One thing I admire about Kerry King is he does not give a fuck. He doesn't care what you think of him and he certainly doesn't care to be overly sensitive about a perceived touchy subject. For example, it's clear to anybody who has a remote knowledge about Slayer that King is a die-hard atheist. And he's not just saying it.
When asked by the Village Voice if he feels the spirit of his longtime collaborator, Jeff Hanneman, guiding the band, King responds bluntly:
“Jeff is worm food,” King states in his blunt-yet-likable fashion. “When you die you go in the dirt. There is no doubt. Doubt’s called agnostic. I’m not agnostic.”
Fuck yes, Kerry King! Do not pussy foot around your athiesm. I honestly gained a new level of respect for King because of this. Which is not to say King isn't sentimental about Hanneman's loss… in fact, he calls the title track on their upcoming album, Repentless the "Hannemanthem" saying:
“I went with it based on Slayer. Slayer is repentless; Slayer’s always been repentless. I said, ‘You know what, I should write something about how I think Jeff looked at the world, because he looked at the world exactly how Slayer looked at the world.’ Plus little ‘Jeff-isms.’ It was both easy and difficult,” he concludes. "The difficult part was doing it justice; I didn’t want to just throw it together. I wanted it to be solid, as deep as it could be without getting personal.” Never personal, always repentless."
Repentless is out on September 11th.
