KIRK HAMMETT Says PHIL DEMMEL's Guitar Lead In KERRY KING's 'Idle Hands' Is 'The Best Solo Of The Year So Far'

In a new interview with Good Company, former MACHINE HEAD and VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel, who is currently playing with Kerry King in the SLAYER guitarist's solo band, discussed the first single released from King's upcoming solo debut "From Hell I Rise", a song called "Idle Hands", which was made available in early February. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was the first song I heard, and it was the first song that I wrote a solo for. So the solo in that song was the first one that I wrote here in the studio. So it's kind of cool to hear that being the first one released. And I'm gonna be name-dropping here a little bit, but I was going back and forth a little bit with [METALLICA guitarist] Kirk Hammett today. 'Cause he had told [DEATH ANGEL and KERRY KING singer] Mark Osegueda, 'Hey, the solo is awesome. It's the solo of the year,' or whatever. So I thanked him. I said, 'Hey, I heard that you dug the solo on the song.' And he's, like, 'Oh my God. I thought that was Kerry. I didn't know.' He didn't put it together. And I missed his call, but he left me this awesome fucking voicemail, dude, saying, like, 'It's the best solo of the year so far,' and all these just glowing things that Kirk Hammett is telling me. [He's] one of our heroes, and to hear him glow about the solo that's…. It's one of my least favorite solos on the record, actually, but to hear him say that it was really personal…"

Demmel went on to talk about his general approach to the solo playing in Kerry's project. "I wanna bring that to this band," he said. "I wanna bring that sense of — I don't know if it's melody or… I hate the word 'controlled chaos,' but some sort of lineage between the music and the solo sections that kind of make 'em — those solo sections in SLAYER and in Kerry's music before are really frenetic. What Gary [Holt, SLAYER and EXODUS guitarist] was doing [while playing with SLAYER], it matched all that brutality, and I think that my solos are less brutal in nature. And I had to check with him. So I had to tell Kerry, or ask him, or broach it with him that, 'This is what I'm doing.' I tracked my leads here first and played them 50 times to where I'm just playing them single pass and playing them best as I can and sent them away, and was, like, 'Hey, this is me and this is what I am going to do here,' of course, if it's okay with him, 'cause it's his trip. And 'Is that okay?' And he said, 'Yeah, I love it.' He's all, in true Kerry fashion. 'I don't hate it.' So that was a compliment to me getting that out of Kerry King."

"From Hell I Rise" will be released on May 17 via Reigning Phoenix Music. All material for the LP was written by the 59-year-old musician, who was accompanied during the recording sessions by Demmel, drummer Paul Bostaph (SLAYER),bassist Kyle Sanders (HELLYEAH) and vocalist Mark Osegueda (DEATH ANGEL). Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

In an Instagram Live video, Demmel spoke about how he ended up being approached to join Kerry's new band. He said: "The way that this came about on my end was SLAYER was on its way through the [San Francisco] Bay Area [during the band's farewell tour] and they played San Jose. I think it was with maybe — NAPALM DEATH opened that one and LAMB OF GOD, and maybe even TESTAMENT played. I think it was maybe the last day of [that leg of] the tour. And this was maybe the summer of [20]18. And I knew that I was on my way out of MACHINE HEAD, and I had approached Kerry kind of, like, 'Hey, what are you doing after SLAYER ends? What do you got going?' And he was kind of, like, 'Ah, I'm sure I'm gonna keep playing with Paul. I'm probably gonna ask [then-SLAYER guitarist] Gary [Holt to play with me in my new band as well].' And that was about it. And so fast forward to my announcing that I was quitting MACHINE HEAD [in September 2018], and the same day Kerry shoots me a text, like, 'That's why you were asking me what I was doing next.' So it was no secret to Kerry that that's what I was interested in doing after. And when the call came to fill in for Gary [at several SLAYER shows in Europe in December 2018] and the way that I came through in that spot really showed those guys a lot. So, Kerry [and me], I remember we at a Raiders game against Denver, which was probably 2019, that he had said, 'Hey, this is what I'm thinking,' and where he committed to me being in the band. So it was pretty fucking awesome."

Phil continued: "So I've been waiting since August of 2019 to be able to announce [that I was in Kerry's new band]. A couple of people knew. [Kerry] wanted it to be a secret, so we didn't kind of share. So that was four and a half years of holding on to the secret. Some would say that it was the best worst-kept secret or the worst best-kept secret. But we're all pretty stoked to get this started."

Regarding how "From Hell I Rise" came together and his contributions to the album, Phil said: "Kerry wrote all the music. He wrote all the lyrics. They had pretty much all of it done for a while. Him and Paul worked on everything. He sent me parts. It was the slowest of the slowest rolls that I've ever been involved with, just due to the quarantine and the singer search. So it took a bit, and it's taken a bit for all of the reasons. I mean, there was a reason for all of it. So it got to a point to where all of us, the guys in the band, were, like, 'Have you heard anything?' 'No, I haven't heard anything.' It was almost like the swimming instructor when you're learning how to swim, and then the instructor keeps backing up. 'Come on, you can make it.' And you're swimming and you're swimming and you're swimming, and they keep backing up. And [it was] all worth it. They recorded the record. I was structuring solos at home. I have a home studio, and I was constructing my leads. And I had 'em done for a bit. And he'd give me a couple of more: 'Hey, why don't you see if you can come up with something over here?' And I wrote a couple of little harmony bits that you don't hear a lot in SLAYER. So I think that that's what sets this band apart, other than Mark's vocals, of course, is the melody in some of my solos. I wrote a few things and I sent 'em to him, and the solo you hear in 'Idle Hands' is the first one that I wrote. And so I had to ask him, I said, 'Are you gonna be okay with my style?' It's kind of different than from what [late SLAYER guitarist] Jeff [Hanneman] and Gary had done, and he was digging it. So I was glad that that was [the case], 'cause it's kind of what I am and what I can bring."

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Kerry stated about how Phil came to his new project: "Demmel came out with SLAYER at the end of 2018 to fill in for Gary for four shows. What he did for us, I don't think I could do for any band on the planet. He had basically two days to watch [SLAYER] play so he could know where the pyro was and the tempo of our set. I couldn't do that for JUDAS PRIEST, and I'm a giant PRIEST guy. With this, Bostaph said, 'Hey, what about Demmel [for the new band]?' I texted him. He's like, 'Yeah, I just got done with MACHINE HEAD the day before yesterday.' I went, 'Well, that's kind of perfect.'"

Asked how he and Phil play off each other, Kerry said: "He's more technical than I thought he was. He comes from California thrash like I do. He'd be, like, 'Do you think this solo is too melodic?' I'm, like, 'It's your lead. Unless it's offensively lame, I'm not going to squash it.' I like what he brought to the record, even though it wasn't much, since I didn't let him play rhythm guitar."

KERRY KING will be special guest on the upcoming LAMB OF GOD/MASTODON North American "Ashes Of Leviathan" co-headline tour. The six-week run will launch on July 19 in Grand Prairie, Texas and will wrap on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska. KERRY KING will make the band's 2024 concert debut in May, first at the Welcome To Rockville festival (May 9),followed by Sonic Temple Arts & Music Festival (May 16).