System of a Down remember getting ‘booed off stage' at Slayer tour

System of a Down were “booed off the stage” and had a bagel and coins thrown at them on their Slayer support tour.

Guitarist Daron Malakian remembered the negatively wild reaction to their opening slots for the thrash metal legends and insisted they didn't let it "faze" them.

He told Metal Hammer: “Our first tour in the US and our first tour in Europe were both opening for Slayer. Some people got it, some people didn’t. We would get booed off the stage in some of those countries.”

He continued: “The approach I took to those Slayer shows was that if they didn’t start chanting ‘Slayer!’ while we were playing, I would make them start chanting ‘Slayer!’ We just didn’t let that faze us. I remember we were in Poland and people didn’t get it at all.”

“They booed us off the stage, they threw things at us, they threw coins, they threw a bagel at Serj! But we just kept doing what we do and moving forward. Like, if I was a comedian, I find my jokes funny – if everyone else isn’t laughing, I don’t care,” the Toxicity rocker mentioned.

Talking of his journey, Malakian recalled, “At first nobody wanted to sign us, because we didn’t sound like Korn or Limp Bizkit, and we were four Armenian guys! I mean, what the f*** is an Armenian to somebody that lives in Kentucky?! They don’t even know what Armenians are!”

“And we looked like we were just f****** aliens to people, the way our stage presence was and the way our look was at the time. Serj [Tankian, SOAD singer] is a very different, unique kind of frontman, I’m the guitar player who sings and screams and does all the crazy stuff. People didn’t get it at first, but we got it,” the musician said.

“We just went out and did what we did,” he added, revealing the reason behind System of a Down’s success.

“We were young and hungry, we believed in what we were doing. You’ve got to understand, we were an army before we were signed, we were f****** tearing down the Sunset Strip. Our shows were packed when we weren’t signed. It started with our group of friends, but that s*** grew and grew and grew, and we became the biggest band on the Sunset Strip,” Daron Malakian concluded.