Slayer’s Kerry King Reveals His Mount Rushmore of Metal Guitarists, Including the “Most Overlooked” Shredder of All-Time

Kerry King is a thrash metal icon. He the guitarist and songwriter helped co-found Slayer, arguably one of the most recognized metal bands in history. As a result, his aggressive guitar style has helped influence countless guitarists over the years. However, no artist develops in a vacuum. The metal legend still looks up to some of the players that came before him.

Recently, King appeared on Lipps Service with Scott Lipps to talk about his career, his new solo album From Hell I Rise, and the tour he’s on to support the album. During the conversation, he named his five favorite guitar players of all time.

[RELATED: Slayer’s Kerry King Reveals the Black Sabbath Album He Calls “Nonstop Badassery”]

Kerry King Reveals His Mount Rushmore of Guitarists

“If you had to pick your top five guitar players of all time, besides yourself, starting with number five,” Lipps prompted. Kerry King interjected, saying that he is not on his list of favorite guitarists. However, he had a list of great players ready to share.

“I would have a hard time numbering them but I could come up with five,” he said. King named Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), and Eddie Van Halen. Then, he said, “Probably my favorite one, all time, is Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest). And I think he’s the most overlooked.” Then, King explained his choice.

“If you look at the leads he was doing and when he was doing them, he kind of innovated a lot of that stuff,” King said. Then, he chose his fifth favorite guitarist. “I’ll go with a super heavy hitter that’s my bro and say Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society).”

Slayer paid tribute to Judas Priest on their 1988 album South of Heaven with a cover of “Dissident Aggressor.” It was the first cover the band recorded and they chose it because it was a favorite of both King and late guitarist Jeff Hanneman.

Judas Priest released the song on their 1977 album Sin After Sin. In 2010, it won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance after being included on the band’s 2009 album A Touch of Evil: Live.

The riffs and solos in “Dissident Aggressor” are a great example of Tipton’s innovative style that King mentioned in the interview.

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