As most metal fans and all Slayer maniacs out there know, the band’s drummer, Dave Lombardo, left the outfit in 2013 amid a scandal, accusing his band mates and management of not paying him the money due.
However, in The Ex-Man podcast hosted by Doc Coyle, the former drummer of the thrash metal legends (now collaborating with Mr. Bungle, Suicidal Tendencies, or The Misfits) talked about how he and Kerry King (Slayer’s guitarist) planned the formation of a new band that same year. It was after Toma Araya (singer and bassist with the group) had informed his band mates he wanted to give up touring.
Here is Lombardo’s account of the situation:
“When I was in the band, I knew Tom [Araya] wanted to retire. I knew he wanted to stop. Actually, Kerry and I were gonna start a new band after Tom’s retirement. And we were actually scouting guitar players.”
The gentlemen did it, for example, during the Hellfest festival in France:
“We said: ‘Hey, let’s go see Exodus.’ And so Kerry and I walked over to the stage where Exodus was playing, and we stood on the side of the stage, stage left, and were watching Gary [Holt, went on to replace the late Jeff Hanneman in Slayer]. Jeff was still in [Slayer], Jeff was still playing, Jeff was fine.”
“And I told [Kerry], I go, ‘There’s our guy right there. That’s the guitar player we need.’ We didn’t tell Gary. I don’t think we had told Gary that Kerry and I were going to start a new band, but he was the first choice when that moment came [to replace Jeff in Slayer]. And I agreed, everybody agreed. And Jeff agreed as well, because he knew. He knew.”
