Originally printed in Guitar World, September 2006.
In the midst of 2006's Unholy Alliance tour, Children of Bodom guitarist Alexi Laiho stopped drinking long enough to interview Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman.
ALEXI LAIHO What do you do before the show if you’re totally hungover?
KING There’s no escaping that shit! You just have to deal with it. Get onstage, get through the first two songs, let the adrenaline kick in and you’ll be fine.
LAIHO Jeff, do you play only Jackson guitars? If so, would you be willing to try other brands?
HANNEMAN I actually have only one Jackson! ESP makes all of my guitars now. But that Jackson was probably the last one I paid for, which is why I used it so much; I had to get my money’s worth. That’s why, for the longest time, it was in all of our photos.
LAIHO What’s your favorite song to play live?
HANNEMAN “Angel of Death” or “Raining Blood.”
KING Whether you open with “Raining Blood,” close with it or put it somewhere in the middle of a set, the crowd will go fucking nuts. It’s chaos.
LAIHO Jeff, what led you to play such extreme music?
HANNEMAN Punk rock. No doubt.
LAIHO How do you guys kill time on the road?
KING Any way we can. There’s so much downtime. Neither of us would trade the time onstage for fucking anything. But the worst is the time between soundcheck and the show. You can’t leave the venue, and you can’t party too much. You’re stuck either inside or on the bus. So in between cities, Jeff and I generally stay up and play movies all night until we get to the next town. Then we crash. You make the best of your time that way. We sleep all day, wake up for soundcheck and get going.
