Slayer Guitarist Kerry King Talks About Metallica and How He Rejected Joining Megadeth

Even though the band disbanded back in 2019, Slayer still affects so many people with their never-gets-old songs, for sure. And the regarded band’s founder and lead guitarist Kerry King appeared in a conversation, talking about Megadeth, Metallica, and more.

After founding the band, Kerry King remained his career with Slayer for almost 4-decades as the thrash metal band’s lead guitarist and songwriter. Although Dave Mustaine had invited him to join beside him in Megadeth, King refused his offer, agreeing to partake in gigs with them only. This is the part we all know. But what we don’t know for sure was how exactly those happened back then, until the talented guitarist has come along giving more details.

Appearing in an interview recently, the regarded band Slayer’s lead guitarist and founder Kerry King went back to those past days, as he has he talked about how he rejected one of the other ‘big four bands’ Megadeth, along with also mentioning Metallica.

Kerry King started reflecting his thoughts for one of the other ‘big four’ bands, after being asked: “if he had any sense then that Dave Mustaine was resentful towards Metallica.”

“Probably. But I looked up to Mustaine ever since he was in Metallica. I was in the crowd with Jeff actually, saying, ‘Look at that dude! He’s just ripping up there!’ He’s got a great style and in the beginning, it helped Metallica become what Metallica is. And let me tell you something – to this day, he’s a great guitar player.

But yeah, I played five shows, and then Dave wanted me to stay around, but I didn’t have any reason to stay around because I had Slayer. I remember having a conversation with him and saying like, ‘Yeah, but we have all this dark stuff,’ and Mustaine saying something like, ‘Well, we’ve got this song, it’s pretty Satanic.’ And I was like, ‘At the end of the day, dude, it ain’t about that. I came to play with you. I think it went spectacularly well but it’s time for me to get back to my band,'” explained Kerry King reflecting he just wanted to stick around Slayer, and that was why he rejected Dave Mustaine’s offer to him joining Megadeth for full-time.

As Slayer guitarist has also touched on Metallica, the conversation continued its way to move forward from there while Kerry King was asked what he reckons as the biggest factor in Metallica’s success.

“They were probably the best with melody, be it vocal or guitar harmonies,” started Kerry King reflecting his thoughts over Metallica and its success.

“Sure, we had guitar harmonies but they were still on the darker side, whereas with Metallica, it was more – I don’t want to cheapen it by saying this – but it’s more everyman’s music. Like I said, I don’t mean that in a cheap way; it’s easier to get into for people than Slayer’s darker tones and darker lyrical vision.

Metallica wrote stuff that anybody could like without going, ‘Why am I liking this?’ or, ‘Is it OK to like this?’ Whereas people have probably asked themselves about us for decades, ‘Is it OK to like Slayer?’,” finished Slayer guitarist and laughed.

Formed in 1981, Slayer is also among the “big four” bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax, for its fast and aggressive musical style. The band’s last lineup consisted of co-lead guitarist Kerry King, bassist Tom Araya, drummers Jon Dette and Paul Bostaph, and guitarist Gary Holt before it disbanded in 2019.

Ultimately, the regarded band Megadeth has been preparing to release its new album, titled “The Sick, The Dying And The Dead“, for a while. And its fresh blood guitarist Kiko Loureiro also appeared in an interview recently, talking about what he has learned from Dave Mustaine, so far, which we thought you also might want to take a look, as well.