9 Things I Learned During Slayer's Q&A Onboard Motorhead's Motorboat

Slayer are a band of the people, so the passengers on Motorhead’s Motorboat cruise were pretty pumped for the moment when Kerry King and Paul Bostaph sat poolside to answer some burning questions from their fans. The guys covered a lot of ground in their Q&A, with a little help Sirius XM's Jose Mangin who served as moderator. Want to know the craziest tour they've ever been on? Or which album they would record over again? We've got answers.

1. What will (maybe) be Slayer’s next video?

When talking about the kickass video for “Repentless,” Kerry described an alternate concept from director BJ McDonnell. “The other idea was a post-apocalyptic Mad Max kind of thing, which I’m totally into and maybe that’s the next one.”

2. What’s Kerry King’s favorite poison?

Mr. King is more of a tequila dude, but there might be a new drink on the horizon. “Whiskey’s not really my thing, but I’m starting to open up to it.”

3. When was the first time Kerry ever got drunk?

This question came courtesy of Anthrax’s Frank Bello, who actually knew the answer, but wanted Kerry to share it with that crowd. “The first time I ever got drunk I was 21. That’s the first time I drank—not because of my age, but because it was just my time and it happened.”

4. What’s the craziest tour they’ve ever been on?

Although this current residency on the high seas comes pretty close, Kerry admits that his number one is a little more poignant (in a rocking way).

“I was very proud —and sad at the same time— that Slayer did Pantera’s last tour. I was proud because Dime was one of my best friends in the business. I’d been trying to play with them for years and years. When Reinventing The Steel came around, I finally talked him into taking us and it was a blast top to bottom.”

5. What’s on their bucket list?

Let’s get one thing straight right now: Slayer don’t have “bucket lists.” Instead, they have “fuck it lists.”

“I ain’t that old yet!” Kerry protested. “I haven’t even considered a thing like that.” But after being pinned down, he was able to come up with one summit they mighty Slayer have yet to tackle.

“I’d like to go to South Africa to play. It’s one of the last major territories that we haven’t done. And the Pacific Rim, which I think we’re doing next year.”

Paul admitted that he wanted to learn to surf. Considering the boat hits Nassau in 10 hours, his time may be coming!

6. Who would they add to Slayer in a dream line up?

“I wouldn’t add anybody,” says Kerry. Predictable, but true. “To me it’s like Iron Maiden with Janick—you don’t need him. I love iron Maiden, but when Adrian Smith came back I was like, ‘Why is this guy still here?’” I don’t mean that to be derogatory, he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. But as a fan of Iron Maiden, I don’t think they need him.”

However, he can think of an element that he’d want to incorporate into all of their sets. “We should have fire at every show. I think if any band should have fire, it’s Slayer. We’re singing the Devil’s music and it means fire to me.”

7. Speaking of which, any fire-related accidents over their years of pyromania performances?

“No,” says Kerry, “Because I’m a smart person and I stay away from that shit.”

8. Which song in their discography would they like to redo?

“I’m gonna pick an entire record. And the only reason I say this is because the way it was recorded. I love the songs on this record, but its production was shitty and I didn’t realize that until about 10 years ago. That record is Divine Intervention. Listen to it against God Hates Us All, listen to it against Repentless. The songs are great, I love ‘em. But the production sucks, and I didn’t realize that until recently. I got so caught up in finishing that record and the circumstance—which most of you probably don’t know. We had three different engineers, we worked in three or four different studios. It was detrimental to the final product being as good as it should have been. As far as the songs, I love ‘em—I just think at the end of the day they didn’t get their justice in the recording studio.”

9. Do they ever feel bad when their opening acts get totally drowned out by cries of “Slay-ER! Slay-ER!”?

Ehhh, not usually. Sometimes they prefer it.

“We were playing ’88 in the South of Heaven tour,” remembers Kerry. “We were playing the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Trouble was opening, and Trouble is a band from Chicago. And the drummer had the ingenuity to say something derogatory to the crowd before a song. The song went on, and the crowd was chanting ‘Slayer!’ louder than Trouble was coming out of the PA—in their home town. Fuck yes.”