Former Slayer guitarist Kerry King apparently took a lot of convincing to appear on Sum 41’s What We’re All About.
The musician recently told Metal Hammer (via Guitar World) that he said no “10 times” before finally agreeing.
At the time, the collaboration was quite surprising as King appeared in the music video (which you can see below) and additionally performed a guitar solo on the track.
King told the aforementioned magazine: “A friend of mine within the label came to me with an approach I couldn’t refute. He said to me, “You know you were on the Beastie Boys album [No Sleep Till Brooklyn en 1987]’. Whore! [Rires] He’s right ! That made me change my mind. That was before we stepped back into the limelight—those guys [Sum 41] were funny and had the wind in their sails.”
The song ended up on the soundtrack of the first Spider-Man film and, given the huge popularity of the original Tobey Maguire film, propelled King into the limelight that wasn’t always obvious to him or his group.
King further explained the reason for his choice, adding, “So yeah, I played on a Beastie Boys album and I played on a Sum 41 album.” Those were just professional choices I made for my career . Some people may agree with these decisions, others may not.”
Slayer played their very last show on November 30th, 2019 at The Forum in Los Angeles, marking the retirement of one of the most iconic thrash metal bands in history.
Additionally, King has repeatedly mentioned that he felt the band’s departure was “premature.” Since then he has been working on a new project that should soon see the light of day.