Memorial Service For Slayer's Jeff Hanneman Goes Ahead Smoothly; Kerry King Thanks Fans

The public memorial for Slayer superstar Jeff Hanneman went ahead smoothly yesterday, with guitarist Kerry King thanking the legions of fans for their support - and without a sign of the evil Westboro Baptist Church.

Taking place at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon, countless fans turned up to pay tribute to their hero, who sadly passed away on May 2nd earlier this month. An hour before doors had even opened, there were hundreds of people queuing round the block, highlighting the loyalty and love the fans have for the band.

The service itself featured a number of guest speakers, ranging from King, to Hanneman’s wife Kathryn, to Dino Paredes and Brian Slagel, of American Recordings and Metal Blade Records respectively. As they read their tributes, fans - almost all donning Slayer shirts and merch - chanted Hanneman’s name, in a touching-yet-still-metal celebration of the star’s life.

NME reports that King - who was sipping from a bottle of Jagermeister for the entirety of the event - said in his speech:

“All you fans, thanks a lot for showing up. It means a lot. We got a lot of history in this joint. Me and Jeff got banned here for 20 years, so it's kind of ironic. Unlike myself, Jeff Hanneman hated Jagermeister. But I had to come up here with something to cheer my friend.”

He continued on to say that Jeff was ‘my doorway to punk’, something that ‘really helped Slayer to become the doorway between the metal kids and the punk kids’. He also added that ‘Jeff hated being famous, but he loved being onstage’.

Luckily (probably for the themselves!), the WBC failed to live up to their vile threats of picketing the funeral, and couldn’t be seen. We don’t blame them - although Slayer asked their fans to ignore the protest, if anything had kicked off, we imagine they would have taken a complete battering! Westboro Battered Church, anyone?

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