Ahead of the launch of Slayer and Anthrax’s fall tour on September 9th in Cleveland, Ohio, Slayer guitarist Kerry King and Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian took part in separate phone interviews for Cleveland Scene, answering the same questions. In the following excerpt they explain how thrash metal become so popular in the ’80s.

Kerry King: “I think people’s tastes adjusted. I’m a fan of metal. I always have been. I just base it on how I progressed. There was no way to find it back then. Growing up in L.A., I didn’t know who Judas Priest was. After British Steel came out, they started getting played on the radio because they had more accessible songs. It’s a natural progression. When you find the sound you like, that’s where you end up. People didn’t know what thrash metal was. They were just experimenting with it and maybe seeing a show. There were some college stations that were good to us back then too.”

Scott Ian: “There are so many factors, timing being one of the major ones. It was the right time for these bands. The audiences were really connecting. By 1984 and 1985 and 1986, Priest and Maiden had blown up and become massive arena bands. Even a band like Motörhead was certainly popular. Along came bands like us. We were our audience. We weren’t on some unreachable level. Priest and Maiden were literally gods. Our attitude was that if those bands already exist, we would just do our thing as well as we could. We didn’t dress like those other bands. The fact that we looked our audience and felt like our audience. We loved the bands that came before us. That’s who we were. It just so happened that we had guitars and wrote songs and were playing to people our age. That connection was what was different. As much as I connected with Priest and Maiden, there was an unattainable element, maybe because of the age difference at the time. I was 16 and those guys were in their twenties and were already doing it. It seemed larger than life. People just connected with us and Slayer and Megadeth and Metallica in a way they couldn’t exist with those bands that came before us because they were larger than life. The sound was something more aggressive, and I guess the timing was right for that too. Maybe there was a frustration out there and coming to these shows was different than going to a big arena gig. It was a different energy and that grew and grew. People came to their first thrash show told their friends. It was that kind of word of mouth because there was no other exposure. There was no other exposure. By 1987, we were playing to 8000 instead of 800. It was incredible how organically it exploded.”

Read the full interview at Cleveland Scene.

Slayer recently released a video clip with Tom Araya and Kerry King talking about the upcoming tour with fellow Big Four members Anthrax, and support from Death Angel. The clip can be found below.

Tour dates:

September
9 - Jacob's Pavilion - Cleveland, OH
10 - Freedom Hill Amphitheatre - Detroit, MI
12 - Sound Academy - Toronto, ON
13 - Metropolis - Montreal, PQ
15 - Stage AE - Pittsburgh, PA
17 - Revolution Rock Fest - Mashantucket, CT
18 - Rock Allegiance Festival - Chester, PA
20 - Egyptian Room - Indianapolis, IN
22 - The Pageant - St. Louis, MO
24 - Houston Open Air Festival - Houston, TX
25 - Knotfest - Devore, CA
27 - Hard Rock Live - Orlando, FL
28 - Fillmore - Miami, FL
30 - Horseshoe Casino Tunica - Tunica, MS

October
1 - Louder Than Life Festival - Louisville, KY
3 - Norva - Norfolk, VA
5 - Tabernacle - Atlanta, GA
7 - Gas Monkey Live - Dallas, TX
8 - ACL at the Moody Theatre - Austin, TX
10 - Fillmore - Denver, CO
11 - The Complex - Salt Lake City, UT
13 - The Wilma Theatre - Missoula, MT
17 - ENMAX Centre - Lethbridge, AB
19 - S. Okanagan Cvents Centre - Penticton, BC
20 - Abbotsford Centre - Abbotsford, BC
22 - Aftershock Festival - Sacramento, CA
23 - Reno Events Center - Reno, NV
27 - El Paso County Coliseum - El Paso, TX