In a Q&A session with readers of U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine, Slayer guitarist Kerry King was asked whom he would pick if he could have been in any other band. Kerry’s response was, “I was almost in Megadeth. I think if myself and Dave Mustaine could have co-existed for four years, it would have been a very different band. I’m not saying I’d have made them better – I’d have made them different. It’s funny, I was backstage at Mercyful Fate’s show in Las Vegas and got talking to [guitarist] Hank Shermann, and said to him, ‘I thought you guys might come knocking’, and you could see his head explode. ‘It never fucking occurred to me!’ I’m a huge Mercyful Fate fan so I’d have done that in a heartbeat.”

“I’d also love to play with Judas Priest. That brief second where Richie [Faulkner] got sick and they suggested going out with one player, I thought if they called me and said, ‘Can you be that one guitarist?’, I honestly don’t think I could, because they’re such a dual guitar band. Thankfully they never did it, but if they’d have asked, I think it would have been the hardest ‘no’ of my life.”

Later during the Q&A session, Kerry was asked if he had any particularly bad experience with dealing with Megadeth in the early days of the thrash movement, Kerry further explained: “He was cooler back then. I think there’s been a lot of drugs and funny extracurriculars between now and then that helped shape who he is today. But it was a good time back then. Playing all the venues Slayer played and just… I don’t know… playing different music. His stuff is definitely more… I wouldn’t say ‘intricate,’ cause we’ve got intricate parts too, but it’s just… He writes riffs in a very different perspective than I… Even after playing with him for several months, I’d still… I wouldn’t do it; it’s just not my style.”

Photo Credit: Boston Lynn Schulz