1986 – Slayer is recording their thrash masterpiece Reign In Blood and Beastie Boys were recording their landmark rap rock album Licensed To Ill. Both albums were recorded by producer Rick Rubin, who had the idea to get King in on a guest spot for Beastie Boys' track "No Sleep Till Brooklyn". King played the spot, got a few hundred bucks, eventually appeared in the glam metal music video for the song, and that was that.
Now in a new interview with Border City Rock Talk, King jokes that his life would probably be way easier if he took royalties on the song instead of the flat rate. But King was broke at the time and money was money, and we all know how that goes.
"The simplicity of it is what's funny about it," said King. "We were doing what became the Reign In Blood album and the Beastie Boys were doing Licensed To Ill in the same studio – like down the hall from each other.
"And Rick Rubin was doing both projects. So they needed a lead on that particular song, 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn'. So I thought about it, and I went, 'Yeah, why not? I can 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. And in hindsight, I wish I didn't get paid. I wish I took a quarter point or something, because now I would be a rich man!"
Licensed To Ill has since gone on to sell 10 million copies in the United States alone, so yeah – King probably would've done pretty well for himself when it comes to royalties. But King also bought a house in Las Vegas a few years back for close to $4 million, so it's probably safe to assume that he's not doing poorly either. The guy was in one of the biggest metal bands of all time, y'know?
