Kerry King is a man who gives no fucks.
Slayer is of course currently out on Mayhem Fest, which is not doing too well as far as drawing crowds to the amphitheater gigs. A few weeks back, the promoter of the fest, Kevin Lyman, blamed the poor turnouts on bands not taking cuts on their guarantees to beef up the bill in the middle. He also went on to call metal "gray, bald and fat."
Kerry King put two and two together and figured out that Lyman was likely talking about him and his band and he has no problem letting his own feelings on the matter be known. He already called Lyman a douche for even saying these things in public with it being bad marketing, but since Lyman is playing the bad marketing game, King is going to step it up another level!
Speaking to our friends at Metal Insider, King made his feelings on this year's lineup clear… he wouldn't even pay his own money to see it:
“I understand it from a fan’s perspective. I wouldn’t spend money to come to this either.”
King also has his own problems with how the tour was booked:
“Do I know this tour wasn’t booked correctly? Absolutely I know this tour wasn’t booked correctly. Gary Holt made the comment that usually there’s the Main Stage, a second stage, a third stage, and then that piece of shit record stage…now what they’re calling a second stage is at best a fourth stage and they’re wondering why people aren’t showing up. I think they waited too long and think all the talent that could have been on this took gigs in Europe. Because there’s nobody here touring. It’s easy to fill these stages but I guess they wanted a different price point, take away the second and third stage which I think had a lot of value. To me a second stage headliner is Anthrax, Machine Head…Whoever booked this made a gigantic error.”
He went on to mention Slayer's tour last year with Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus sold out the Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee and when the band came back with Mayhem Fest this year, they did not. Perhaps part of the reason was because Slayer played there a year ago? It's not as if Slayer has been inactive. They have been touring pretty regularly for the last two or three years. But King makes a good point. There is no "beef" in the middle of this year's lineup. The Devil Wears Prada and Hellyeah drew minimal crowds when I saw them over the weekend. The second stage crowd never topped more than a thousand, and we're talking about venues that seat about 7,000, not to mention extra lawn spots.
Why is Kerry talking all of this shit about the fest? Because he knows that Slayer will never ever be coming back. He said so himself to the Metal Insider folks. Check out the whole interview here.
Festival promoter Kevin Lynman is over it, as Metal Insider got a quote from him saying “He took offense to something I said and is voicing his opinion. All good with me.” Translated into emoji, Lyman basically said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I wonder if all this drama is possibly helping sales of tickets to Mayhem Fest? There's eight dates left to find out. It should be noted that tomorrow's already once rescheduled show in Erie, PA was canceled with no explanation, likely because of low ticket sales.
Here are the remaining dates:
July 21 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
July 22 – Erie, PA – Erie Insurance Arena
July 24 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
July 25 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
July 26 – Wantagh, NY – Nikon Theater at Jones Beach
July 29 – Atlanta, GA – Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood
July 31 – San Antonio, TX – Alamo City Music Hall
August 01 – The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
August 02 – Dallas, TX – Gexa Energy Pavilion
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