The reunion of SLAYER after their last tour in 2019 seemed impossible! Founding guitarist Kerry King was preparing for his new band, as the other guitarist of the band Gary Holt returned to EXODUS,. The singer Tom Araya wanted to retire long before the band’s breakup was announced. So, when news about SLAYER appearing on September 22nd and 27th, 2024 at Chicago’s Riot Fest and Louisville’s Louder Than Life respectively, the entire metal community was shocked!
According to Sandra Araya (the wife of SLAYER’s bassist/vocalist Tom Araya) on social media, she had a lot to do with it. Sandra stated that Tom was absolutely done playing, but she harassed him for the past year to get back into it. She has defended the band’s decision to reunite this fall for a couple of headlining festival gigs, five years after SLAYER wrapped up its “farewell” tour.
Sandra Araya fires back at “trolls” over SLAYER’s reunion through her social media and both Gary Holt and his wife Lisa, were among the hundreds of people who liked her Instagram post:
“Let’s clarify for the trolls: Tom was done with playing. I have harassed him for over a year. He agreed FINALLY. We shared that news with SLAYER’s awesome managers and they did the rest! So yes, without Tom it wouldn’t have happened… without me BUGGING HIM it wouldn’t have happened. But go ahead with your drama! I however will be enjoying a few shows, and I’m thankful he loves me and the fans enough to do this.”
Tom Araya himself hasn’t commented further on the reunion outside his initial, brief statement:
“Nothing compares to the 90 minutes when we’re on stage playing live, sharing that intense energy with our fans, and to be honest, we have missed that.”
Just a couple of weeks ago, Kerry King, who will release his debut solo album in May, told Rolling Stone that he didn’t foresee SLAYER coming back together for the foreseeable future, and he hadn’t spoken to Tom Araya since 2019. After the decision about the upcoming SLAYER concerts, Kerry added:
“Have I missed playing live? Absolutely. SLAYER means a lot to our fans; they mean a lot to us. It will be five years since we have seen them.”
SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt’s wife, Lisa Holt, also addressed SLAYER fans, specifically naysayers who may be upset about the news. In a public Facebook post, Lisa said:
“To all the people saying ‘they are liars,’ ‘they must have run out of money,’ ‘it’s not SLAYER without so and so’… I have an idea for you all… DON’T GO. And for all the people who did go to the final tour dates and enjoyed it… awesome! This isn’t a ‘TOUR’ it’s some dates… and GREAT NEWS! And everyone that thinks they know all the inside info… you can’t possibly know.”
SLAYER played the final show of its farewell tour in November 2019 at the Forum in Los Angeles. The SLAYER lineup for 2024 concerts will be the same as those 2019 shows, Araya returns as the bass playing frontman, King’s on guitar, Gary Holt is back on guitar, and Paul Bostaph will return as the band’s drummer.
