Slayer guitarist Kerry King continues to tear down this years ‘Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival‘ in the press, after initially having taken issue with comments made by ‘Mayhem Festival‘ co-founder Kevin Lyman a few weeks ago. Speaking with Unrated Magazine‘ in the below interview, he fired a few more salvos at the tour and its lineup:
Regarding the turnout for this years ‘Mayhem festival‘:
“California was big, of course. I know here in Chicago it’s gonna be big. Detroit was big. But, I mean, it’s not a typical Mayhem when it’s just jam-packed with people, because they tried to keep the festival going. And Gary Holt said it best. He said, ‘We don’t have a second or third stage. We have a fourth stage that’s acting as the number two stage.’ And then quality of what they put out just isn’t there. We did a show at the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee last year—it was us, Suicidal and Exodus—and it was sold out. We had Mayhem there four days ago, and it wasn’t sold out. That tells you something.”
On the lower price of tickets for the festival:
“…They’re expensive on this tour for bang for your buck. Because a bang for your buck… other than one band I know of on the second stage and a handful of main-stagers, you know, it’s… This is usually where people would come out and just party all day, and they’re passing on the party ’cause the bill’s so shitty.”
It wasn’t all bad however, as he did say that he had some fun times on past editions of the festival:
“We’ve been on great ones. In ’09, it was Slayer and Manson; that’s a good thing. Slayer and Slipknot in 2012. Us and King Diamond, it’s great and everything, but I’m not sure King‘s a headliner to where, like… What was it a couple of years ago? Avenged Sevenfold and Korn. Those are two legitimate headliners. That’s people coming out and saying, ‘I get it.’ And their second stage had a legitimate headliner, like Anthrax or Machine Head—somebody awesome. And now, like Gary said, our second stage is what used to be a fourth stage, and I think the kids are protesting by not buying tickets for it.”
Slayer will release their new studio album “Repentless” on September 11th.
[via Blabbermouth]
