Interview with Slayer’s Tom Araya
July 31, 2007
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Reining in the Blood
Once pop culture’s most notorious scapegoat, Slayer’s Tom Araya talks spirituality, farming, and Paul Simon
By Jason Handelsman
Published: July 19, 2007
Slayer’s Tom Araya (second from right) doesn’t sweat the small stuff
Details:
Slayer performs with Marilyn Manson Wednesday, July 25, at the Sound Advice Amphitheatre, 601-7 Sansbury’s Way, West Palm Beach. The show begins at 7:00 p.m. Tickets cost $25 to $59.50; or buy a four-pack of lawn seats for $75. Visit www.ticketmaster.com.
Subject(s): Sound Advice Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, Marilyn Manson, Tom Araya, Slayer
Over the course of the band’s 25-year career, the thrash-metal pioneers of Slayer have been accused of inspiring murder and necrophilia (check out www.elysemarie.org). They’ve covered “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” for the Less than Zero movie soundtrack. And just last year they won a Grammy for the song “Eyes of the Insane,” off their latest album, Christ Illusion. Wednesday kicks off the quartet’s second national tour this year, this time with Marilyn Manson.
Although both acts have created controversy, Slayer audiences have been notoriously violent. “The two bands have one thing in common, and that’s just being evil in the traditional sense, the way rock and roll is supposed to be,” Manson says about the tour. “We might not be identical musically, but I think that our fans share a lot of the same sentiments. I think that when the two crowds come together, they’ll have something in common. Hopefully they won’t beat each other up.”
Miami New Times caught up with Slayer’s lead vocalist and bass player, Tom Araya, and discussed his spiritual beliefs, his ranch in Texas, the upcoming tour, and Graceland.
Slayer is going on tour with Marilyn Manson? What’s next, Slayer Unplugged?
Ah … that’s what this is about, huh.
No…. First of all, I love Slayer.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah…. [laughter]
You know how many times I’ve stood in the audience, chanting “Slayer, Slayer, Slayer”?
How many times?
Well, let’s see, I missed the Reign in Blood tour; I was too young. The Divine Intervention tour, West Palm Beach Auditorium 1995….
Yeah, that was a really good show. Actually they all are!
How does it feel to be opening for Marilyn Manson?
I don’t have any problems with it. We really don’t have a preference. If we’re coheadlining and the other band prefers to close, we say, “Sure, if you want to follow us, that’s fine.” We have no arguments. All we want to do is play, and we are the best, period. So you better be fucking good. I know of Manson; I’m familiar with some of his material. It should be an interesting lineup.
Will Dave Lombardo be drumming on this tour?
Yeah. I don’t understand why people would think any different.
Well, he left Slayer in 1987, returned in 1992, left again….
He does other things. One of the stipulations is that he can do other stuff, but when it comes to Slayer, he gives 100 percent. I think that some of his other projects are really cool. I like Fantômas [with Mike Patton and Buzz Osborne].
A lot of people consider Slayer a satanic band.
Yeah.
The rumor for a while has been that you are actually a born-again Christian.
[Manic laughter] First off, I was born once [more laughter]. When you use the term born-again, it is because you found something that you lost, right? I haven’t lost anything. I was born and raised Catholic, so it’s in my blood. I don’t go to church…. I was born and raised Catholic, which is about the extent of my religion. My parents made one request, that I have my first Holy Communion.
You had a Holy Communion?
Believe it or not, I had my first Holy Communion. I am not an atheist; I believe in God. But my religion ends there. I have my own personal belief system that is so strong it allows me to do what I do. I don’t have to worry about going to Hell because of Slayer, you know? Everyone has a personal belief system and believes in life somehow.
Do you recommend any books that might help us understand Tom Araya’s belief system?
[Laughter] I recommend anybody go to a bookstore, go down the self-help or new-age section, and just walk those aisles. See what book jumps out at you; there’s a good chance it’s a book you need in your life. That’s basically how I find the books that I read. I just walk down the aisle, look at titles, glance at covers. You just happen to pick one up…. If it does something for you, great; if not, you just keep looking.
You frequent the new-age section?
I like anything that captures my attention: new-age, religion, philosophy. True crime books are my favorite; there are a lot of brutal ones. They already have new books about that Virginia Tech dude…. He outdid himself — sort of a re-enactment of what happened at Columbine a few years ago.
What are your hobbies?
Besides Slayer, which is a full-time job, I raise animals. I have a ranch in Texas. My wife takes care of the animals when I’m on tour. When I get home, I become a ranch hand. I have cows, chickens, dogs, pigs, ducks….
Tom Araya’s farm?
I raise the cows for personal consumption. I just started a herd of nine cows. These are meat cows to be eaten, not to be milked.
Are you going to slaughter these cows yourself?
No. It takes a lot of work and I am not prepared for that. I don’t have a slaughterhouse.
Do you wear a cowboy hat?
Not yet [laughter].
What type of music do you listen to?
My favorite records would surprise people. I love Graceland by Paul Simon. I am a huge fan of the Beatles. I like the Eagles, Cat Stevens. I grew up listening to Sixties music: Janis Joplin, Hendrix, the Doors, Yes, the Who. I grew up listening to all that shit. I listen to everything, even the great sounds of the Seventies. Bands like Boston and Van Halen. That was when metal started getting heavy.
HATEBREED Frontman Checks In From OZZFEST tour
July 31, 2007
HATEBREED Frontman Checks In From OZZFEST tour
“It’s been a while since I checked in and I wanted to let everyone know that Ozzfest has been absolutely amazing and we can not thank everyone enough.
“This is our fifth time on Ozzfest and we all agree that this year is by far the best response we’ve ever gotten and the most fun we’ve ever had on tour. We are truly grateful!
“The second stage is a great mixture of underground and extreme music so make sure you show up early and catch all the bands.
“We’ve been hanging hard with our good pals 3 INCHES OF BLOOD and BEHEMOTH every day and on our off day shows with LAMB OF GOD which have been completely UNREAL. LAMB OF GOD tears the roof off of every venue; it’s an honor to share the stage with them. Randy [Blythe] has rode on the HATEBREED bus a few nights and raged with us til 6 am; it’s been great!
“We urge you all to get your ass out to these shows! We’re also excited that our pals DEVILDRIVER will be joining us on Ozzfest. It’s gonna be killer! Come by the Jager and FYE tents to say hello to us we sign at Jager at 2:00 p.m. every day and at FYE right after we play. I will be doing some solo signings at the Monster Energy truck (times TBA) and also at the I.L.V. tent (after STATIC-X plays) so come by and say hi! See you on the road!”
KISS’ PAUL STANLEY: ‘I Am Absolutely Fine!’ after tour
July 31, 2007
KISS’ PAUL STANLEY: ‘I Am Absolutely Fine!’ after tour
KISS guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley has issued an update on his condition after he was forced to pull out of the band’s July 27 show in San Jacinto, California, about 90 miles (145 km) east of Los Angeles when his heart started beating at more than twice the normal level.
“I wanted to let all of you know that I AM ABSOLUTELY FINE!” Stanley writes on his web site. “I’m going to the gym as usual, painting as usual and will be going into the recording studio this week.
“Like many, I have had a rapid heartbeat condition most of my life and I never have had any type of restrictions. When I’ve had an episode, although momentarily disrupting and taxing, it has no residual effect. This is nothing new and my doctors have known about it. In short, It doesn’t change, hasn’t changed and won’t change my life.
“To make it clear… I WILL BE AT ROCK & ROLL FANTASY CAMP IN NY. I WILL BE AT THE WENTWORTH ART GALLERY SHOW in Des Peres, MO. and anything else that’s on schedule. I’m stoked and looking forward to it all.
“Thanks for the literally thousands of calls and e-mails from all of you. You all mean the world to me. Now ONWARD!”
Ozzfest Tour Brawl Ridiculous, Shameful
July 31, 2007
Ozzfest Tour Brawl Ridiculous, Shameful
The Ozzfest at Coors Amphitheatre on July 28 erupted into an absolutely ridiculous and shameful war of thrown items between the lawn-seat visitors and the reserved-seat visitors during the Static-X set.
Plastic bottles, plastic cups, plastic “yard” glasses and chunks of turf were hurled from primarily mid-lawn as far as a third of the width of the second orchestra section. A few shoes and other items were also observed in flight. The fracas took on an especially sinister note when half-full bottles and empty bottles and cups were jammed full with sod, creating dangerous missiles.
It was a shameful display of bad behavior and a ridiculous endangerment to fellow concert-goers. A fun afternoon of music and revelry became an interesting experience I would never place myself in a position to repeat. By some good luck it didn’t result in full-fledged rioting or morbid casualties. There were certainly enough alcohol and other mind-altering substances about to have led it that way. The amphitheatre management lucked out.
The details as I saw them follow.
It started with a few bottles and cups being tossed into the seats from the lawn. They were mostly ignored or met by glares. However, crowd-think set in and the casual provocations became a hail of detritus from above. The people in the seats responded as comes naturally: in kind. So began an unstated war of the classes.
My younger adult son, trying to ignore the first volleys of detritus while sitting in his seat took a partially-filled bottle of water, thankfully capless, right between the eyes and ended up with a (thank goodness) minor gash. Even as I tended to his wound, a rain of bottles and sod fell on and around me, most of it deflected by my six-foot-tall elder son’s skillful bat-and-catch. My daughter-in-law, a delicate petite, took a number of hits as well. It was infuriating and appalling.
The first impulse was to pitch back, to “give them a taste of their own medicine.” That proved to be the worst policy, as it a) returned weapons to a bunch of riled-up drunks to be chucked down again and b) brought us down to their level. Our group of four quickly abandoned the stupid reactionary response and took shelter as best we could against the dividing wall. We still found ourselves fending off short-fires from both directions, but it was better than had we remained at our center-section seats as the near-riot escalated.
One man who responded in some way or another after his girlfriend was beaned by a projectile while walking along the walkway was pounced on and pummeled by first one, then three drunk thugs as some “seat people” and his girlfriend tried to pull the attackers off him. The staffers in yellow shirts, seriously outnumbered and unequipped to deal with a volatile crowd, finally arrived. Thank goodness one of them was a powerfully-built trained military person. Otherwise, I doubt they’d have been able to break up the fight and an ugly scene would have turned morbid or spread like a germ. The victim was eventually wheeled off to the first aid area.
Even a wheelchair-bound attendee was not safe from the wickedness - a two-pound chunk of sod just missed his head. At that point my elder son again played interference and stood facing the lawn while the man’s companion faced the seats and did the same. The rest of our group stayed close to an eight-year old kid half-in-half-out of the cable fence atop the divider wall. He was terrified as his brother shielded him from projectiles from the back and we from any frontward incoming. If the crowd surged he was at risk of being crushed, so we were prepared to yank him through the fence at a moment’s notice. None of the trash-lobbers seemed to care that there were about 10 percent pre-teen kids in the audience.
There was no telling how the situation was going to evolve. If police made an appearance, I didn’t see them. Perhaps it was deemed a potential escalating action were police to come out and form a line along the walk between seats and lawn. At one point, the yellow-shirts tried it and were cussed, booed and assaulted with projectiles. About then, I became a bit concerned about the volatility of the situation and management’s ability to handle it. A surge or an out-and-out mass decision toward greater violence would have completely overpowered the staffers. Meanwhile, the refrain in my brain: where are the police or equipped security? Sub-refrain: how fast can we make it to that exit?
The staffers were really of no help at all. Their primary response was to approach us seeking shelter by the wall and demand, unsuccessfully, that we return to our seats. Our response, angrily offered, was we’d return to our seats when management gained some control over the crowd and restored safety. One staffer even came by during a particularly violent moment and demanded to see our tickets. To his credit, after we sent him on his way he was observed actually climbing into the lawn crowd to approach a particularly offensive group. He didn’t look so well when he came out some time later. He probably should not have done that, but his effort was appreciated.
After an hour or so the melee somehow resolved itself. Lack of ammunition is the likely reason, as most of the sod and trash was in the seats and the “seat people” stopped the repartee for the most part. The show went on with nary a comment from any staff, radio host or band. The amphitheatre was a sad-looking mess and a testimonial to the power of booze and crowd-think. There was a concern that the free admission would attract lowlifes; it appears to have been validated. It’s interesting that a near-riot can erupt over nothing in this land of plenty.
Led Zeppelin tour in ‘08?
July 31, 2007
Led Zeppelin tour in ‘08?
By RAY WADDELL
Billboard
It would be big. Potentially one of the biggest ever.
I’m talking, of course, about the increased chatter regarding a Led Zeppelin reunion tour for 2008 featuring founding members Robert Plant on vocals, Jimmy Page on guitar and John Paul Jones on bass, with Jason Bonham, son of the late Zep drummer John Bonham, manning the skins.
There has been no announcement that this tour is going to happen, and Plant has publicly denied it will take place. Billboard in general and myself in particular aren’t usually in the rumor business. But this thing is starting to take on a certain air of reality. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
For years, a Led Zeppelin tour, or the closest thing to it in the absence of John Bonham, has been considered the holy grail of the touring world.
Plant and Page toured arenas together in the mid-’90s. With a killer backing band, the pair reported $31.4 million from 63 shows that drew 1,028,678 people. That was enough to make Plant/Page the seventh-grossing tour of the year at a time when the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead and the Eagles were all touring stadiums.
And remember, 1995 was the cusp of exploding ticket prices. A ticket price higher than $100 was rare; the Stones topped out most dates at $50 that year, the Dead were $33.50 tops and the Eagles had shattered the glass ceiling but were still mostly less than $100.
While the days of coast-to-coast stadium tours appear to be behind us, a Led Zeppelin tour will undoubtedly play scattered stadiums in North America and probably all stadiums in Europe. The tour would most likely be a creative “mix and match” route similar to what the Stones have done recently.
So let’s be conservative and say Led Zeppelin averages $225 per ticket, with top seats at a Stones-esque $450 and a low end at $75. It’s a big production, so you get an arena capacity of about 15,000 max. Say 5,000 tickets at $75, 5,000 at $200, 3,000 at $300 and 2,000 at $450, for the sake of discussion. That comes to a gross of $3.2 million for one night.
Suddenly those 1,028,678 headbangers Plant and Page played to in 1995 generate a gross of $231,452,550 in 2008. From those 63 shows the average gross is now $3.7 million, compared with slightly less than $500,000 per night then.
Given the status this tour would have and what it would take to get these guys out on the road, it’s not unreasonable to assume the guarantee would be in the $3-million-per-night range. The merchandise numbers would be astronomical, $15 per head or better, so that brings in another $15.4 million minimum, with online sales bringing in plenty more. Plus, there no doubt would be some serious live DVD possibilities, not to mention there’s talk of a new compilation release, and catalog sales at large would receive a terrific boost. Let’s not forget VIP and fan-club packages, and a high- seven-figure sponsorship deal. And, hey, while were at it, let’s get them in the studio to record some new material under the Zep brand. Now that’s big. *
