Pizza party with Slayer

Having worked in the music industry for more than a decade and closely with a wide range of artists from every genre, people have often asked me who the nicest or most memorable artists I've worked with.

People interact with celebrities in a very interesting way. If you tell someone you had a chance to meet X, someone will probably ask, "Well, were they nice?" Now, I don't know if someone who is famous for whatever reason has an obligation to be nice (especially since people tend to raise the bar to extreme levels with famous people), but unfortunately if an encounter with a celeb comes off as rude then it creates a whole incident rather than encounter.

But I enjoy telling people that the nicest, most polite and most generous with their time when I needed them for promotional work is the band Slayer.

I'm not an expert on metal, but I think that Slayer would probably fall into the speed/thrash variety of metal. They are loud. They sing controversial songs, with death, political and religious themes. Tipper Gore's worst nightmare. But when I had a chance to sit with Kerry King, the lead guitarist who had flame tattoos on the sides of his skull, I could not believe how polite the guy was. Just very humble and willing to do whatever needed to be done.

It was around the time of the release of their album Diabolus in Musica which featured the single "Stain of Mind", which I suppose in the world of Slayer, was a bit of a pop song, but brutal pop. I love it... feels like running up a mountain as razors are descending upon you. If you're into that kinda thing.

While the band was in the office, the label held a casual pizza party in their honor. I remember inviting a colleague from another department to roll over there for pizza and I can still hear him say, "Slayer pizza party?! This is why I'm glad I didn't take the Citibank job."