Kerry King has doubled down on his previous comments that Slayer "quit too early." The thrash icons embarked on their farewell tour in 2019, concluding with their final show on November 30th of that year in Los Angeles. In 2021, King expressed his frustration that the band broke up sooner than he would've liked, and in a new interview with Metal Hammer, the guitarist said that he reacted with "anger" when the band decided to part ways, and to this day, he believes that that decision was "premature."
When asked what his reaction was during the conversation to end Slayer, King said: "Anger… what else? It was premature. The reason I say 'premature' is because my heroes from my childhood are still playing! I can still play, I still want to play, but that livelihood got taken away from me.
"But, anyway, on to the next chapter, I guess. We were on top of the world, and there's nothing wrong with going out on top of the world, it's a good way to go out. So, bravo for that. But do I miss playing? Yeah, absolutely."
Elsewhere in the interview, King was asked to describe how Slayer's final tour felt, knowing that those would be the last times the band would ever play those cities together.
"Every one of those shows was a bummer!," he said. "We were going to all these places and all these cities where we have all this history. It's a bummer to think, 'I'm not gonna see my friends there again.' You'd get to that country and know you were going to see these people, and you'd see them yearly. I haven't seen them now in three years. That sucks.
"And the fans, too. Slayer means a lot to our fans, and they mean a lot to us. I know I will see these people again, but no Slayer leaves a big hole for a lot of people."
Later this year, King is set to unveil his long-anticipated new band, which is confirmed to feature ex-Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph. "You know me, so you know what it's going to sound like," King revealed last summer.
