It's a sad day for heavy metal.
Sadly i never got to meet him, but after Mike passed away Slayer sent us that amazing Slayer Motorbike helmet for us to raffle off and before that point i didn't think i could respect Slayer any more than i did, but that kind gesture made it happen, and it felt like a great connection, sadly that's the best connection i can now hope for with a founding member of one of the greatest metal bands in the world.
Having never met him I can't speak to his character much but always got the impression he loved what he did and was heavy metal through and through and what came across of him as a person i liked, he never ever seemed like a "rock star", just a guy in a band who enjoys metal, guitars, the raiders and heineken and to keep his character through all the years and successes Slayer have had says a lot of good things about him as a person i think.
I first got into Slayer in 1998, i was 17, and i was helping out in a shop called Rocks Off in Bradford and i found a cassette that had Slayer, System of a Down and Clutch on it, i played the Slayer track - Stain of Mind repeatedly (system of a down maybe once, but i've grown to really like them) as i was a couple of years into your typical "metallica phase" and to hear this band who were heavier and more aggressive than metallica blew my mind (come on - i was 17) and i wasn't even aware of the existence of Reign in Blood or Seasons in the Abyss yet!! So i went kind of backwards in getting into Slayer, i got the album Diabolus In Musica straight away and loved it, Bitter Peace absolutely blasted my face off) as i was still just starting to get into thrash metal i didn't know too much about it so this was about as far as i had gotten with my metal journey at that point, so that album has a special place for me, it's far from their best, but it was my first Slayer experience, it was my gateway into their world.
Then i did my research into this "new" band i had come across and found out they had been going since 1981 and had all these albums i had to get straight away! I went out and bought them ALL and started at the beginning and in the space of one afternoon i heard a band grow through nearly 20 years into something truly special and it left a huge impression on me. Reign in Blood, what more is there to say about that album? A true classic. A life changer. Ever since that point i haven't found a band who inspire THAT feeling you get when you hear Slayer, and across all of their albums most of the really good stuff is Jeffs. We have been given some great stuff by the man, a lot of it has shaped people's lives.
I'm proud to be a Slayer fan. RIP Jeff Hanneman.
going to be listening to a lot of Slayer. Nearly all my favorite tracks were written by him (Psychopathy Red being my all time favorite, written completely by him)
I liked that joke.
