Kerry King shares his feelings about playing at the Back to the Beginning show

Metalshop TV spoke with Kerry King at this year’s Brutal Assault festival regarding Slayer‘s involvement in the “Back To The Beginning” event, which was Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath‘s last show. According to blabbermouth.net, he responded as follows when asked if he enjoyed performing at the performance.

Yeah, I made a point to be there all day at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show. My friends in Mastodon were playing first, so I wanted to see them. I know Halestorm was playing early; I wanted to see them. I saw Alice In Chains soundcheck the day before. I watched Ozzy and Black Sabbath play… They had something set up like a giant LED screen backstage with its own P.A., so I just parked myself right in front of it and I had basically a front-row seat to the whole show for those two. I was on stage for Metallica. It was a good day. When you do a festival, like we’re doing today [at Brutal Assault], a lot of times I don’t know who we’re playing with, but I knew ‘Back To The Beginning’ for months, so I had a whole day planned out to watch my friends play. And it was cool. And with Ozzy passing away very soon thereafter, I’m very happy that I was able to be a part of that.”

King also shared his first time meeting the Prince of Darkness.

[It] probably would’ve been the late ’90s. ‘Cause when they were testing Ozzfest, we did all the original ones, when they were like one gig or two gigs, maybe Southern California and Phoenix, just to see if it was a feasible idea. So I’m assuming it was around then, but I don’t have that memory. [Laughs]

He also revealed a special memory.

For as many Ozzfests as we did, it seemed like we were always on ones around the time when ‘The Osbournes’ was a popular TV show. And when we were on the tour, I never saw any of them. It’s like they were ghosts. I remember at one of the hotels, ’cause sometimes all the bands stayed in the same hotel and Sabbath was in our hotel, and I opened my door and Tony goes walking down the hallway with, I’m sure his bodyguard, whoever, and I was such a fan, I just put my head down and said, ‘Hey, Tony,’ try to be cool, not be a pain in the ass. But years later we were around each other more often, and I’m not sure we became friends, but we became more than acquaintances. And he’s one of my superheroes, so it was tough for me to get over that hump.