Paul is a native from the Bay Area scene in San
Francisco.
In the 80's he played with the thrash band, Forbidden,
and with them he did 2 records.
Paul then got somewhat tired of playing heavy
music; he felt that it was too limiting.
After the break with Forbidden, John Tempesta
told him that Slayer were seeking a new drummer.
Kerry wanted Paul to join Slayer, but at first
Jeff wasn't too keen on the idea.
Paul has always been a big fan of Slayer, so
it took him a nanosecond to accept the offer.
Paul was then given a list of 9 Slayer songs and
he had like 12 days to learn them.
After that, it was the plan that Paul should
be tested in an audition that lasted 3 days.
Paul passed the audition with flying colours.
He even did a song that wasn't on the list -
Silent Scream, a very drum-demanding song.
As Paul said : I ran around like a chicken with
its head cut off with my walkman with Slayer in it... and I pretty much
ate, breath and slept Slayer in 12 days.
The hardest song for him was "Angel of Death"
because he didn't know how long the lead section was.
In 1992, when Paul was still new in Slayer, he was contacted by Testament who wanted him to do a show with them. And so Paul is also on the Testament live album, Return To The Apocalyptic City.
Then the drummer played some clubdates in the
States before flying to Europe and do the large Monsters Of Rock dates.
Paul did well and the rest of the Slayer guys was very pleased with him.
He also gets fine along with Tom, Kerry and Jeff.
From what I know, Paul is somewhat shy about meeting
new people, he also seems like to be a very modest person.
He is very dedicated to Slayer. He helps the
others designing t-shirts, writing lyrics etc.
Like the other Slayer guys, he is interested in sport. Actually, Paul plays soccer in his sparetime for a team in San Francisco - I was told that he is pretty good at it also.
Paul learned to play drums to listen to his heavy records, mostly Iron Maiden. He tried to pull off what Nicko did.
Many people said : Paul Bostaph has awfully big
shoes to fill.
To that, Tom said Actually, the shoes are a little
too tight.