Tom Araya

“I recommend anybody go to a bookstore, go down the self-help or new-age section, and just walk those aisles. See what book jumps out at you; there's a good chance it's a book you need in your life. That's basically how I find the books that I read.”

“As long as it's good music, that's what's important.”

“As far as thinking about death and murder and various ways of killing people and how people die... I probably have the most twisted mind in Slayer.”

“No, I have to really focus, especially when I'm writing because I wanna be good at it.”

“I write, I write, I always write.”

“I follow politics, but I don't like to discuss it.”

“I was born and raised Catholic, so it's in my blood. I don't go to church... I was born and raised Catholic, which is about the extent of my religion. My parents made one request: that I have my first Holy Communion.”

“Slayer has always been about the sound. We have to sound good. It has to be tight.”

“To fans in a festival setting it's like a picnic. You want to have a good time with your friends in that crowd. And in the background you hear the band play, 'Oh, that's my favorite song!' everyone is there to enjoy the afternoon and that's about it.”

“Growing up, my dad drank a lot of wine, so I got a taste for, and learned how to enjoy it. He spoke a lot about flavors and differences in tastes of wine. Also, our manager, Rick Sales, is a big wine drinker; he goes to a lot of wine-tasting classes, and he's taught me about the qualities of wine.”

“I just don't write musically, but lyrically, yeah I write.”

“Sometimes I'll sing the same verse through the entire song, because the other verses aren't clicking. And when they do come to me, I'm in the middle of that same verse!”

“I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.”

“I had to be at least 8 or 9; I was listening to everything on the radio. You name it, I heard every song.”

“I think musicians have always been drinking and sharing a good wine. It is, I hate to say this, another form of vice.”

“I read true crime books, and I read when people do case studies of stuff. I'm into books like that. Case studies or forensics or murder - all that good stuff.”

“Besides Slayer, which is a full-time job, I raise animals. I have a ranch in Texas. My wife takes care of the animals when I'm on tour. When I get home, I become a ranch hand.”

“I try to incorporate melody. Even though I'm screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming.”

“After that I didn't listen to music as much because '70s music just wasn't... I remember all the songs, but it wasn't because I was into them, you know what I mean?”

“I was born and raised Catholic.”