SLAYER's HANNEMAN Talks About METALLICA, DAVE MUSTAINE And Upcoming CD

SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman recently spoke to the Rock N Roll Experience web site about the group's upcoming CD, METALLICA, MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine and his past drug use. The following are some of the highlights of the interview:

Rock N Roll Experience: What did you think of METALLICA's progression?

Jeff Hanneman: "I guess you could say we saw it coming, because even back in the day when they were heavy as fuck, Lars [Ulrich] was into some kind of new wave bands and he was always talking about that kind of crap, so you can see it coming, but I don't know, we listened to punk and stuff like that and we are not listening to metal or whatever, so there was no reason for us to change."

Rock N Roll Experience: What do you think of [MEGADETH mainman] Dave Mustaine finding God after he got sober?

Jeff Hanneman: "I don't know [laughs]. All I know about him is I used to like his guitar playing a lot, I liked his first few records, of course I liked his stuff when he was in METALLICA and I liked his solos because they were like really technical, but they had an anger to them with a little over-the-edge type of sound, but his last few albums were just too commercial for me. Personally, I think the guy is a little out of his mind, but I get along with him."

Rock N Roll Experience: Did you have any drug problems?

Jeff Hanneman: "Well, me and Tom (Araya) and some of my friends, we used to really be into cocaine, and like one day Tom was dropping me off at home and I think it was 7 or 8 in the morning and I think it was after two days of staying up and he's driving and I'm shoving shit up his nose & I'm taking stuff and this can lead to only death or something, this is going too far. So I quit and he quit and I think he (Tom) just smokes pot now and I drink and that's about it. We quit because I was taking pills and doing all of that shit, it was just like, one day, you know what, it's enough!"

Rock N Roll Experience: When is the new SLAYER CD coming out?

Jeff Hanneman: "I think we are gonna go in January, we were trying to get it out this year & it turned out that way because Rick Rubin [American Recordings head honcho] is changing distributors again like always and we figured why do the record now and have it sit on the shelf."

Read Jeff Hanneman's entire interview with Rock N Roll Experience at this location.