Kerry King is one of the music world’s most iconic metal shredders, having famously riffed evil with Slayer while also having gone super sinister last year on his From Hell I Rise solo LP. But guitar heroes have guitar heroes, too, and King recently shared his top 5 guitarists of all time with the Lipps Service With Scott Lipps podcast.
“I would have a hard time numbering them, but I can come up with five,” he said in the interview, of which you can see a clip up above. Nevertheless, he started by saluting Deep Purple and Rainbow member Ritchie Blackmore, which makes sense considering King was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the artwork to Rainbow’s Rising album.
Then he added Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Zakk Wylde and Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton to his list.
“I think he’s the most overlooked,” Kerry added of Tipton, who is “probably” his favorite of the bunch, “’cause if you look at the leads he was doing and when he was doing ’em, he kind of innovated a lot of that stuff.”
As previously reported, King will be taking his From Hell I Rise songs on tour later this month, with a North American trek kicking off January 15th at San Francisco, California’s Regency Ballroom. The tour likewise features opening sets from thrashers Municipal Waste and Alien Weaponry.
Slayer, meanwhile, currently have one gig on the books for 2025. The reunited thrash vets, who performed their first shows in five years this past fall, will be making their way to Louisville, Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival next September.
Kerry King, Municipal Waste and Alien Weaponry 2024 tour dates:
1/15 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
1/17 Spokane, WA – Spokane Live Casino
1/18 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
1/19 Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
1/20 Vancouver, BC -Commodore Ballroom
1/22 Calgary, AB – The Palace Theatre
1/23 Edmonton, AB – Midway Music Hall
1/25 Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
1/26 Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
1/28 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
1/30 Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theater
1/31 Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
2/1 Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall
2/2 Montreal, QC – L’Olympia
2/4 Boston, MA -Royale
2/5 Philadelphia, PA – Theatre of the Living Arts
2/7 New York, NY – Irving Plaza
2/8 Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage
2/10 Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
2/11 St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live
2/13 Houston, TX – House of Blues
2/14 Austin, TX – Emo’s
2/15 Dallas, TX – The Studio at the Factory
2/17 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
2/18 Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
2/19 Phoenix, AZ – The Nile Theater
2/21 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
2/22 Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre