To us, being the bad guys is cool, because we always root for the bad guys in the movies.
— Jeff Hanneman
I remember in the days when we started, when we first went on the road, we went to Berkeley and played with Exodus. We couldn't believe another band was playing the same kind of music we were playing because there was only a handful of bands that were doing it.
I don't like politics in music.
'Angel Of Death' was a big problem. I remember getting a phone call after the album was done: Sony wasn't going to release it.
We write the songs that we do because that's what we like. But they are just stories - not things we actually do or recommend anyone else go out and do.
My fascination with war is because my dad was in World War II, and my brother was in Vietnam.
It's nice to be respected, but it doesn't really matter. What's important is that if I wasn't in Slayer, it's still the band I'd want to see.
I guess Zeppelin is some happy stuff compared to us. It's pretty hippy, too.
Me and my dad were so much alike that we would just butt heads. I pretty much hated him from the age of 16 to 24 for no real reason.
Play as much as you can. That's what I had to do because of my inexperience. And don't get frustrated.
I have a method of working on music: I'll get up in the morning and throw down some drums on my drum machine, and then I'll come back later and try to pop off rhythms to it.
L.A. has got to be the poser capital of the world. Around here Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, and Ratt are the heaviest in the world. So if that's heavy we must be molten steel.
Pro Tools rules. You get the opportunity to try more things because you don't waste so much time trying to get the perfect take.
I feel you should be able to write about whatever you want.
I love hockey, and I go to a lot of the games.
We've met so many people you'd never even suspect of being Slayer fans: suits, lawyers, and people like that.
We don't like preaching, we don't like love songs, we don't like fun songs. We just like the dark side.
We're not, obviously, as rich as Metallic, but we don't have to worry about money.
I'd rather play in front of people who wouldn't listen to Slayer. That to me, is more like, 'Hey, listen to us.'
I like playing guitar I don't like talking about it. I like writing riffs, I don't like explaining them.
Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith weren't polite. They were against the grain. And that's what we want our music to be: rude, aggressive... like real life.
The intent of Slayer's musical and lyrical content has always been selfish. We feel very strongly about the importance of staying true to ourselves.
I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist.
I knew that if I were ever in a band it would be all about being heavy and dark.
During our first year, we were playing Priest and Maiden cover tunes all the time while we figured out what we wanted to do as a band. At the time I was getting out of metal and into punk. That's how Slayer's sound came together - it's the speed of punk combined with the big riffs of metal.
I was really into metal when I was growing up. It was just something I thought I could do and wanted to try.
I'm pretty much an atheist, so I'd say this world is the only thing we got.
I actually have only one Jackson! ESP makes all of my guitars now. But that Jackson was probably the last one I paid for, which is why I used it so much; I had to get my money's worth. That's why, for the longest time, it was in all of our photos.
I don't listen to much rap outside of Run DMC and the Beasties, but then I'm pretty burned out on most new music.
We read a lot from the Satanic bible. It's not quite the opposite of the normal bible - a lot of its principles are just about being yourself, if you want to do something you do it, if you wanna have affairs you can. But we never hold daily rituals or anything.
It's kind of weird to think about our fan base now, where our hard-core fans have kids, families and jobs.
There's always a need for our kind of music. It's an outlet. You can only listen to so much pop and you just have to listen to something heavy.
Everybody has a dark side. It's just we are very in touch with it.
We've never been a political band.
If you're living a nice lifestyle and you have no problems, you put on our record, you won't get it.
I read a bunch of books about Mengele because he was pretty sick. That was how 'Angel Of Death' came about. I know why people misinterpret it, just because we don't say Nazism is very bad. They get this knee-jerk reaction to it.
Rock 'n' roll was never supposed to be polite.
The whole nature of war is both stupid and fascinating. It's this big game, except people die. Yet we still keep on playing it because of the big power struggles that exist all over the world. It's really amazing to me that people really do that.
Since we did 'Angel of Death,' I've had three occasions where someone will go 'Psst, hey. I'm part of this Aryan World Nation group and we're thinking of having you speak.' I'm like, 'Why?' And they'll go, 'You know.' I'll be like, 'No, why?' And they'll go, 'Aren't you... ?' I'm like, 'What? No. Go away. You don't get me at all.'
My first guitar was a Les Paul that I bought off a friend for 500 bucks. I worked a long time to save up enough money for it.
That gets me upset- you're jamming along, checking out the crowd and having a good time, and then your equipment goes down. You can't just stop the show and say, 'Oh, Jeff's got a guitar problem.'
The majority of our fans are dudes. And the chicks you do see at our shows are probably there because of a dude. Slayer shows are nothing but sausage fests. We always joke that we really need to write some love songs or something.
I hang with my woman, and with some friends that have nothing to do with Slayer. I also like to watch sports and go to hockey and football games.
Don't overthink things. Make the next record, and keep rolling with it.
Angel of Death' is like a history lesson, but as soon as we released it everybody was calling us Nazis. Our singer's a dark-skinned Chilean, there's no way we're fascists.
I pretty much started the lyrics and I hit a roadblock and I think Kerry finished them up. Then I came back and did the ending part. The whole 'Raining Blood.' That part. But it pretty much came together easy. It's a short song.
When we started, I was just having fun with it I didn't even know about doing it for a living. It was a new style of music, a combo of punk and metal.
