📍Huntington Park, CA, USA
1966 – 1983“Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz was born in Viña del Mar, a seaside resort city on the Pacific coast of Chile, in June 1961, the fourth of nine children of Chilean parents. In 1966, when he was five, his family emigrated to the United States, settling in South Gate, a working-class suburb in south-east Los Angeles beside Huntington Park, with a growing Latino community. The family were devout Catholics, and Tom grew up speaking Spanish at home. His older brother played the guitar, and at eight Tom picked up the bass, and the two brothers played Beatles and Rolling Stones songs together. He loved the Beatles above all, and later discovered heavy metal, from Black Sabbath to Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. After high school, his eldest sister suggested he train as a respiratory therapist, and he completed a two-year course, learning to mix air, draw blood and intubate patients, and he worked at a hospital while playing in local bands. In 1981 the guitarist Kerry King, who had played with Tom before, asked him to join his new band, Slayer, as bassist and singer. Tom's savings from his hospital job, together with money borrowed from Kerry King's father, paid for their first album, Show No Mercy, in 1983. With Reign in Blood and South of Heaven, Slayer became one of the Big Four of thrash metal. Tom has remained proud of his Chilean heritage, playing to huge crowds in Chile, and he lives quietly on a ranch in Texas with his family.”
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