Kerry King of Slayer and Avery Allen of Austin's Applicators - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
My cell phone buzzed and glancing down I knew it was my sister.
"Ok, I got you a pass to an exclusive Pre-VMA party with Young Jeezy"
I was in Anaheim for the North American Reptile Breeders Conference for my real job and I always look for interesting away gigs to cover when I am on the road. Last year it was the Kings Of Leon, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Manchester Orchestra at The Greek in L.A. . This time I had planned my trip with the hope of riding out to check out Kerry King's reptile collection and maybe get that long sought after interview that just never seemed to come together. Still it was good to have a backup plan just in case, so my sister had done some calling around and got me probably "THE" VMA hookup. The Young Jeezy party was supposed to take place at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, and the next night, the night of the VMA's, Brittney Spears would perform at an after party in the same place.
Luckily for my staff who fear my attraction to trashy women, my specific attraction to the Brittney, and our relative proximity would lead to me being labeled Mr. Spears No. 3 the next day, I was going to be gone by the time the Britster made her appearance. Still that Young Jeezy party would be interesting, promising lots of hot babes and celebrities.
In the end I passed on Young Jeezy (no disrespect) to slam a few Jägers with Kerry. I think I made the right choice.
Kerry King of Slayer in Selma Texas, 2007 - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
I flew into LAX early for the expo, landing at 8:30a.m. and gradually wound my way south in my rent car. I had some time to kill but I had been invited by the Slayer guitarist to come out to his house and check out his snake collection. It was around 2:00pm when he called to say he was ready for me to come over and when I arrived he was sweeping out the back of a rental truck used to move some plants earlier in the day.
Riding with him to return the truck it struck me that he was pretty much just a normal snake guy, albeit with a pretty interesting day job (or night job), as it were. Though he does get recognized from time to time for the most part during the errands we ran he slipped into and out of a number of retail stores relatively anonymously, not getting recognized by anyone except at the shops he frequents.
Arriving back at his house, a gorgeous place still very much a work in progress, we maneuvered through boxes to get to his temporary snake room. Until the house is finished the snakes had been consigned to a small room and with all the racks it was cozy but workable. Those of you expecting to hear that he had endless row upon row of the most expensive snakes in the world will be sadly disappointed.
Kerry is a specialist in both his music and his snakes and and in both cases he follows his own path rather than chasing the popular trends. Instead of getting caught up in the Ball Python frenzy of the last decade, for years Kerry has quietly been building a small hobbyist breeder sized collection of some of the finest carpet pythons you can produce, and many of them he did produce! We spent probably an hour pulling cages out of their racks and looking over the animals one at a time as he explained the history of each, their genetics, color patterns, or the variability of their nippiness. Kerry specializes in this Australian species and knows and has worked with virtually every major carpet breeder in both Europe and North America. He can quote chapter and verse on their genetics, their bloodlines, and their color variations and it would be fair to say that he ranks among the worlds best carpet python breeders. To say that he is hard core would probably be an understatement.
Kerry King of Slayer and Jeff Barringer at Ozz Fest 2008 - more photos photo by Gary Miller - Contributing Photographer |
Putting the pythons away, Kerry and his wife Aisha then took me on a grand tour of their house, ending back in the living room where we were greeted by a huge dog that more resembled a good sized black bear. Luckily I am a "dog person" and and we hit it off or this beast could have easily removed limbs without much difficulty. I am sure that he does much to keep the odd obsessive fan from leaping Kerry's back fence.
With our tour of the house done, Kerry and I and packed into my rental car and headed off to the Anaheim Convention Center talking snakes and metal the whole way. It was our plan to stop by the expo for setup, inspect our respective trade show booths, make the customary greeting walk, then meet Aisha at a nearby restaurant for dinner and drinks. In the meantime we had 45 minutes of traffic to navigate.
En route to the venue Kerry and I talked a lot about his Ozz Fest appearance and the Dimebag tribute. I was surprised to learn that Kerry is still pretty starstruck when it comes to meeting Ozzy and Sharon even though he has done OzzFest more than once and deals with Sharon on a regular basis. That led to an interesting discussion of classic Sabbath, Ozzy vs. Dio as a frontman, the best Sabbath albums, which led to talking about the Priest, and how we were amazed that all these guys are not only still performing at their ages but still sounding great and drawing huge crowds.
Kerry King and Vinnie Paul Abbott at Ozz Fest 2008 - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
Eventually the conversation returned to Ozz Fest and the Dime tribute. Kerry told me he appreciated me confirming the artists and performances rather than blowing it like the guys at Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone's initial reports had him playing on songs he didn't, as well as screwing up the rosters of the other impromptu "bands" that performed, and the songs they performed. Eventually they fixed their article after Blabbermouth outed the inaccuracies publicly. Kerry confirmed that there was supposed to be a 5th song, the song with Kirk Hammett of Metallica performing, but the acoustic set of the Pink Floyd song "Wish You Were Here" ran longer than expected and the 5th song got bumped off the schedule.
Pulling in at the Marriott next to the Convention Center, I handed the keys to the valet and Kerry and I headed off to pick up our badges at the expo. After checking our booths we wandered around looking at all the interesting reptiles being unpacked. From time to time a herper(reptile person) would recognize Kerry and say hello, but most often it was for being a reptile breeder rather than a rock star. After about an hour of socializing with the other snake heads it was time to adjourn to the bar to meet Aisha so we said our goodbyes and headed out.
Arriving before Kerry's wife, we plunked ourselves down at the bar and stared talking about music, snakes, Family Guy and football. Soon Kerry's wife and friend joined us, and not long after that Brian Potter, one of the reptile show's promoters, joined us. Soon it was tough to follow a single conversation as the words and the alcohol flowed freely. It was 11:30 before we all said our goodbyes, and I staggered across the street to my hotel room. Tomorrow morning's show would come way too early.
As I made my way to my room I could already sense that I was in for a rough night (I'm not a big drinker anymore). As I opened the door I was blinded by the red light from the Marriott sign immediately across from my room. It was like a bad Seinfeld episode, sans humor. Try as I might I was unable to prevent the light from leaking into the room and resigned myself to living in it's glow.
Kerry King of Slayer in San Antonio Texas, 2006 - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
Eventually I drifted off to sleep for what seemed like barely an hour. I don't know if it was the piercing sound of the alarm clock, the ringing of the telephone wake up call, or the jackhammer blows of the veins pulsing in my forehead that woke me, but after a hot shower and a handful of ibuprofen, I was at least standing upright and forming complete words. Given time I would work back up to sentences. Maybe the echo would be gone by then.
I grabbed a muffin and a bottle of water at the Starbucks in the lobby but my tongue was so fuzzy it was like trying to eat a sponge the size of a beach ball. Slowly munching the muffin I headed over to the Expo to set up my booth . Kerry was going to come early to set up as well and hopefully we would have time to knock out the interview before the show was opened to the public. As I unpacked shirts the minutes ticked away and soon we were only 10 minutes before the gates opened. I glanced over and Kerry had made it, but he was still setting up. There just wasn't enough time left to do the interview, at least not this morning.
The doors opened and I was immediately flooded, giving away T-shirts for an hour solid before they were all gone. My primary mission accomplished, I grabbed my video camera and began wandering the floor, talking with vendors and kingsnake.com site users, looking for a chance to grab a few reptile interviews. The floor was too crowded to interview anyone for most of the day, though every so often I would pop by Kerry's booth just to see him work the crowd. For the most part he was just another tattooed reptile breeder talking about his snakes, but every once in a while someone would recognize him and he would pose for a
photo or sign an autograph. Though it happened regularly it wasn't enough to interrupt his reptile dealings.
I invited a friend from Austin, Avery Allen of the Austin band The Applicators, to the show to check out the snakes, have lunch, and meet Skillet from the band Wanted Dead, who was looking for a pick up bass player. Avery would be out in the L.A. area for a while and I thought they would mesh well. As we wandered around the show we ran into Kerry as he returned from lunch and I was able to introduce him to Avery and get a snapshot, though I had the wrong lense on for it. Avery was happy.
Kerry King of Slayer in Selma Texas, 2007 - more photos photo by Jeff Barringer - Staff Photographer |
After walking Avery back to her car I headed back into the show, managing to grab a couple reptile interviews as the crowd thinned. I kept checking in with Kerry every once in a while but he always seemed to have someone in his booth, and eventually we ran out of time. As they swept everyone out of the show Kerry went one way and I another, and I was pretty sure that was it. I had an early flight out the next day and would be leaving before the show even opened. I knew my chances for an interview had slipped away, again, and that it was unlikely that I would see Kerry again til the next Slayer tour.
Heading over to the hotel, I showered and changed, then headed down to the charity auction. Held in a large banquet room between two different Asian wedding receptions, it was a very strange mix of crowd wandering the halls. With all the young Asian guys in suits running around I felt like I was in some weird hong kong gangster movie and that at any moment the two opposing wedding parties would break out into some massive kung fu fight in the lobby.
After hanging out at the auction for an hour my iPhone buzzed and I glanced down to see a text message. It was from Kerry and he was coming to the auction. He wanted to see if I was still there and if it was still going on. I told him it was and 20 minutes later Kerry and Aisha showed up to watch as the auction began to wind down. Afterwards we headed out to the patio and in the cool night air Kerry and I ended up doing shooters of Jägermeister until I couldn't see straight.
Kerry King and Slayer are currently practicing for a European tour that starts in October. Slayer's next U.S. tour will start in February of 2009. Maybe if they play San Antonio I will get that interview.