Growing up on a steady diet of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, among others, helped motivate King to form Slayer with Jeff Hanneman as a teenager.

Now, King reveals he's having trouble seeing the next generation develop into hard rock and metal role models of their own. King tells Metal XS: "We were at a festival in South America somewhere, and they feed you a live feed of the stage, so you can watch it like you're out front. And I was watching a band, and I went over to Gary Holt and I said,' Gary, if I was a kid and these were my heroes, I would never pick up an instrument.'