Quotes by Tom Araya

About Tom Araya:

Tomás Enrique "Tom" Araya Díaz is a Chilean-American musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya is ranked fifty-eighth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Tom Araya

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

Tom Araya

I went to school for about 2 years on a technical course, and I learned a lot. I learned about air mixture ratios and all the stuff; I learned how to draw blood.

Tom Araya

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.

Tom Araya

I read a book recently by a psychiatrist who was able to interview a few serial killers and she had a thesis on how you could figure these people out. And she thinks that there are things that could tell you whether someone has the potential to do th...

Tom Araya

I was born and raised Catholic.

Tom Araya

I write, I write, I always write.

Tom Araya

I just don't write musically, but lyrically, yeah I write.

Tom Araya

I try to incorporate melody. Even though I'm screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming.

Tom Araya

If it were bad songs, yeah, I'd speak up, but they're not bad songs.

Tom Araya

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

Tom Araya

Fortune is either with you or it's not.

Tom Araya

Sometimes I'll sing the same verse through the entire song, because the other verses aren't clicking. And when they do come to me, I'm in the middle of that same verse!

Tom Araya

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

Tom Araya

We did like 12 shows, then we did the entire Ozzfest with the first half completely booked; then we did the second half with a couple days off here and there.

Tom Araya

Slayer fans are unforgiving. Early on in the career, if something changes, it's accepted. But 30 years down the road, in my opinion, they would rather see us do a three-piece than even try to replace Jeff, in a sense.

Tom Araya

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.

Tom Araya

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.

Tom Araya

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.

Tom Araya

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.

Tom Araya

Author Bio

  • NameTom Araya
  • DescriptionBassist and Vocalist in Slayer
  • BornJune 6, 1961
  • CountryChile
  • ProfessionSinger