According to blabbermouth.net, during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kerry King talked about Slayer’s upcoming reunion shows at three festivals in September and October. The concerts will come five years after the completion of what was being billed as the band’s final tour.

“I wasn’t ready to hang it up, but there’s really no point in going on with someone that doesn’t want to do it anymore, because then you’ve got a half-hearted person onstage. We won the Super Bowl and we left. That’s pretty cool. Now we’ve got these three anniversary shows. Will there be more? I don’t know. Will we ever record again? Definitely not. Will we ever tour again? Definitely not. But a show here and there to make some people happy, I’m not against that.” said King.

Last month, King was asked by Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio if he is looking forward to playing with Slayer again. King responded with: “I haven’t seen but I’ve texted Gary off and on and Paul’s with me all the time, so I’m looking forward to playing with Holt ’cause we were together, like, 10 years. But me and Phil on this run are holding down the fort every bit as well as Gary and I did in Slayer. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to the largeness of the stage. I’m looking forward to burning everything.”

Regarding the fact that Slayer is playing shows again five years after the completion of the band’s final tour, King said: “Yeah, at the end of the day, it wasn’t bad blood. Tom was just done. And when Tom told me he was done, I went, ‘Okay, well, I’m not gonna try to talk you into it,’ because if you’re trying to talk somebody into it, their heart’s not in it.”

The guitarist adds: “So it was over for me. And, of course, a month after we were done, offers come in because people think you’re done. So what we retired from was touring. We never said we were done playing. We said, ‘This is our final tour’ and I don’t think three shows constitute a tour. So if you wanna get technical, I think we’re in the ballpark of being truthful.”

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvardo