Time & Perspective Quote by Kerry King

A working-class flex dressed up as a shrug, this is Kerry King turning proximity to power into a kind of disgust test. He’s talking about “one luxury” he allows himself - the little gateway drug from outsider to insider - and how it drags him into constant contact with “people in suits.” The phrasing matters: “like,” “y’know,” the casual stumbles. It’s not polished because the point is anti-polish. King is performing authenticity as refusal, even while admitting the machinery of success is unavoidable.

The subtext is a musician’s perpetual hostage negotiation with the business side of music: you need the suits to scale, but you don’t want their values to colonize your life. His punchline - “if I sit down on a bar and they leave, good for me” - frames social repellence as victory. It’s a punk-adjacent inversion of status: the ultimate power move isn’t being welcomed by gatekeepers; it’s being so unmistakably yourself that they can’t share the air.

Contextually, it fits King’s public persona and metal’s long-standing suspicion of corporate gloss. Thrash built its brand on speed, aggression, and contempt for respectable culture. So the “bar” isn’t just a location; it’s symbolic terrain. The suits exiting is a mini-myth of boundary maintenance: he can step into luxury, but he won’t let luxury step into him. The joke lands because it’s half-true and half-posture, which is exactly how musicians survive the commerce that funds their rebellion.