Slayer frontman Tom Araya has “set the record straight”

In a brand new interview with The Skinny, Tom Araya spoke about the circumstances that led to Dave Lombardo’s 2013 exit from Slayer.
Slayer

Tom Araya said: “I’m just going to set the record straight on that. Going back a long time now, fifteen years nearly, we were looking for somebody to sit in for Paul Bostaph — that’s how long ago it started with Dave. Paul decided to move on, but he stuck with us until we could find a replacement. Dave said, ‘Yeah, I’ll sit in for a tour or two,’ and in the process of doing that, we drew up a contract for Dave, because that’s what you’ve got to do — make sure everybody’s taken care of, everybody’s happy. We came up with a simple agreement that lasted a while, and then we were in the process of trying to make it better for Dave, because after so many years of playing with us, you figure, well, shit — we should redo this, we should figure out how we can make it better for Dave. We came up with a deal and he basically was getting everything he wanted, but it was a three-year term, and three years into that, we still hadn’t been able to get him to sign it.”

He continued: “We had some obligations that came up and when you’re given an ultimatum or put on the spot, you have to do something, so we moved forwards, and Dave got really upset. We went back to him again and told him that if he signed the deal, we could move forwards, but he had other plans, so we made a phone call to him and ended it, because he was beginning to put us into a bad spot. We managed to find somebody to sit in, we went off to play in Australia and Dave went on a rant and told a lopsided story, and we let him talk and do what he does best.”

Araya added: “I hate to say anything bad about him, but he did what he did and we had to move forwards. He was beginning to put us in a really bad light, and we didn’t want to stop the wheels from turning.”

SLAYER’s new album, “Repentless”, will be released on September 11 via Nuclear Blast.

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