SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya is featured in a new “Signature Series Spotlight” video from ESP Guitars. You can check it out below.
ESP Guitars has included the following message with the YouTube release oif the video: “As the imposing bassist, songwriter, and vocalist of thrash metal legends SLAYER, Tom Araya commands the entire stage. His signature basses are characterized by a sleek body shape and colossal tone, and embody SLAYER‘s aggressive and unforgiving sound.”
Last August, Kerry King‘s wife said that there would never be a SLAYER reunion.
Ayesha King shot down the possibility of her husband and Araya sharing the stage ever again under the SLAYER banner while responding to a fan on Instagram.
After Ayesha shared three photos of Kerry holding their cat in slideshow-type Instagram post, a fan wrote: “No Tom, No SLAYER Kerry. Stop thinking SLAYER without @tomarayaofficial”. Ayesha then replied: “don’t worry, they’ll never be SLAYER again! You can rest easy”.
SLAYER played the final show of its farewell tour in November 2019 at the Forum in Los Angeles. One day later, Ayesha King said that there is “not a chance in hell” that the thrash metal icons will reunite for more live appearances.
SLAYER‘s final world tour began on May 10, 2018 with the band’s intention to play as many places as possible, to make it easy for the fans to see one last SLAYER show and say goodbye. By the time the 18-month trek wrapped at the Forum, the band had completed seven tour legs plus a series of one-off major summer festivals, performing more than 140 shows in 30 countries and 40 U.S. states.
Araya talked about his possible retirement in a 2016 interview with Loudwire. He said: “At 35 years, it’s time to collect my pension. [Laughs] This is a career move.” He continued: “I’m grateful that we’ve been around for 35 years; that’s a really long time. So, yeah, to me, it is. Because when we started off, everything was great, because you’re young and invincible. And then there came a time where I became a family man, and I had a tough time flying back and forth. And now, at this stage, at the level we’re at now, I can do that; I can fly home when I want to, on days off, and spend some time with my family, which is something I wasn’t able to do when [my kids] were growing up. Now they’re both older and mature. So now I take advantage of that.” Araya added: “Yeah, it just gets harder and harder to come back out on the road. 35 years is a long time.”
Tom also revealed another reason for his diminished enjoyment of the touring life. He said: “There’s things that have gone on in my life that have made me change how I play as a bass player. I had neck surgery, so I can’t headbang anymore. And that was a big part of what I enjoyed doing what I do — singing and headbanging. I liked knowing that I was one of the fucking badass headbangers. That played a big part. Now I just groove with the music, which is cool, because I’m grooving with the music and the feel of the songs, so that’s changed a little for me.”
