Kerry King Totally Explained

Everything about Kerry King totally explained

Kerry King (born June 3 1964 in Los Angeles, California) is a guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the thrash metal band Slayer.

Biography

Kerry King was born June 3, 1964 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 has been married twice, and has a daughter named Cheyenne Kymberlee King.. His main influences are Judas Priest, Venom, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. 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!" Like most heavy metal musicians, King had long hair, but then shaved his head when he started balding. His bald head, spiked wristband, 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 Fucking King!" in the January 2007 Issue of Guitar World.

Religion

King is an atheist, and he views organized religion as a crutch for people who are "too weak to make it through life on their own". He also goes on to say that, "I'm the kind of guy that says if I don't see it, then it doesn't work. And nobody can show me God". He stated in the 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey that he feels religion is "the ultimate form of mind control that's perfectly legal." In the same documentary King says that he believes religion is a "load of shit".

Lyrics

Perhaps Slayer's primary lyricist, King's songs are mostly based on Satanic subjects, which he attributes to his love of horror movies. He has stated he doesn't believe in God, and he doesn't believe in Satan, but he writes about Satanic subjects because he says it's more fun to write about Satan than God.
   "In the beginning when I started to write lyrics, I wanted to do something what I haven't done before. So, I threw away the synonym finder."
   "I used the dictionary very minimally and I just wrote how I speak. And I speak very hateful manner usually. I constantly did that because I think the fans would get more out of it if they understood exactly what I'm saying - exactly where I'm coming from."
   "I write when I've to; I write when the song is done and I deal with the idea and I just go with it and I'll become what that song is all about until I've finished it. And when you do that, it makes the song more visual, it makes it more personal."
   "What I do is, if I see a religious phrase, if I can flip-flop it, I'll jot it down. That's pretty much how I got the "God Hates Us All" lyric. I saw a billboard driving, it said something like "Remember, God loves all of us." I said, "No, he doesn't. He fucking hates my ass. I'm sitting in traffic." It instantly became "God hates us all" and I saved it until I'd the right spot for it."
   "When something irritates me, I don't go home and write; I just don't do that."

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".
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." King and Flynn reportedly ended this feud backstage at the "Metal Hammer" awards show in London on June 11th 2007.
In 2006, Slayer's producer Rick Rubin lent production to Metallica's untitled ninth studio 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."

Guest appearances

In addition to appearing on Slayer's albums, he's 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. He also did the guitars on "Fight For Your Right (To Party)", and "She's Crafty". King has since commented that his playing ability "certainly wasn’t that of a virtuoso". 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.

B.C. Rich signature KKV and Warlock (KKW) guitars.
Marshall JCM-800 2203KK Custom Amps
Celestion G12K-100 and Vintage 30 Speakers
Dunlop .010-.046 Strings
EMG 81 and 85 Pick-ups with EMG Afterburner
Fernandes Sustainer
TKL Cases
MXR Smart Gate Pro
MXR KFK 10 band EQ
Shure UHF Wireless System
Kahler Tremolo Systems
Monster Cable
In Tune Guitar Picks
BOSS RGE-10 Graphic Eq
Marshall Mode Four 4x12" speaker cabinets with Celestion 12" speakers
Dunlop DCR-1SR Rack Crybaby Wah
Dunlop Kerry King Q-Zone pedal
Dunlop Zakk Wylde Signature Wah Pedal
Dunlop Dimebag Darrell Signature Wah Pedal
After Dimebag Darrell was killed, King, a good friend of Darrell's, received a guitar designed by Dimebag and built by Dean. The guitar is shaped like a Razorback V with tribal designs in the finish reminescent of King's tattoos.

Snakes

Kerry is a long time and noted snake breeder, and is known to pop up at Southern California reptile events and pet shops with little notice. He currently specializes in carpet pythons. Kerry's snakes were recently shown in an interview with Blender.com.Kerry King's Obsessions: Snakes!

Kerry King also participated in online chat discussions at the popular reptile web site kingsnake.com in 2005

and again in 2008

Further Information

Get more info on 'Kerry King'.

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