The First Time I Saw Slayer: Chuck Billy

The first leg of Slayer’s North American tour is now in the history books. While we wait for the second leg of the tour to kick off on July 26 (followed by a slew of exciting shows in the UK and Europe starting in November), we thought we’d ask members of the four supporting acts on that first round of shows to recount the first time they ever saw Slayer perform.

This week we’ve heard from metal writer Chris Krovatin, Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe, Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Behemoth frontman Nergal. We're finishing off the week with Chuck Billy from Testament. Enjoy:

The first time I saw Slayer was in the Bay Area, at Ruthie’s Inn [in Berkeley], at Exodus shows -- that’s when they used to come up from LA. And we were like, ‘Who are those guys?’ Kerry’s got this spiked bracelet, and I’m like, ‘Holy shit, that dude’s serious!’ Hanneman’s got baseball gear on and I’m like ‘The hell is that? Is somebody attacking his shins with bats?’ So it was different; it was intimidating at first. You didn’t know what to think. But when they played it was like, ‘I get it!’

I think the first time we met Slayer was at [legendary Brooklyn club] L’Amour. We did two nights with them before our first record came out. [Our record label] Megaforce got us the show. And of course, at every Slayer show I’ve been to, fans don’t wanna see the opening act, which gets pummeled and booed. We knew, ‘Nobody knows who we are or what we sound like, they don’t know any of our music. Two nights of this is gonna be brutal.’ But we were up for it! And I just remember on the first night the crowd was brutal to us, but we only had that first record and I think we got the crowd by the third or fourth song.

The next night, the crowd was ready for us, and that’s when we met everybody in the band and became good friends. Me and Tom, more so than everybody else. Over the years, Tom would come up and stay at our house. We’d do things together, you know? We had a pretty good relationship.

Tom and I bonded over weed at the beginning. And I think we both had more of the same personality as each other. We just kind of mellowed, smoked weed, and hung. I think that was our connection. And we have a lot of history touring together.

One time, I cut my wrist over in Europe with Slayer, and I remember I poured it all over Hanneman at the bar. I think we were in Poland, and Tom’s like, ‘We’re gonna go to the hospital.’ Tom’s walking through the place barefoot, and he comes to the hospital with us. The doctor was so nervous; he was trying to stitch me up and he’s shaking, and Tom’s like, ‘Here, give me that! Let me do it!’ (Tom has some medical background from EMT work he did in his early days.) I’m like, ‘Man, look at us: here we are in some weird country, bleeding to death, we’re drunk, and you’re in your bare feet.’

Slayer live in California, 1983

We had some really good bonding times. I think, over the years, the larger they got, and with Tom’s injuries and stuff, he’s been more low-key. Away from crowds and people and stuff. And then once the family started coming into play, it really changed. You know?

As far as trading influence between Testament and Slayer goes, for me, it was the relentlessness of Slayer’s music and their approach. Especially them coming from the LA area where it was more glam metal, they were always true to what Slayer was. To me, that made a big statement: ‘Stay true to what you do.’ Slayer’s always had that serious look and attitude. And it rubs off on you a little bit when you’re younger, because there was all that Glam-era stuff happening, and people in those bands and magazines looked down at our type of music and would think, “What is that?” But Slayer created something; they’ve stuck with it, fine-tuned it to the T, and have never changed it. Kind of like AC/DC almost. If you hear AC/DC, you know that’s AC/DC. Same thing with Slayer in our genre: that’s our AC/DC!

We’ve toured with them a lot since that first time. In ‘90 we did Clash Of The Titans in Europe with Suicidal [Tendencies] and Megadeth. That was a great tour. And again, weed was my bond with Tom. Kerry’s was more of the drinking, of course. Over the years, I’ve gotten closer with Kerry. He’d come up to the Bay Area, and we’d go see Raider games. And I’d go down to their house and visit and hang.

I’m glad to be a part of this final tour. When we were first offered the opening slot, some fans and band members were like, “No, we shouldn’t be opening.” And I’m like, leave your ego at the door, dude. This is something that we wanna be a part of. It’s Slayer’s last run, we’ve got a lot of history; we’re stupid if we don’t do it. If this is the last one, I wanna be there. And I’m glad we are, and I think everyone else is too.

The show is the best I’ve ever seen Slayer. It’s the best production. The last tour we were with them, Tom was really off the radar. You really didn’t see him ‘til show time, and I can see he’s havin’ fun now. I saw him in the hall last night and he was smilin’ and jokin’. And I see it when he’s on stage. I’m thinking, what’s going through his mind? Maybe he’s thinking, ‘Yeah, this is it. I’m having a good time, I’m enjoying it. Maybe this is the last time I get to enjoy it like this.’ You know?