Slayer Reminisce on First Tours of U.S. & Europe

Slayer singer Tom Araya was in a nostalgic mood when he swung through Fuse recently, which was fine by us: The legendary thrash metal growler shared some great stories about what it was like for a pre-fame Slayer to tour America and Europe for the first time in the pre-cell phone era.

"The early years—when we traveled around in a car or a truck—those were memorable times," Araya says. "We did our first tour of the U.S. in a car with a piece of paper with addresses and phone numbers, and a map. You didn't have cell phones or pagers, so you had to pull over and use a public telephone to [tell the venue], 'Hey, we're gonna be there in about 20 minutes' or, 'We might be a little late.'

"It seems like yesterday, but it was such a long time ago," Araya says.

The metal legend also recalls being forced to take the tour bus wheel on Slayer's first European tour and how they barely managed to switch gears driving on the Autobahn. For the full skinny on that story, watch the video above.