Former SLAYER and current PHILM drummer Dave Lombardo was interviewed on the March 16 edition of the "Radio Screamer" show. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On what it is that keeps him coming back to SLAYER:
Lombardo: "Oh, well, I don't think that's ever gonna happen again. Well, the reason why… I mean, time passed. It was ten years. When I returned in 2001, it had been already ten years that I was out of the band, and it felt like it was the right time. It was water under the bridge, we didn't have any grudges, but apparently that really wasn't the case, because later I find out that, 'Oh, well, he left in '92, so just get him out again.'"
On the importance of learning the ins and outs of the music business while pursuing a career as a musician:
Lombardo: "It's something that you learn as you go along. And it's a tough road, especially when you're told that everything's taken care of, you're well taken care of, and you trust these people and you don't think twice. But then, of course, like AC/DC says, the rock star, and the businessman gets rich.
"We need to make, I think, drummers aware of their position in the band and spread the word that musicians need to educate themselves not only in their music and their chops and their style and whatever, but they need to really learn the business, because it turns out that a band ends up being a business and each member becomes a quarter shareholder, or a COO [chief operating officer] of the band. So it's very important."
On his most recent split with SLAYER:
Lombardo: "I really don't wanna get into the details, but I take this departure like any other change in life. You just go with it. I, luckily, had a band that I had put back together before this whole thing went down with SLAYER. And you just move forward; you don't look back."
On late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman:
Lombardo: "The arm, basically, they fixed it and they did everything they could do to help him [after he contracted necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease, from a spider bite in his backyard in January 2011]. But I think the motor skill to play guitar just wasn't there. You know, we gave him a chance and maybe we could have put him a little low in the mix, but still, it just wasn't working right. 'Cause you have to have a certain ability to play this style of music. And it just wasn't there. It's unfortunate.
"Shortly after he died, I spent the afternoon with his wife and I just hung out with her. We went out to dinner. It's rough. But, unfortunately, it was a downward spiral for him. Obviously, it was depressing for him to have this situation happen to his arm, and him not being able to play, he resorted to drinking more than he was already doing. And, like I said, it was a downward spiral."
On how the surviving members of SLAYER have dealt with the loss of their childhood friend:
Lombardo: "I don't know how Kerry [King, guitar] and Tom [Araya, bass/vocals] responded. By how they responded at the memorial, it was pretty shallow. It was rough for me, because Jeff and I spent a lot of time on the tour bus. We'd get picked up at the hotel and show up at the venue by 4:30 and we would stay chilling on the bus until showtime. So there was a lot of interaction, there was a lot of chatting, a lot of talking, we'd watch TV, we'd listen to music. He loved my iPod, 'cause I had so many different styles of music. He'd say, 'Dude, throw your iPod on.' We'd laugh and joke around and sometimes I'd surprise him with some music that he'd never heard of before. So there was lot of memorable times that Jeff and I had. And it sucks, dude. It's terrible when a bandmate dies, because that magic is forever lost. That band had a certain chemistry when all four of us were on stage. And not taking anything away from Gary Holt [of EXODUS] — he took Jeff's place and he's done an amazing job — but still there's something [that is missing that simply cannot be replaced]."
In the latest issue of U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett was asked if it's strange to him how much METALLICA has eclipsed the other "Big Four" bands of 1980s thrash metal — SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX — in terms of commercial popularity.
"I try not to spend too much time thinking about stuff like that because whatever I think of is still not going to be a satisfying enough explanation," he replied. "It's just the way things are and how the chips fell.
"EXODUS [Kirk's former band and the group many think should included if the 'Big Four' were expanded and considered the 'Big Five'] in the '80s had some bona fide problems, but I think their first album [1985's 'Bonded By Blood'] is just as good as [METALLICA's debut] 'Kill 'Em All'. We were just playing the music we wanted to hear because no one else was playing it and it wasn't being played on the radio. It was only a small group of people who knew about it and it was almost elitist in that 'No posers allowed!' thing."
MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine last year spoke to Radio.com about which band should have been included if the "Big Four" were expanded and considered the "Big Five". Mustaine said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him."
In a 2010 interview with Metal Asylum, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was asked if he feels the "Big Four" should have been expanded and considered the "Big Seven", including EXODUS, TESTAMENT and OVERKILL.
"Well, I think it should be the 'Big Five' with EXODUS, because we were there at the start of thrash metal with METALLICA in the real early '80s," he said. "Same thing with MEGADETH because [Dave] Mustaine was a part of METALLICA's birth and he also created MEGADETH. And SLAYER are SLAYER. ANTHRAX are also great and old friends, but if you listen to those first few records, they have definitely changed. TESTAMENT has every right to be part of the thrash metal legends, but it just came down to timing because they came later. And OVERKILL have been their since the beginning also. But I don't get hung up on that shit, because I know how it all started and I know where I was when the shit got created. We [EXODUS] certainly deserve to be part of the founding fathers, but you know who often gets excluded are the Germans — KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM. Everybody looks to America and forgets those guys. KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM all released records in the early '80s."
He continued: "Really, the "Big Four" is solely based on sales and the ones who sold the most. But if you compare records, I will put EXODUS' last few albums up against anybody's shit. SLAYER is always awesome; the last TESTAMENT album [at the time of the interview], 'The Formation of Damnation', was great; the new MEGADETH [2009's 'Endgame'] is one of their best; METALLICA are still finding their feet again, and their last album, 'Death Magnetic', was a step in the right direction. The new OVERKILL, 'Ironbound', is one of their best records ever; it's so good. And KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, and SODOM still make great new music. What I think it boils down to is the bands who've been doing this the longest still can do it the best. METALLICA are still a mighty force live, but they lost their way for quite a while. But then again I've never had to deal with the horrible problem of having millions of dollars. [Laughs] Maybe if I had that kind of money, it would distract my hunger for doing this kind of shit, too. But, unfortunately for me, I have to keep kickin' people in the teeth, I don't have the funds to go art-shopping. My version of fine art is a new edition of Hustler magazine. [Laughs]"
