Slayer guitarist Kerry King has always been very selective about the songs he lays down licks on, which is why it was extraordinarily unexpected when the thrash pioneer popped in to rip a solo in the middle of Sum 41's 2002 pop-punk jumper, "What We're All About." Released at the height of the Canadian skate-punk band's fame, the track was written for the soundtrack of 2002's Spider-Man, so everything about the situation was extremely un-Slayer.
In fact, the guest feature was so outside of what King considers his ballpark, that he apparently turned down the offer 10 times before ultimately conceding and taking the paycheck.
In a new interview with Metal Hammer, King revealed that the Sum 41 feature — as well as his guitar solo on the Beastie Boys' 1987 track, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" — were "career choices," not creative ones, and it doesn't seem that King is particularly proud of those decisions all these years later.
"Well…there's a whole lot to say there," King said when the interviewer brought up his collab with Sum 41. "It was my record label that wanted me to do it. I turned it down 10 times!
"A friend of mine at the label came to me at an angle that I just couldn't argue with. He was like, 'Well, you know you played on the Beastie Boys record [1987's License to Ill].' Fuck! [Laughs], he's got a point! That was my epiphany."
"That was before we put ourselves back on the map," King continued, referencing Slayer's transitional period amid the turn-of-the-century nu-metal boom. "[Sum 41] were fun and they were popping. So, yeah, I played on the Beastie Boys record and I played on the Sum 41 record. I mean, those weren't choices for me, those were just career choices I made. Some people may agree with them and some people may not."
Listen to King's "career choices" on Sum 41's "What We're All About" and Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" below.
