Kerry King has built a reputation for being no holds barred with his thoughts about his musical peers and contemporaries.
If the guy thinks something sucks, or if a band has gone ‘soft,’ he’s often the first one to speak his mind about it loudly.
From publicly sharing his disdain for Metallica’s transformation in the 90’s, to wagging his finger at Machine Head’s flirtation with nu-metal, to blasting Voivod’s 2003 Ozzfest sets, the man clearly has no problem speaking whatever is on his mind.
And in a 2015 interview that’s recently making the rounds again on YouTube and social media, King has offered some of that blunt opinion on a little band called Ghost.
To be fair, King isn’t outright bashing the band. He clearly seems to respect their approach and aesthetic and loves them as people.
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But as far as Ghost’s music goes, King is adamantly not a fan. The Pit transcribed King’s full opinion about Tobias Forge and his crew of Ghouls:
“Dude, I LOVE the imagery. I love it. I just HATE the fucking music. I like them, you know? They’ve been on many tours with us.”
When asked why he can’t get into the band, King responds:
“I can’t. I tried. I wanna like them, and I can’t. I got their CD from Brian Slagel from Metal Blade [Records], and I played it when Gary Holt first started playing with us. And I picked up Gary and I’m like ‘Brian said this is awesome man.’
So, I put it in, going to practice, and it wasn’t awesome. For me, it wasn’t awesome. Wasn’t awesome for him [Gary] either.
King continues: “I’m like, well, maybe the first song sucks, so we went to the next one. You know, it’s just not for me. I know Ghost is hugely popular and I’m very happy for their popularity. And like I said, nicest guys you’ll ever meet.
It’s just not my music and I’ve tried SO hard [laughter].
