Tom Araya
Tom Araya (born as Tomás Araya
June 6,
1961 in
Valparaíso,
Chile) is best known as the
vocalist and
bassist of the
thrash metal band
Slayer.
Tom Araya has two children, a boy and a girl. He has been married since
1995 [IMDB.com - Biography for Tom Araya] and lives in
Buffalo, Texas, with his wife, whom he met at a Slayer show some time ago. His brother, Johnny Araya, is the bassist of the
melodic death metal band,
Thine Eyes Bleed, and former member of
1980s crossover band
Bloodcum.
Araya has provided guest vocals to recordings by other artists, including "Iron Gland" from
Alice in Chains's album
Dirt, and "Terrorist" from
Soulfly's album
Primitive.
Araya had surgery on his
gall bladder in early May, which made alterations to the
Unholy Alliance tour.
Despite the
anti-Christian and pseudo-
Satanic nature of many of Slayer's songs, Araya has stated that he frequently attended
church when he was younger. According to a interview he did, Tom believes that "...Christ came and taught us about love. About doing unto others. That was his preach: Accept each other for who we are. Live peacefully, and love one another. Period." And his response to the question "Do you believe in God?" is: "I believe in a supreme being, yeah. But He's an all-loving
God". In an interview on [
1], Araya explained that he has a "really strong belief system", and Slayer's words and images will "never interfere with what I believe and how I feel".
During an interview in the 2006 documentary
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Araya shares his personal sites on the album title "God Hates us All" and the lyrics in "Disciple", which he states that God doesn't hate, but it was just a "cool fucking album title".
Kerry King, the band's guitarist, wrote "Disciple". King states in the documentary that he finds religion to be "a load of shit".
Araya uses:
*
ESP, Hill and
B.C. Rich basses
*
Ampeg SVT amplification
*
Ampeg cabinets
*
EMG and
Bartollini pickups
*
D'Addario strings
*
D'Andrea picks and straps
*
Slayer discography*
Interview*
Interview with Jam! magazine
