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Biography
Tom Araya (born Tomás Enrique Araya June 6, 1961 in Valparaíso, Chile) is the vocalist and bassist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya's family moved to the United States in 1966, and at the age of eight picked up the bass guitar, playing Beatles and Rolling Stones songs with his older brother, who played the guitar. Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s, using his earnings to finance Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy. Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting.
Araya was born in Valparaíso, Chile as the fourth child in a family of nine. At the age of five, his family moved to South Gate, California. Rumors circulating the internet state he left because of "political unrest", Araya denied this claim; "that happened in ‘71 and we were already in the United States by that time."
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