Machine Head's Robb Flynn Comments On Death Of Jeff Hanneman

Guitarist/vocalist Robb Flynn of MACHINE HEAD has comented on the passing of SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who died yesterday of liver failure.

"Still can't believe the Jeff Hanneman from SLAYER is dead. Things like that just don't happen. Thrashers don't die??!! WTF!!??

"I'm not going to sit here and say how him and I were best buds or something; we definitely weren't, I'd barely call us acquaintances, I did 8 tours and over 120 shows with the dude and honestly, I never really got to 'know him.' I was always closer with Kerry [King]. Jeff was super quiet, really kept to himself, would get rowdy when he was drunk, but was a bit aloof, and seemed annoyed at the people partying around him despite the fact that he himself would be getting hammered.

"I can remember some good hangs with him, though. The first was in Basel, Switzerland back in November, 1994 when MACHINE HEAD was main support to SLAYER on the 'Divine Intervention' tour. It was one of those shows were something so random happens, it just never leaves you, in this case, the show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes and every kid entering the show got 2 free packs of smokes. I've never seen so much smoke in a venue in my life. I remember walking onstage and yelling at our roadie / everything-guy Mike Scum, 'DUDE, turn off the fuckin' smoke machine,' he said 'YOOOOO, it's not the smoke machine, bro, it's the cigarettes!' It was damn near impossible to breathe onstage.

"After the show, we were hanging backstage and Jeff walked back, we started bitching about the crazy cigarette show, and he invited me back to the dressing room to grab a beer. We sat down and chatted for a while, and then I went all SLAYER-nerd on him and started grilling him on what songs he wrote.

Me: 'Who wrote 'Angel Of Death'?'
Jeff: 'I did'
Me: 'Lyrics too?'
Jeff: 'Yep'
Me: 'Raining Blood'?'
Jeff: 'Me'
Me: 'Dead Skin Mask'?'
Jeff: 'Yep'
Me: 'South Of Heaven'?'
Jeff: 'Me'
Me: 'Black Magic'?'
Jeff: 'You know it'
Me: 'Hell Awaits'?'
Jeff: 'Yep'

"On and on it went, that man wrote both the music and lyrics to a large goddamn portion of my favorite SLAYER songs. He was a huge influence on my songwriting growing up in particular with arrangements and the bold use of key changes. The one thing SLAYER band always had over so many other bands is they were all over the guitar neck when it came to key changes. Leads would be in some of the most random keys ever, but somehow it made it all that much more frantic, and when the chorus kicked back in, BOOM! CRUSHING! Set up perfectly. He was one of the few metal heads I met who never really got into PANTERA, he told me he 'liked some stuff,' but thought they were 'too bluesy at times,' and that he 'liked more evil notes or