag", and that Raymond Herrera of Fear Factory "has no hands" in regard to his drumming abilities.

Guest appearances

In addition to appearing on Slayer's albums, he has also made several guest appearances as lead guitarist. While lending production to 1986’s Reign in Blood, Rick Rubin was also helming production of the Beastie Boys debut album Licensed to Ill. Rubin felt the track "No Sleep till Brooklyn" needed a guitar solo, so he offered King several hundred dollars to lay down the part. King has since commented that his playing ability "certainly wasn’t that of a virtuoso". "No Sleep till Brooklyn", whose title was a spoof on Motörhead’s 1981 live album No Sleep 'til Hammersmith, was originally intended to feature King being knocked offstage by a gorilla in its music video though King refused. King replied, "If there’s gonna be anyone knocking anyone offstage, it’ll be me knocking the gorilla", which is what subsequently happened. King has reminisced that he thought the Beastie Boys were cool, although never having heard any of their music at the time.^[15] On Licensed to Ill, King also played the guitar solo on the song "Fight For Your Right (To Party)".

King contributed a lead guitar outro part to Pantera’s song "Goddamn Electric", which appeared on the 2000 album Reinventing the Steel. King’s rig was set up in Pantera’s bathroom backstage just after Ozzfest in Dallas, as the group still didn't have their own dressing room on top of not appearing on the festival bill. After King had finished the first take, Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell ran in and yelled "DON’T LET HIM DO IT AGAIN!" King tried again with the hope he would find a superior rendition, though the first take was used.

King also contributed lead guitar solos to the following songs: "Disorder" with rapper Ice-T (from the 1992 album Judgment Night), Rob Zombie’s "Dead Girl Superstar" (from the 2001 album The Sinister Urge), Hatebreed’s "Final Prayer" (from the March 2002 album Perseverance) and Sum 41’s "What We're All About (The Original Version)", (from the June 2002 released Spider-Man movie soundtrack).

Kerry King, who is a big wrestling fan, was the guest announcer for the match between Supreme and Kronus, the finals match of the death match tournament at the XPW event "Baptized in blood" on June 20, 2000. He was however announced by regular announcer Kris Kloss as the "lead singer of Slayer", which King immediately corrected by yelling "It's guitar" as soon as he was given the microphone. He entered the ring to the sounds of the Slayer song "Angel of Death" from the album Reign in Blood.

King has also made several guest appearances in Marilyn Manson's recent "Rape Of The World" tour, joining the band to play classic tracks such as "Little Horn" and "Irresponsible Hate Anthem". Many fans noticed elements of King's own style used on these occasions.