At this year’s Brutal Assault festival, Metalshop TV spoke to Kerry King about SLAYER‘s participation in the “Back To The Beginning” event, which marked Ozzy Osbourne and BLACK SABBATH‘s final performance. Asked if he enjoyed being part of the concert, the SLAYER guitarist — who is currently touring Europe with his solo band — said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “ Yeah, I made a point to be there all day at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show. My friends in MASTODON were playing first, so I wanted to see them. I know HALESTORM was playing early; I wanted to see them. I saw ALICE IN CHAINS soundcheck the day before. I watched Ozzy and BLACK SABBATH play… They had something set up like a giant LED screen backstage with its own P.A., so I just parked myself right in front of it and I had basically a front-row seat to the whole show for those two. I was on stage for METALLICA.
“It was a good day,” Kerry continued. “When you do a festival, like we’re doing today [at Brutal Assault], a lot of times I don’t know who we’re playing with, but I knew ‘Back To The Beginning’ for months, so I had a whole day planned out to watch my friends play. And it was cool. And with Ozzy passing away very soon thereafter, I’m very happy that I was able to be a part of that.”
Asked if he remembers the first time he met Ozzy, Kerry said: “[It] probably would’ve been the late ’90s. ‘Cause when they were testing Ozzfest, we did all the original ones, when they were like one gig or two gigs, maybe Southern California and Phoenix, just to see if it was a feasible idea. So I’m assuming it was around then, but I don’t have that memory. [Laughs]”
Pressed to name “a truly special memory” with Ozzy, Kerry said: “For as many Ozzfests as we did, it seemed like we were always on ones around the time when ‘The Osbournes’ was a popular TV show. And when we were on the tour, I never saw any of them. It’s like they were ghosts. I remember at one of the hotels, ’cause sometimes all the bands stayed in the same hotel and SABBATH was in our hotel, and I opened my door and Tony [Iommi, SABBATH guitarist] goes walking down the hallway with, I’m sure his bodyguard, whoever, and I was such a fan, I just put my head down and said, ‘Hey, Tony,’ try to be cool, not be a pain in the ass. But years later we were around each other more often, and I’m not sure we became friends, but we became more than acquaintances. And he’s one of my superheroes, so it was tough for me to get over that hump.”
King‘s solo band kicked off its European tour on July 29 at ZOOM Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. At the show, Kerry and his bandmates — Mark Osegueda (vocals; DEATH ANGEL),Phil Demmel (guitar; MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE),Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and Paul Bostaph (drums; SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS) — played a cover of BLACK SABBATH‘s “Wicked World” as a tribute to Ozzy, who had died just a week earlier.
At BLACK SABBATH‘s “Back To The Beginning” charity event on July 5, SLAYER played a six-song set. The California thrash metal pioneers opened their performance with “Disciple” and “War Ensemble” before playing BLACK SABBATH‘s aforementioned deep cut “Wicked World” from the latter’s self-titled album. SLAYER concluded its set by playing three more of its classic songs: “South Of Heaven”, “Raining Blood” and “Angel Of Death”.
This past April, King told Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil about SLAYER‘s appearance at “Back To The Beginning”: “It’s such an honor to even be thought of to play that, and I’m glad we were actually in the ‘working mode’ so we can get that offer. It’s gonna be awesome. And I drug my feet and picked our song really late, so when there weren’t as many obvious choices, but the one I picked is gonna work out really cool. I worked it out with my [solo] band, so me and Paul could rehearse it… It’s gonna be killer. What we’re doing is cool.”
SLAYER famously covered SABBATH‘s “Hand Of Doom” for the “Nativity In Black II: A Tribute To Black Sabbath” album, which came out in 2000.
Last December, King was asked by Australia’s Wall Of Sound which BLACK SABBATH album he would take with him if the planet was being blown up and we were all boarding a big spaceship and he was only allowed to take one SABBATH LP with him. He responded: ”I would take… It’s easy and it’s hard ’cause I’m a super [Ronnie James] Dio fan. But I would take [SABBATH‘s sixth studio album, 1975’s] ‘Sabotage’. Something about the vibe on that record. It’s cool. I mean, they’re all cool, but something about that one. Maybe ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. I don’t know. It’s nonstop badassery.”
Back in 2017, King picked “Sabotage” as one of his 10 favorite metal albums, telling Rolling Stone magazine: “‘Sabotage’ is just a very heavy record. There’s so much good stuff on there. As I picked these records, I picked the ones I’m compelled to play if I’m working out or driving, and ‘Sabotage’ was my choice for BLACK SABBATH. It has ‘Megalomania’, ‘Symptom Of The Universe’, which has definitely got attitude, ‘Hole In The Sky’. And it has the instrumental ‘Supertzar’. I love that one. It grips me for some reason.”
Last year, Kerry was asked by Metal Hammer Greece‘s TV show “TV War” if he has ever had a negative experience meeting one of his musical idols. He responded: “Yeah. Only once. And I won’t even tell you who, because he doesn’t deserve it. But nine times out of ten… The last one that I’ll say I got over the hump with, ’cause I was still such a fan, was Tony Iommi. And it was very late in our careers, but it’s fucking Tony; he’s the godfather of all this shit. I think it was, like, 2006, finally. And I knew him before that, but I couldn’t talk to him. It was Tony Iommi; I just couldn’t do it.”
Kerry continued: “in 2006 I went to the Classic Rock Awards in Britain. And I was presenting Tony with an award, and I was nervous as fucking all hell. I was out of my environment. I’ve done metal shows, I’ve done the [Revolver] Golden Gods billions of fucking times, but at the Classic Rock Awards, I was out of my element. Fucking Steven Tyler‘s [AEROSMITH] out there, AC/DC‘s out there, DEF LEPPARD‘s out there — people that I’ve admired in my history but didn’t know any of them. So I’m fucking shaking up there. I hit the mic when I’m talking. And I was just a fucking idiot. [Laughs] So, I get to give Tony his award, take a picture with him. Then I felt like we were bros. I was over the Tony hump, and that was cool.”
King added: “I’ve had a lot of heroes, be it from [JUDAS] PRIEST to SABBATH and whoever the hell, [DEEP PURPLE‘s] Ritchie Blackmore. But, yeah, Tony was the one. I had to climb that mountain and get over it.”
More than 40,000 fans attended “Back To The Beginning”, which also saw performances from BLACK SABBATH, Ozzy Osbourne, GUNS N’ ROSES, METALLICA, PANTERA, LAMB OF GOD and ANTHRAX, among others. Profits from the show will be shared equally between the charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
The all-day event at Villa Park, produced by Live Nation, was hosted and compered by American actor Jason Momoa, and featured a supergroup of musicians.
A livestream of the daylong event was announced in June. While it was called a livestream, the video was delayed two hours from the in-arena start time.
Ozzy died on July 22 of a heart attack, his death certificate revealed. The certificate also reportedly said the 76-year-old musician suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease.
