Kerry King was “a little bit surprised” he didn’t get asked to join another band after Slayer broke up: “I don’t suck!”

Kerry King has revealed his surprise at the lack of love calls from interested bands after Slayer’s breakup.

The band, having recently announced their return at three US festivals – Louder Than Life, Riot Fest and Aftershock – later this year, called it quits in 2019, a decision the guitarist once slammed as “premature”.

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Addressing the band’s breakup once again in a recent issue of Metal Hammer, King jokes that he was “a little bit surprised” that none of the other bands had reached out with an invitation to join after rumours of Slayer’s retirement became official.

“I got a reputation! I don’t suck!” he adds. “I thought maybe [Danish heavy metal act] Mercyful Fate might come knocking, but no. I was like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’”

The musician also admits that it was true he’d considered enlisting Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo as the singer of his new band at the time.

“He heard some material, but honestly that was about it. We talked, emailed, texted, off and on, he’s a hard guy to get on the phone, a hard guy to get responses from,” King explains. He maintains that he’s content with how things turned out eventually, with Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda fronting his band.

“I knew, at the end of the day, what the right decision was. I was just waiting for it to fall into my lap.”

Elsewhere in the chat, King also assures fans that personal differences between him and bassist Tom Araya will not impact the upcoming Slayer reunion shows.

While he hasn’t spoken to Araya since the announcement, King believes that the situation isn’t as unusual as some are making it out to be: “What’s usual? There’s no textbook for this stuff. It’s not like I’m angry with him or anything, we’re very different people, and we evolved into business partners at the end of the day. He has very different interests from me, and very different outlooks. Does that make me hate him? No. But I don’t need to talk to him every day.”

“It’s not weird. We just don’t have much in common. When it comes time to rehearse, I’ll have no problem showing up. We’re professionals, and that’s what we do.”