Slayer icon, Kerry King names ‘overlooked’ guitarist of metal music

Kerry King, one of the most renowned guitarists, just named his underrated music inspiration.

As the Slayer guitarist, who co-founded the iconic band in 1981, with Jeff Hanneman was asked to name his top five picks from guitarists, he named a musician that King believes is “overlooked.”

In his appearance on the Lipps Service With Scott Lipps podcast, he took the opportunity to gush over the artist, stating how he deserves more recognition.

“Probably my favorite one [of] all time is [Judas Priest’s] Glenn Tipton. And I think he’s the most overlooked,” he mentioned on the show.

King continued, “’Cause if you look at the leads he was doing and when he was doing ’em, he kind of innovated a lot of that stuff.”

Proceeding to name his top five, he mentioned, “I would have a hard time numbering them, but I can come up with five.”

“[Ritchie] Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, without question. I’ll go with a super-heavy hitter that’s my bro and say Zakk Wylde,” were the Where I Reign hitmaker’s picks.

This is also not the first time Kerry King has praised Judas Priest, with him previously telling Rolling Stone, “As a young guitar player, I could tell there were two guitars on the recording, and the creativity and early uniqueness of two guitars totally inspired what Slayer became.”

“Judas Priest definitely inspired me and Jeff [Hanneman] and Slayer. If we were doing Priest covers in the beginning, he would always play the K.K. Downing guitar parts because he was the blond guy. I would always do the Glenn Tipton ones,” he further revealed that time.