Michael Baronas of Worcester magazine recently conducted an interview with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On touring with MARILYN MANSON:

"Apparently our manager took it upon himself to inquire a while ago about doing a tour together with MANSON, and when I say ‘a while ago' it could be more than four years — and they said ‘no.' They turned the offer down. This time the MANSON camp called him, and he said, ‘Let me discuss it with the band and I'll get back to you.' And that's the story that I've been told. . . My first response was, 'Wow, this sounds kind of interesting.' That it would make for an interesting evening. It's an attention-getter, enough so that lookie-loos would come and I sincerely think that [the crowd] will be an even split."

On SLAYER fans being known to chant the band's name throughout entire sets of opening acts:

"A lot of bands opt for us closing, but there have been a few that wanted to close, like the SLIPKNOT tour we did in 2004. We always look at the opening spot as a prime-time spot, you know what I mean? Everybody's there for prime time, which is 8 or 9 o'clock. We have no qualms as far as opening for anybody, because that means that they have to follow. I don't want to sound big-headed, but to us, that's considered signing your death warrant. I think that MANSON's got his work cut out for him."

On the end of SLAYER:

"Well, there have been remarks made about seeing an old man headbang. And I have to agree. I think the STONES can do that, probably go out and do their stuff in their 80s, but it just wouldn't look right [for us], you know what I mean?

"It's actually pretty strenuous. That's why I don't see it going any further than a certain point in time. We have one more record to do, which is our deal with [super producer Rick] Rubin, and we'll have to sit down and discuss the future. But I can't really see myself doing this at a later age."

On life after SLAYER:

"I've always been the kind of person who goes with what comes at you and then you just take it. You just kind of flow with life, and I've been fortunate enough that that's how my life has been since I graduated from school. After school I was working and I wanted some time off. I wasn't allowed the time off, so I quit.

"I remember the supervisor asking me, 'Well, what are you going to do?' I looked at him and said, 'I don't know. We'll see where the music takes me.' I was headstrong and fortunate enough to hook up with three other guys who had the same vision and the same direction. The hardest thing to do when you're doing music is getting people to be on the same boat that you're on. I think that had a lot to do with why we managed to get where we are, because we shared the same vision.

"Opportunity raises its head and it shows itself to you. You have to take the initiative to either see it and go with it or be blind to it completely. We were lucky because opportunity showed itself a lot of times and we were smart enough to recognize it and take it."

Read the entire article at www.worcestermagazine.com.