Jeff Hanneman

“My fascination with war is because my dad was in World War II, and my brother was in Vietnam.”

“I'm pretty much an atheist, so I'd say this world is the only thing we got.”

“'Angel Of Death' was a big problem. I remember getting a phone call after the album was done: Sony wasn't going to release it.”

“The intent of Slayer's musical and lyrical content has always been selfish. We feel very strongly about the importance of staying true to ourselves.”

“There's always a need for our kind of music. It's an outlet. You can only listen to so much pop and you just have to listen to something heavy.”

“I'd rather play in front of people who wouldn't listen to Slayer. That to me, is more like, 'Hey, listen to us.'”

“That gets me upset- you're jamming along, checking out the crowd and having a good time, and then your equipment goes down. You can't just stop the show and say, 'Oh, Jeff's got a guitar problem.'”

“We're not, obviously, as rich as Metallic, but we don't have to worry about money.”

“The whole nature of war is both stupid and fascinating. It's this big game, except people die. Yet we still keep on playing it because of the big power struggles that exist all over the world. It's really amazing to me that people really do that.”

“I feel you should be able to write about whatever you want.”

“I knew that if I were ever in a band it would be all about being heavy and dark.”

“I was really into metal when I was growing up. It was just something I thought I could do and wanted to try.”

“We write the songs that we do because that's what we like. But they are just stories - not things we actually do or recommend anyone else go out and do.”

“The majority of our fans are dudes. And the chicks you do see at our shows are probably there because of a dude. Slayer shows are nothing but sausage fests. We always joke that we really need to write some love songs or something.”

“I have a method of working on music: I'll get up in the morning and throw down some drums on my drum machine, and then I'll come back later and try to pop off rhythms to it.”

“I pretty much started the lyrics and I hit a roadblock and I think Kerry finished them up. Then I came back and did the ending part. The whole 'Raining Blood.' That part. But it pretty much came together easy. It's a short song.”

“I remember in the days when we started, when we first went on the road, we went to Berkeley and played with Exodus. We couldn't believe another band was playing the same kind of music we were playing because there was only a handful of bands that were doing it.”

“It's nice to be respected, but it doesn't really matter. What's important is that if I wasn't in Slayer, it's still the band I'd want to see.”

“It's kind of weird to think about our fan base now, where our hard-core fans have kids, families and jobs.”

“I guess Zeppelin is some happy stuff compared to us. It's pretty hippy, too.”