SLAYER - A Chat with Tom Araya, Part II Page 2
by Tim Henderson

Slayer fans are pretty much accustomed to a 90 minute show...

"In all honesty, do you think people could handle more than an hour and a half of Slayer? I'm being serious. That's one of the reasons why we don't play any longer than an hour and a half. We have played long sets, but we can tell when people get bored. People start losing interest, tiring. So we figured, whenever we do sets, we like to keep them short and tight and I don't like to say too much. Some people say, 'man, you guys didn't play long enough.' And we're like, 'yeah we did, it just went by real fast.' We know your tolerance level dude and it won't be any longer than an hour and a half. I'm being serious man. If we did play longer, it would have to be "an evening with the band Slayer" - a two-three hour special event. And if we going to do a tour like that, that's nuts. We would have to do two sets a night with an intermission in between. In all honesty, when you work your butt off for an hour and a half and you sit down for fifteen minutes, you don't want to get up again. I don't like intermissions. If I'm up there playing, I don't want to stop any longer than I have to, because if I do, I don't want to get up there and play anymore - I'm tired (laughs). If my ass is down for a short intermission, I'm down for good dude! Twenty years ago? Fifteen years ago? That might have been a different story. It just takes a little longer to recoup these days. Your body is a little slower. Dude, right now I'm up, I'm working. I'm busting ass. I'm pulling poles out of the ground bare-handed! I'm at a ranch, so I've been getting a lot of stuff done. I don't tire out. I'm the oldest one in the band, and I'm the least that walks and looks old (laughs). I'm four years older than Kerry and Jeff and five years older than Dave. I'm 46. I seriously just don't think about my age. I think about my life and the things I need to do. I think about now."