Tom Araya, front man of Slayer, raised hairs in January when he posted an outwardly pro Trump photo to Instagram. The photo posted to the @slayerbandofficial account depicts a press photo of the band with newly elected president trump in the group throwing up the devil horns. When initially posted fans responded positively and negatively in a very short amount of time. The photo went viral within the metal community and generated quite the backlash that the band is still dealing with today.

Araya recently touch on the subject again when questioned about the photo by a Chilean radio station Futuro, he went to say America has become “a nation of crybabies.”

Initially Araya wasn’t aware of the power of social media saying “I thought it was funny … I was amazed at the comments about the picture some positive some negative more amazing was in 2 hours there was 10,000 likes… But I never would have guessed that there where so many snowflakes commenting their distaste for the new president. Like him or not he is the president.”

The band has distanced themselves from the photo as previously covered. They even went as far to tell Rolling Stone in an interview, “As was verified by Tom, this was his post, is not something the band would have posted if asked, and does not belong on a Slayer social page. We all have our personal opinions, some of which we have voiced in the past, but Slayer has never endorsed any political party or any candidate, and the band intends to keep it that way.”

Araya says he was “taken aback by the response” to the post and that he “didn’t realize that [it] was gonna piss so many Slayer fans off.” After explaining his view on America he explained further, “That’s what America has become… Because they didn’t get their way, they’re mad. I shared a picture that I thought was funny. They can’t even joke. They can’t even laugh at themselves. They can’t even have fun. And that just is amazing that it’s come to that. We’re a nation of crybabies.”

In this political landscape artists usually take a hard stance or avoid mention of it at all. Araya claims he voted for neither presidential candidate saying, “Those are two people that are the furthest from [what] I would ever vote for.” The major take away from this situation is the importance of having purpose on controversial subject especially in social media.

Photo credit: mauricio Alvarado