Slayer‘s Kerry King has named who he thinks is the “most overlooked” guitarist in metal music.
READ MORE: Judas Priest legend Rob Halford: “Coming out happened in the right way – it wasn’t premeditated”
King discussed the guitar greats during a recent interview on the Lipps Service with Scott Lipps podcast, naming Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Van Halen’s Eddie Van Halen and Ozzy Osbourne‘s guitarist Zakk Wylde as among the best.
He then went on to name his personal “favourite”, Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest, adding that he thinks Tipton is also “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,” he continued.
Tipton announced in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and would be sitting out of the metal band’s ‘Firepower’ world tour that year. He was diagnosed four years earlier but doctors informed him that he had been living with the condition at least half a decade before that.
In other news, King is set to embark on his 2025 UK and European solo tour this summer. He also shared that Slayer have no plans to reunite or write any new material.
“We’re never gonna tour again. We’re never gonna make a record again. Mark my word: we’re never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again. Because that was the last thing,” he said in an interview with Metal Roos (via Blabbermouth).
Back in October, the guitarist also revealed that he would like either Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson or Vin Diesel to portray him in a biopic.
The comments arose as he responded to a fan’s question about who he would like to play himself in a biopic created about the band in Metal Hammer, the thrash metal legend responded with the former Fast & Furious stars.
“The only one that loosely fits the description [to play me] is Vin Diesel,” King explained. “If you go down that road you might also say The Rock, but I’m not nearly that giant! That would be awesome, though – I’ll say The Rock, because I like a lot of the stuff he’s in.”
Kerry King of Slayer performing live on stage during Download Festival at Donington Park, on June 16, 2019. (Photo by Kevin Nixon/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
As for Judas Priest, the band are heading on tour this year and will play a string of UK shows – one of which being a co-headline date with Alice Cooper. You can find a full list of dates here and get tickets here.
Last year, frontman Rob Halford caught up with NME as part of the In Conversation series, and opened up about what it was like to come out as gay in 1998 – something he describes as “the greatest thing I could have done for myself”.
“If I reflect on it, it happened in the right way because it wasn’t premeditated… Everybody in the band knew I was gay, everybody at the label knew I was gay and management knew I was gay. And wouldn’t you believe it? All the fans were like, ‘Well, we always thought you were gay anyway.’ And there was me thinking I’m the only gay in the village! But the goodness that came out of that can’t be overstated,” he said.
“[But] being a gay man and coming out into a metal world, at the time, that was really difficult because of the homophobia and the pushback. And I still get it now.”
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