Tom Araya Quotes

People are not in good shape to where they have to question their own belief system because of a book or a story somebody wrote, or a SLAYER song.

I was born and raised Catholic.

I believe in a supreme being, yeah. But He's an all-loving God.

When I do interviews, I enter them with an open mind and try to answer the questions the best I can.

Venom was a band that strongly influenced the image and the idea behind Slayer.

From the heaviest of the heavy to classical to country, that's what I listen to, I listen to a variety and I enjoy good music, good songs.

We just bought a new house, so my wife's been doing all the moving and other stuff, so I would like to go home and just sit and enjoy all that for a couple months before I gotta start playing again.

When I heard the idea of a Slayer wine, I tasted the wines they suggested for us. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical at first before I tasted it, but once I tried it, I thought, 'You know what? This is actually really good. A really fruity and round type of flavor for a red wine.' It's very flavorful and tasted awesome!

Whatever had been on the radio in the '60s; I mean we were always listening to the radio.

Sometimes when I've gone out and murdered somebody I go and confess and stuff. And then God loves me again.

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

Fortune is either with you or it's not.

I am not an atheist; I believe in God. But my religion ends there. I have my own personal belief system that is so strong it allows me to do what I do. I don't have to worry about going to Hell because of Slayer, you know? Everyone has a personal belief system and believes in life somehow.

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 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.

That was the reasoning behind learning to play bass, and then after that it was more like it was neat to play songs together - for me to play bass and for him to play guitar.

Yeah, yeah I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions towards the band. The biggest one is that we're Satan worshippers, but next to that just the fact that we're normal.

When you're in a club or a theater or even an arena, yeah, you want visuals, you want a good light show. But Slayer has always been about the sound. We have to sound good. It has to be tight.

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.

Oh yeah, our first tour in Europe they wouldn't give me the time off from work.

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

A good wine has many qualities, I think. If drunk moderately, it is healthy and good for your heart.

Our album 'Show No Mercy' came out in late '83, and we did three or four shows in San Francisco after the release. That was our first experience with stage-divers, crowd-surfing, people walking on people across an entire crowd.

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

When this genre of music started in America, Metallica was up north in California, we were in Southern California, Anthrax was on the East Coast. We each developed our own metal music, and after 30 years, we're still playing our metal music.

I write, I write, I always write.

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