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Last month, Kerry King made headlines when he off-handedly expressed some serious remorse about Slayer's retirement in 2019. "Apparently, it's [been] 30 years, which is quite an achievement. Not a lot of bands get there," King said in a congratulatory video for Machine Head's 30th anniversary. "We did, and then we quit too early."
"Fuck us, I know," he added in what seemed like a response to fans who wished Slayer kept going. "Fuck me. I hate fucking not playing."
As it turns out, King isn't the only Slayer member who feels like the band called it quits too soon. In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Gary Holt revealed that he stands with King and believes that the band could've kept going. The Exodus guitarist-songwriter became a live Slayer member after Jeff Hanneman's death in 2011 and officially joined the band in 2013, playing on their final album, 2015's Repentless, and touring with them through their disbandment in 2019.
"I'd have to agree [with King]. We were still playing at the top of our game, we were totally killing it," Holt said in the interview. "The band had a lot of years left in it, but I guess when it's time, it's time. When you decide to walk away from something, walk away."
"I can't tell anybody they made the wrong decision," he continued. "Better to go out on top than go out unable to play your own songs, and this shit isn't easy. Playing 'Angel Of Death' at 70 years old would be fucking hard. But it was time for me to come back, let's put it that way. I was really missing my first family [Exodus]."
Although two out the four Slayer members seem to wish the band was still around, that doesn't appear to be in the cards. Shortly after his initial remorseful comments, King doubled down on his excitement for what his yet-to-be-announced post-Slayer band, promising that "you will see me in the future — it will be fucking good."
