Slayer Consider Retirement As Record Deal Nears End

With nine albums in the tank and a tenth set to be recorded next year, thrash metal forefathers Slayer are considering life after their contract with Rick Rubin expires, says singer/bassist Tom Araya. "Let's put it this way, this is the final record of our commitment with Rick Rubin. When we first signed a deal with him back in 1986, we never sat down and said, 'How long do you guys want to keep this together?'" Araya tells Thrash Hits. The band still has another album to record, which they'll begin after their Unholy Alliance tour ends. After that, the future is unclear. "Once we've put together new material, we can get together and discuss our future plans," Araya said. Retirement is an option, as the band is "maybe" financially secure enough to pack it in. Plus, "Seeing a 50-year-old man headbanging on stage would make me cringe. If I was watching that, I'd think, 'Dude, you're a little too old for that, aren't you? You're gonna fall off!'"

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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