Quotes from Jeff Hanneman

It's nice to be respected, but it doesn't really matter. What's important is that if I wasn't in Slayer, it's still the band I'd want to see.

I was really into metal when I was growing up. It was just something I thought I could do and wanted to try.

We're not, obviously, as rich as Metallic, but we don't have to worry about money.

I have a method of working on music: I'll get up in the morning and throw down some drums on my drum machine, and then I'll come back later and try to pop off rhythms to it.

I guess Zeppelin is some happy stuff compared to us. It's pretty hippy, too.

Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith weren't polite. They were against the grain. And that's what we want our music to be: rude, aggressive... like real life.

The majority of our fans are dudes. And the chicks you do see at our shows are probably there because of a dude. Slayer shows are nothing but sausage fests. We always joke that we really need to write some love songs or something.

'Angel Of Death' was a big problem. I remember getting a phone call after the album was done: Sony wasn't going to release it.

If you're living a nice lifestyle and you have no problems, you put on our record, you won't get it.

I pretty much started the lyrics and I hit a roadblock and I think Kerry finished them up. Then I came back and did the ending part. The whole 'Raining Blood.' That part. But it pretty much came together easy. It's a short song.

L.A. has got to be the poser capital of the world. Around here Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, and Ratt are the heaviest in the world. So if that's heavy we must be molten steel.

Since we did 'Angel of Death,' I've had three occasions where someone will go 'Psst, hey. I'm part of this Aryan World Nation group and we're thinking of having you speak.' I'm like, 'Why?' And they'll go, 'You know.' I'll be like, 'No, why?' And they'll go, 'Aren't you... ?' I'm like, 'What? No. Go away. You don't get me at all.'

That gets me upset- you're jamming along, checking out the crowd and having a good time, and then your equipment goes down. You can't just stop the show and say, 'Oh, Jeff's got a guitar problem.'

I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist.

The intent of Slayer's musical and lyrical content has always been selfish. We feel very strongly about the importance of staying true to ourselves.

There's always a need for our kind of music. It's an outlet. You can only listen to so much pop and you just have to listen to something heavy.

The whole nature of war is both stupid and fascinating. It's this big game, except people die. Yet we still keep on playing it because of the big power struggles that exist all over the world. It's really amazing to me that people really do that.

When we started, I was just having fun with it I didn't even know about doing it for a living. It was a new style of music, a combo of punk and metal.