Why drummer Dave Lombardo was fired by Slayer.
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Dave Lombardo would be a co-founder of the metal band Slayer and would be hailed as an innovative drummer with some referring to him as and i quote ‘the godfather of double bass’. He would be hugely influential on metal drummers who came after him. Despite playing on 9 of Slayer’s albums his time with the band especially in their later years would tumultuous and end on a sour note. Today let’s take a look at why Dave Lombardo was fired from Slayer.
Lombardo would first meet guitarist Kerry King at the age of 16 thanks to some friends who informed him they lived a few blocks from each other. The pair had shared a similar taste in music. King was already playing in a band with bassist and vocalist Tom Arraya and the last piece of the puzzle was guitarist Jeff Hanneman. King would recall meeting Hanneman a rehearsal warehouse in LA recalling
“As I was leaving, I saw Jeff just kinda standing around playing guitar, and he was playing stuff that I was into, like Def Leppard’s ‘Wasted’ and AC/DC and Priest. So I started talking to him and just said, ‘Hey, you want to start a band?’ I already knew Dave [Lombardo, drummer] and we had been playing together in his parents’ garage a bit, and so I brought Jeff in, then went to Tom [Araya, vocalist/bassist], who I was playing with in another band, and said, ‘Hey man, I have a different band if you’re interested.’ And that was it.”
Lombardo would play on Slayer’s first three albums 1983’s Show No Mercy, 1985’s Hell Awaits and 1986’s Reign in Blood. However by 1986 he would leave Slayer for the first time in 1986 over not being able to make enough money to support himself.. It was during this time he nearly joined Megadeth. He would tell the Speak N’ Destroy Podcast
"A funny story - I was going to join Megadeth when I left Slayer the first time in '86. It was very much on the down-low - probably Mustaine doesn't remember this. But they had opened up for Alice Cooper during the Peace Sells tour, and I went to the Long Beach Arena, and I met with the guys.
"And the main issue at that time was - when I saw the guys, they didn't look very healthy. I think it was a very dark period for them, and I had heard rumors of drugs and stuff like that. I was no saint, but I kept it in check, and they just didn't look healthy to me, I didn't see a healthy path for myself. Sure enough, Gar Samuelson died - and he was an amazing drummer.
It would be producer Rick Rubin who coerced the drummer to would return to Slayer in 1987 and drum on their next two albums. Then in 1992 with the birth of his first child he would leave the band once again. It was during his time out of Slayer for the second time he did session work and performed with a number of other bands.
Lombardo would end up rejoining Slayer in 2002 telling an interviewer in 2004 They gave me a call almost exactly ten years after I left and asked me if I wanted to do some shows. I said I'd think about it. I called them back and it all worked out and it's been going really good since then. He would end up drumming on a few more albums for the band until 2013 when to the surprise of many fans, he was fired from the group. In a lengthy post on facebook he would write
And i quote @Last year, I discovered 90% of Slayer’s tour income was being deducted as expenses including the professional fees paid to management, costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us. In my opinion, this is not the way a band’s business should operate. I tried rectifying it by letting my band mates know, and Tom and I hired auditors to figure out what happened, but I was denied access to detailed information and the necessary back up documents.
I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays realizing I had toured all over the world in 2012, but yet, had not been paid (except a small advance) or provided a proper accounting for a full year's sweat and blood. On top of this, I was told that I would not be paid until I signed a long form contract which gave me no written assurance of how much or on what basis management would deduct commissions, nor did it p he was fired from the band.
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