Slayer's Paul Bostaph: My Life In Music

Today sees Slayer return with new album Repentless, and they're back with Paul Bostaph at the kit.

Bostaph, of course, powered the band in two stints from 1992-1996 and 1997-2001, and he came back for a third helping in 2013. To mark Bostaph, and Slayer's, return here we present the songs that helped to shape the thrash drum legend's life.

Gimme A Bullet - AC/DC

"My dad used to listen to a lot of Bing Crosby and Glen Miller big band stuff – a lot of old songs, like ’20s, ’30s style music – and that’s all I grew up listening to.

"The first time I heard a rock song on the radio I was probably about nine years old and it blew my mind. From that point forward, I knew I wanted to play drums. The band and album that are solely responsible for getting me into drums were AC/DC and Powerage.

"That album was the first one I used to air drum to. Before I even had a drum set, I got a pair of drum sticks for my birthday. I grew up in a big family and we didn’t have a lot of money, so that was my drum set, you know – pots, pans and pillows.”

Flaming Youth - KISS

“They used to send out these mailers when I was a little kid and you could join a CD club or a record club. I grew up in a poor family, so I thought, ‘Fuck! For one penny I can get 10 fucking records.’ I got my penny, put it in the mail, ordered 10 records and Destroyer was the first record I got. I got all of them and quit the club, so I got 10 records for a penny!”

Burn - Deep Purple

“I love this song. The drum parts that Ian Paice plays are absolutely phenomenal. What most drummers probably perceive him to be doing – that really simple single stroke approach – isn't what he's doing. A lot of the stuff he does with a rudimentary approach – not single stroke, either. If you look at it like that, what he’s doing is masterful.”

Mr Blue Sky - ELO

“ELO happen to be my favourite band. I’ve liked them since I was a little child and I still like them now. Jeff Lynne is one of my favourite songwriters of all time. There are so many greats – it’s hard to pick who I think the best is because I fall in love with music all the time, but Jeff Lynne... it would have to be ELO.”

Gemini - Slayer

“Gemini’ was the first recorded track I did with a band where the groove was really slow and there was a lot of space for the drums to fill in. The phrasing of each fill was so important that a lot more of my personality came out.

“I improvised a lot of that song – I didn’t want to sit there and be like, ‘I want to write down a drum fill and put it here.’ I felt that the track wouldn’t be as exciting and, to me, it would be too thought-out. Maybe no-one else would know that, but I love to improvise and it was a chance for me to improvise nearly a whole song in a recording session.

“I do one drum fill on the song where I go all the way down the rack toms and come all the way back up again. I remember Jeff Hanneman looking at me in the studio and saying, ‘I love that fill because I never know when it’s going to stop!’ I think that defines my drumming.”

Tightrope - ELO

“That was the first song I heard from that record when I was a kid and Tightrope was the one album that made me really fall in love with the band. I used to have a really cheap little hi-fi in my room back then and when I went to bed I’d turn that record on really low so you could barely hear it and fall asleep to it every night.”