Tom Araya

Template:Persondata Template:Guitarist infobox Tom Araya (born as Tomás Enrique Araya June 6, 1961 in Valparaíso, Chile) is best known as the vocalist and bassist of the thrash metal band Slayer.

Araya contributed to the lyrics of Slayers material as of 1988's South of Heaven. Tracks include Seasons in the Abyss, Dead Skin Mask, South of Heaven, War Ensemble, and Jihad. His lyrics tend to be about death, murder, and serial killers, a subject Araya finds interesting.

Biography

Araya was the 4th child of a family of 7 with two brothers and four sisters. Araya's family moved to South Gate, California as his parents saw it as the city of opportunity . Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist at the local hospital, studying to become a nurse. His older brother played the guitar which lead Tom to pick up the bass. Arayas brother Johnny Araya is the bassist in Thine Eyes Bleed which toured with Slayer during the Unholy alliance tour in 2006 and the upcomming 2007 Canadian tour.

Araya has two children, a boy and a girl named Ariel Asa Araya . He has been married since 1995 and lives in Buffalo, Texas, with his wife, whom he met at a Slayer show.

Araya had surgery on his gall bladder in early May 2006, which made alterations to the Unholy Alliance Tour. Because of this surgery, Araya was also unable to finish the vocals for a song entitled "Final Six", which was meant to be included on the 2006 Slayer album, Christ Illusion.

Religion

Despite the anti-Christian and pseudo-Satanic nature of many of Slayer's songs, Araya has stated that he frequently attended church when he was younger. According to an interview he did, Tom believes that "...Christ came and taught us about love . About doing unto others. That was his preach: Accept each other for who we are. Live peacefully, and love one another. Period." And his response to the question "Do you believe in God?" is: "I believe in a supreme being, yeah. But He's an all-loving God." In an interview on[1], Araya explained that he has a "really strong belief system," and Slayer's words and images will "never interfere with what I believe and how I feel.... People are not in good shape to where they have to question their own belief system because of a book or a story somebody wrote, or a Slayer song."

During an interview in the 2006 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, Araya shares his personal views on the album title God Hates Us All and the lyrics in "Disciple". He states that God does not hate, but it was just a "Great fucking title". Kerry King, the band's guitarist, wrote "Disciple". King states in the documentary that he finds religion to be "a load of shit".

Guest Star

Tom Araya has made several guest appearances including;

• "Iron Gland " from the Alice in Chains album Dirt
• "Terrorist" from Soulfly's album Primitive.
• "Revenge" on Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three.

Equipment

• ESP custom series Hill and B.C. Rich basses
• Ampeg SVT amplification
• Ampeg cabinets
• EMG and Bartolini pickups
• D'Addario strings
• D'Andrea picks and straps

External links

• Tom Araya discography at MusicBrainz
• Westword interview with Tom Araya
• Interview with Jam! magazine

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