SLAYER guitarist Kerry King and his new solo band will hit the road for the 28-date North American headline tour in early 2025. With MUNICIPAL WASTE as special guest and ALIEN WEAPONRY supporting, the tour is set to launch in San Francisco on January 15, 2025, and wrap at House of Blues in Las Vegas on February 22.King and MUNICIPAL WASTE guitarist Ryan Waste caught up over Zoom to discuss the tour and much more for Heavy Consequence’s “Two For The Road” video series. Speaking about the upcoming trek, Kerry said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We jump at the chance to tour anywhere. So, we were lucky enough to do the MASTODON/LAMB OF GOD summer [2024] run in the sheds. That was really cool because those dudes, we had a big part in both those bands’ early history, so for them to reciprocate and give me a shot, I thought that was super cool and super humbling. So that was rad. But now we get to come back and headline the States.”Referencing the fact that he has been living in Manhattan for the past three years and that three of his bandmates in his solo group — guitarist Phil Demmel, drummer Paul Bostaph and vocalist Mark Osegueda — live in the San Francisco Bay Area, King added: “We haven’t played in New York City yet. And that’s my new hometown, so that’s weird. We haven’t played the Bay Area yet. So we’re gonna be hitting some places for the first time in this band, which is gonna be awesome for the hometowners like Phil, Paul and Mark from the Bay area and me from New York City. And then all the places I’ve called home — L.A., we’re playing L.A. We finish up in [Las] Vegas. So I will be seeing a lot of friends on this run, and everybody’s fired up.”As for which songs King might add to his band’s set on the upcoming headlining tour, Kerry said: “[I’m] still working on the setlist and set length because I don’t want people to get burned out with two heavy hitters playing in front of us. I don’t wanna stay up there too long because when you play thrash, I feel there is a limit to how long you should play.”King also talked about how touring has changed in the four decades since SLAYER hit the road for the first time. He said: “I’ve been doing this so long. When we started out, in the very beginning we had a U-Haul and maybe my van. And then when we went out on our first U.S. run, we had a U-Haul and Tom’s [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] Camaro. Then we graduated to a U-Haul and a passenger van. And we were all taking turns driving the stupid thing back then. And then, with [SLAYER’s] ‘Reign In Blood’ [album], we finally got a bus, and we had never even considered it before. We were, like, ‘Oh, yeah. I guess we made it ’cause we got a bus and we can get hotel rooms and we can get our own hotel room. We don’t gotta room together.’ So, that was a graduation back then. And now, one of the things I didn’t wanna come back too early for is because I wanted all the nonsense from COVID to go away. I wanted all the promoters and venues to get through all the stuff that I didn’t wanna have to feel out again. I just wanted all that to go by before we came back.”King added: “One bad thing that people may not know and why ticket prices are so high these days is because when the pandemic came around, all that shit exploded. Everything went up [in terms of cost] — buses went up and everything just plateaued. And then when we started touring again, the buses and everything stayed expensive. So, you can curse promoters and venues all you want, but it costs money to come around, unfortunately. And it’s not as cheap as it was five years ago, by far. So it’s cush, it’s comfortable, we’ll have a good time, but it’s all a means to what the poor fans have to pay at the end of the day.”King’s debut solo album, “From Hell I Rise”, was released in May 2024. All material for the LP was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. 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.Joining Kerry in his new band are Osegueda, Demmel, Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and Bostaph.In early May 2024, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).KERRY KING launched a European tour on June 3, 2024 — King’s 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.The SLAYER guitarist’s solo band played its first concert as the support act for LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON on July 19 at the Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. The six-week “Ashes Of Leviathan” tour wrapped on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska.Photo credit: Andrew Stuart[embedded content]