In a recent chat with Drew Stone of The New York Hardcore Chronicles Live!, Dave Lombardo opened up about leaving Slayer and refused to engage in any trash talk.
“I love it,” the drummer said of his time with Slayer. “I look back in retrospect and it’s been amazing. How can you not? Sh*t happens, man. You have disagreements. Families argue.”
He continued, “And so it is what it is. I’m happy to have been a part of such a legendary band, happy to have contributed to this genre that has loved me and supported me for my entire musical life.”
“Like I said, sh*t happens, but it is what it is. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve made a few friends along the way. And they’ve asked me to be in their bands,” the musician revealed.
Lombardo added, “I’ve created several new bands or launched them, and still I feel there’s so much more in me that I don’t see it ending anytime soon. Until somebody pulls the plug, I’m still here, man [Laughs].”
Rolling Stone asked Slayer’s Kerry King a year ago if he had talked to Lombardo, who left over a decade ago. He said, “No. Lombardo is dead to me. [Dave] went on that tirade when we were on a flight to Australia, and he knew we couldn’t retort for 14 hours, and he threw me under the bus.”
King then shared his thoughts on Lombardo, saying, “I was the only one keeping him in the band. Tom [Araya] wanted him out before that, and Jeff [Hannemann] had just gotten the spider bite [causing him to contract a flesh-eating bacteria, forcing him off the road], so he wasn’t playing with us much.”
“I said, ‘We need [Dave]. The fans won’t get it if we replace him right now.’ And then the Australia thing came up. He threw me under the bus, and I’m, like, ‘I’m the guy that kept you here.’ So, I thought, ‘F*ck that guy,'” the guitarist shared.
In a 2023 interview with the Mark And Me podcast, Lombardo avoided talking about a Slayer reunion, saying he preferred to focus on his future and current band, Empire State Bastard.
