Tom Araya

On May 2, the sudden news took the metal community by storm: SLAYERguitarist Jeff Hanneman had died. In the August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine, the band's bassist/vocalist Tom Araya recalls his final communications with his longtime friend and bandmate: "I had been texting with him, and he even sent me a song that he had been working on. So it seemed like he was doing okay. But when I got the call that he was back in intensive care, I became concerned. Eventually he stopped responding to my texts. It was like a one-sided conversation. "I was home with my family when I found out he had died. The phone rang and my wife answered it, and she had this look of dread on her face. She handed me the phone and didn't say anything, and it was our manager,Rick [Sales], and he told me. I hung up the phone and went to my room and I cried. "It hit my family hard, because they really liked Jeff. My mother was really upset, my sisters loved Jeff, and my brother too — he was Jeff's tech for a long time."