When Slayer's Kerry King was asked to name his top five guitar players during an appearance on the Lipps Service With Scott Lipps podcast, he didn't hesitate to draw from the legends of rock and metal. "I would have a hard time numbering them, but I can come up with five," he said, before listing some of his greatest inspirations. King praised Deep Purple and Rainbow's Ritchie Blackmore, Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, and Van Halen's Eddie Van Halen as indisputable icons.
King's admiration for Judas Priest's Glenn Tipton was particularly personal. "Probably my favorite one all time is Glenn Tipton," he admitted. "And I think he's 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." Rounding out his list, King tipped his hat to Pantera and Black Label Society's Zakk Wylde, saying, "I'll go with a super-heavy hitter that's my bro."
This reverence for pioneering musicians reflects King's deeper critique of modern guitarists, a topic he's explored in previous interviews. Back in 2015, King lamented what he saw as a decline in "guitar heroes" within the hard rock and heavy metal scene. Speaking to LA Weekly, he reminisced about the generations of players who inspired not only fans but fellow musicians. "During the decade before Slayer, and decade after, there were guitar heroes… Ted Nugent, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Dave Murray, Glenn Tipton, Tony Iommi. Later on, there was Yngwie Malmsteen… Zakk Wylde and Dimebag Darrell… people that you would aspire to be."
During the same interview, King offered the anecdote of a festival in South America, where he shared a moment with fellow guitarist Gary Holt, while watching a band perform "We were at a festival in South America a few years ago and we were watching a video feed of the band that was playing onstage. I was watching the screen and I just did not get why this band was popular at all. I pulled [Exodus/Slayer guitarist] Gary Holt aside.
"I pointed at the screen, and asked him, 'Hey Gary, would you aspire to be these guys?' He said, 'Not at all.' It was because they were the most boring and lethargic guitar players I had ever seen. I would never want to be these guys. I'm looking at a lot of these bands and it looks like it's the road crew sound-checking to me. There's no vibe. There's nothing that gives you aspirations to be awesome."
King's own approach to music reflects his defiance of convention. Known for his chaotic, whammy-bar-wrenching solos, he embraces a philosophy that prioritizes emotion and energy over technical perfection. In a 2009 interview with Music Radar, King defended his unorthodox style. "There's nothing that says playing out of key is wrong," he said. "Of course, if you're thinking of what's traditionally accepted and bound by the ‘rules of music,' you might disagree. But, to me, anything that sounds good is right. Bend the rules"
He added, "I never would have written some of my cooler riffs if I got all hung on what notes are in tune or what notes go together… Bottom line: whenever somebody says, ‘You can't do that, because it's musically incorrect,' just give 'em the middle finger and say, ‘Fuck it, I like it.'"
