When Slayer first started playing gigs in the early '80s, each band member's parents would show up to the concerts.

At least, according to Slayer bassist and vocalist Tom Araya, that's how it played out for the group's initial gigs. Just imagine the moms and dads of Araya and Kerry King, Dave Lombardo and the late Jeff Hanneman rocking out to the "Big Four" thrash act in its early iteration on the SoCal metal scene.

"I was really lucky because I had very supportive parents, just like Kerry, Dave and Jeff did," Araya told Metal Hammer. "We literally had every one of our parents at our first couple of shows that we played after Slayer first got together, which was really cool. They were all so supportive of what we were doing."

The story came to light Wednesday (July 22) in a new interview with the Slayer frontman. Throughout the piece about the musician's life and career, talk naturally turned to Araya's progenitors. Interestingly, however, it wasn't the bassist's parents that engendered his knack for musical performance.

"There was no one who was musically inclined in my family," Araya added. "It was strange, now I come to think about it. It was actually my older sister who first learned how to play an instrument, and that inspired my younger brother [and later Slayer roadie] Johnny and me to pick up the guitar."

Slayer certainly made their mark on music in a long and successful career. In 2019, the band finally called it quits after an extensive farewell tour. The group issued 12 studio albums and several other releases in its time together, the last being 2015's Repentless.

Still, Araya remembered he and his bandmates' parents' presence at those early shows as "very special for me and for the other guys in the band." The musician now has two children of his own. Araya's parents have since died, with his mother, Tina, having passed away in 2015.

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