SLAYER - Tom Araya To Receive Key To The City In Vina del Mar, Chile
May 31, 2011, 12 years ago
SLAYER fan site Slayerized.com reports that Tom Araya, who was born in Vina del Mar (Chile) will receive the key to the city this week from Mayor Virginia Reginato. This Friday, Slayer will be playing in Tom's hometown for the first time.
An official ceremony will be held, in which Mayor Virginia Reginato will hand over the key to the city to Araya. This will be the first official recognition of Chile to Tom Araya, who left Chile at five years of age with his family for the US.
Check out the complete story here (in Spanish).
Billboard.com has issued the following report from Gary Graff:
Slayer continues to play live while ailing guitarist Jeff Hanneman remains on the sidelines. But singer-bassist Tom Araya says the group will not consider any recording projects without him.
"There's no way we'd go into a studio without him," Araya assures Billboard.com. "As a band we're not going to do something without him. He's an integral part of the band. We require his musical skills, his writing skills. He's an integral part of the band. So we're going to hold off until he's at 100 percent and can join that process and be part of it."Hanneman is battling necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacteria syndrome that was likely contracted from a spider bite. Slayer has continued to book dates, with EXODUS' Gary Holt subbing for most of them - including the Australian Soundwave Festival tour, the Big Four show on April 23rd in Indio, Calif., and the upcoming Hell On Earth Tour with ROB ZOMBIE. Hanneman did play two songs, 'South Of Heaven' and 'Angel Of Death', at the Big Four concert, which Araya says was "very emotional" for all concerned.
"It was a big deal for him to play - for us it was, too," the bassist, who's had his own health issues with his neck, says. "We thought that would be a nice surprise for everybody and also make everybody aware that he's still there. It's pretty severe what he's going through. He's had skin grafts, and he's got to rehabilitate his arm and get it back in shape again. It's going to require a lot of time."Read more at this location.
