The rhythm guitarist Kerry King co-founded the Thrash Metal band Slayer back in 1981 alongside Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo. He and Araya are the only members of the group who were part of all their releases.
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King is one of the most influential guitar players of Thrash Metal and influenced countless musicians over the decades. In an interview with Scott Lips (Transcribed by Blabbermouth), King revealed who are his five favorite guitarists of all time.
The 5 guitarists that Slayer’s Kerry King said are his favorites of all time
“I would have a hard time numbering them, but I can come up with five. (Ritchie) Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, without question. Probably my favorite one of all time is Glenn Tipton. And I think he’s the most overlooked. ‘Cause if you look at the leads he was doing and when he was doing ’em, he kind of innovated a lot of that stuff. Okay, so who’s five? I’ll go with a super-heavy hitter that’s my bro and say Zakk Wylde,” Kerry King said.
Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society, Pantera)
His choices show exactly many bands that were a huge influence to Slayer in their early days. But obviously, later on they got into groups like Venom, which also were groups that inspired the American band.
Slayer’s current line-up has King, Araya, the drummer Paul Bostaph and the guitarist Gary Holt. During their career, the band released 12 studio albums and sold millions of records worldwide. They are part of the “Big Four of Thrash Metal”, which also has Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax.
Kerry King started his solo career in 2024 with the release of his debut album “From Hell I Rise”.
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