Kerry King

The youngest of three children, King was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father was an aircraft parts inspector, and his mother worked for a telephone company. He started learning guitar at the age of thirteen at his father's urging, saying "...my dad was trying to get me out of the wrong circles and give me a hobby." King attended three different high schools and had very good grades, even winning an award as his school's top math student in junior high. As the youngest child in the family, King says he was "spoilt" growing up. He learned guitar on his father's Gibson ES-175 and later had a Fender Stratocaster which he traded for a BC Rich Mockingbird, beginning a long relationship with BC Rich guitars. The first song he ever learned was Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever" and he soon became a fan of Van Halen and Judas Priest, which had a major influence on his guitar playing.

King has been divorced twice and has a daughter named Shyanne Kymberlee King with his first wife; his current wife is Ayesha King. He claims he has never done drugs, though he has said "I'm quite an experienced drinker". Prior to 2020, King had lived in California for almost all of his life. He relocated to Phoenix, Arizona around 1987, and while living there, he was a neighbor of Judas Priest singer Rob Halford. By the early 2000s, King had moved back to Los Angeles, and he would later relocate to Riverside County, California. In April 2020, King and Ayesha bought one home in Las Vegas, Nevada; as of November 2021, however, the couple resides in New York City. King is an antitheist. He is known to oppose and strongly criticize organized religion by expressing his views in his songwriting. In a 2006 interview with Blabbermouth.net, King expressed his anti-religious views: "I don't really have a life philosophy; my thing is just rebelling against pretty much organized religion. That is my main thing, because personally I think it's a crutch for people that are too weak to get through life on their own. I'm the kind of guy that says if I don't see it, then it doesn't work. …