Name: Tom Araya Plays: Bass, Vocals Born: June 6th - 1961 in Valparaiso, Chile Tom Araya is from Chile, where he was born on June 6th - 1961. Alot of people (inclusive me) believed that Tom and his family had to flee to the US that very same year, due to political unrest. That is not true. In 1965 his family did move to Los Angeles, but that was because of work. As Tom says: "That's something alot of websites seem to get totally wrong" (About fleeing from Chile in 1961). They moved into a neigorborhood called Southgate in Los Angeles, because Tom's parents saw Los Angeles as the city of opportunity. Tom has 4 sisters and 2 brothers. At a certain point, one of Tom's brothers started to play guitar and that made Tom pick up the bass, and they would jam together. They never talked about making a band together. At that time, Tom was about 13 years old. Tom's brother, John, later formed "Bloodcum" with Jeff Hanneman's brother, Joey. The thrash band never really got anywhere, but they released one record though, "Death's By A Clothes Hanger". Now - John is Slayer's guitar- and bass technician. When Tom got older he studied to become a respiratory therapist. He also had a job - and went to school so Tom had his hands full. When he joined Slayer in 1982, he had to be on top of all of it. As he said: "What I tried to juggle was to working and studying and also being in the band. There was alot of nights when I'd get home in the early hours of the morning after a gig, unload the equipment, then go and get just an hour's sleep, before having to get up and go to work." Contrary to what some people may believe, Tom IS NOT a satanist. He is actually a very religious person. And Tom didn't get that from strangers - Tom's parents are very involved with the church, and when Tom was young he used to go to church all the time with his dad. And those memories are still with Tom, and religion is still a big part of his life. In the early days in Slayer, Tom didn't contribute that much to Slayer's lyrics - it was usually Jeff and Kerry that did the lyrics, eventhough he's been writing lyrics for himselves for quite some time. But around "South Of Heaven" from 1988, Tom's lyrics began to appear on the Slayer records, and it was clear to everyone that Tom have alot to say in his lyrics, and nowadays he does alot of the lyrics. As everyone knows, Tom's main interest is in serial killers. He's written about Jeffrey Dahmer (in the song "213") and Ed Gein (In "Dead Skin Mask"). Despite his somewhat morbid interest in serial killers, Tom is a very funny and friendly person. I've had the pleasure of meeting Tom in Poland in 1998, and he was all smile and laughter. In all the TV-interviews I have, he also smiles and jokes alot and that is very funny to watch. Tom also collect guns and he seems to have a pretty large collection. He would buy them two at a time and whenever he would have the time, he would go out to a desert place to shoot cans or whatever. Tom has 2 kids, a boy and a girl. He is married and lives in Buffalo, Texas. Tom actually met his wife at a Slayer show some time ago. Tom's philosophy of life is very simple: Life is unconditional and death is only the beginning. You may recognise the line from the song "Gemini".

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