It’s probably safe to say that Slayer‘s career, which has eared them a place in the Big Four of thrash, multiple RIAA certifications and adoration from metalheads all over the world, was a success. Still, if Kerry King had made one particular financial decision differently, he might have a bit more walking around money.
In an interview with Border City Rock Talk, King recalls how he took payment up front instead of opting for a royalties deal when he played guitar on the Beastie Boys song “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.”
As King explains, Slayer and the Beastie Boys were working on their respective 1986 albums, Reign in Blood and Licensed to Ill, in the same studio, both with producer Rick Rubin.
“They needed a lead on that particular song, ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn,'” King says. “I thought about it, and I went, ‘Yeah, why not? I could use a couple hundred bucks.’ I certainly wasn’t well-to-do back then. So, that’s what I did. I went in there and I did it.”
King adds, “In hindsight, I wish I didn’t get paid,” laughing, “I wish I took a quarter point or something, ’cause now I would be a rich man.”
While we can’t speak to whether King is losing sleep over his “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” decision, he has been busy supporting his debut solo album, From Hell I Rise. After wrapping a European tour in June, King will be touring the U.S. on Mastodon and Lamb of God‘s Ashes of Leviathan tour, kicking off July 19 in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Slayer, meanwhile, is reuniting for a trio of festival performances in the fall after completing their farewell tour in 2019.
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