Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography.

by Ferris, D. X.

  According to Lombardo, he and Araya then hired auditors to investigate the figures in his possession. Slayer’s management, Lombardo said, then refused to provide further numbers and documents.

  The drummer said his request was countered with a long new contract that 1) did not explain his questions about band income and fees, 2) did not provide access to the financial records that would help him account for previous financial activity, and 3) would forbid him from making statements about the band. According to Lombardo, he would not be paid until he signed the contract.

  Lombardo, his story continued, next met with King and Araya to rehearse. At the meeting, Lombardo proposed a new business model for the Slayer Inc.

  “Kerry made it clear he wasn’t interested in making changes,” recounted Lombardo, “and said if I wanted to argue the point, he would find another drummer.”52-7

  Lombardo argued point.

  King hadn’t made an idle threat.

  According to Lombardo’s account, three days after their last meeting, the drummer showed up for a scheduled rehearsal at 1 p.m. Once again, as in 1992, King wasn’t there. No practice took place that afternoon. And this time, claimed Lombardo, he didn’t have the chance to quit:

  At 6:24 p.m., Lombardo received an email from Slayer’s lawyers, informing the drummer he was being replaced for the Australian tour.

  “I remain hopeful that we can resolve our issues,” concluded Lombardo in his Facebook post. “But once again, I sincerely apologize to all of our fans in Australia who spent their money expecting to see the 3 of us original Slayer members. I look forward to seeing you in the future. Sincerely, Dave Lombardo.”

  The shit had hit the kit.

  SLAYER’S VERSION

  Slayer, predictably, did not agree with Lombardo’s account. The band issued a short, lawyer-ly refutation. It doubled as an announcement that Lombardo would be replaced by the man who had temporarily replaced Bostaph in 1996:

  “Slayer confirms that Jon Dette will drum for the band on its Australian tour that starts this Saturday, February 23 in Brisbane. As regards Dave Lombardo’s Facebook post, Slayer does not agree with Mr. Lombardo’s substance or the timeline of the events, except to acknowledge that Mr. Lombardo came to the band less than a week before their scheduled departure for Australia to present an entirely new set of terms for his engagement that were contrary to those that had been previously agreed upon.

  “The band was unable to reach an agreement on these new demands in the short amount of time available prior to leaving for Australia,” the denial continued. “There is more to the account than what Mr. Lombardo has offered, but out of respect to him, Slayer will not be commenting further. Slayer is grateful to its Australian fans for their understanding of this unfortunate last-minute change, and very much looks forward to seeing them at these shows.”

  For longtime Slayer fans, it was déja vu all over again.

  TERESA’S VERSION

  Slayer’s controversial February 2013 split with Lombardo may have had the greatest impact on Dave Lombardo’s ex-wife. Later, she offered a version of the events that matched Slayer’s account. In the Lombardo divorce records, Teresa claimed the breakup was a calculated renegotiation plan that went wrong.

  “Petitioner [Dave Lombardo] made good money with Slayer, and I feel he sabotaged his relationship with them because he did not get his way,” Teresa claimed in the divorce records. “Why should I have to suffer for his behavior? In fact, a couple weeks prior to Petitioner losing his job with Slayer, he informed me face to face that he and his contract attorney had a plan, and that they were going to set it up to be in place one week before the Australian tour. The plan was to give Slayer an ultimatum that they either hand over the [revenue] documents with the contract terms he wanted or he was not going to go on tour. Petitioner told me he had planned it so that way they would have no choice because they would not be able to find another drummer. The next day Petitioner told me he was being replaced for the tour.”52-8

  TOM’S VERSION, PART II

  Dave Lombardo was no longer on Slayer’s drum throne. According to Araya, Lombardo’s breach of confidentiality was not only factually incorrect; it constituted a breach of his terms of employment.

  “He wasn't happy, so he decided to have his Facebook rant and told the world about a lot of issues going on within the band that are legally binding and private,” the singer told Brian Aberback of Steppin' Out magazine. “I thought that was wrong, and it was upsetting. A lot of the claims he made were untrue. Part of the agreement is you don't do that.”52-9

  To the rest of the band, the Facebook post was just not just a betrayal, but an insult.

  “After what happened with the Australia tour, we made the decision to move forward and make him aware that we no longer needed his services,” Tom told Grow. “He was really upset about that…. He said some things that he shouldn't have. It really upset us. And it upset me. I was fuming. I couldn't believe that he would throw that out in the court of public opinion.”52-10

  Araya and King made a conference call to Hanneman. They discussed the Dave situation. The trio made a decision52-11. Lombardo had to go. And for consistency’s sake, they would replace him with the men who replaced him last time. One at a time.

  KERRY’S VERSION

  King’s version of the story agrees on the timeline. The alpha male would not be dominated.

  “When Dave was in this last time, I figured I’d be on the stage with him until one of us fell off the stage, dead,” King recalled on the Steve Austin Show. “Things change. He got some bad advice and listened to some bad advice, gave us an ultimatum ten days before we went to Australia. And I said, ‘I can’t have this over my head.’ And I feel bad for Dave to this day, I really feel bad for him because he shot himself in the foot. Maybe he thought he had the upper hand, but you ain’t gonna get me…. Before I got home, I knew exactly what I was going to do for Australia.”In Australia, King described how the band was able to move forward without Lombardo so quickly:

  “I planned on him being here, up until the Monday before I left [for Australia],” King told Sound Wave TV’s Christina Rowatt. “And then I saw trouble in paradise, and since I’m the mastermind on making decisions like this, I was, like, ‘Alright, I’ve got a backup plan. Just in case.’ ’Cuz I would have hated to have just Australia blown out. Can you imagine how shitty that would have been? I love Australia, so I did what I thought was best, and we pulled it off.”52-12

  King also called into question Lombardo’s claim that the drummer and singer had been allied in the dispute. Even though he had plan B in place, King didn’t believe Lombardo would split with the band. But the singer did.

  “Tom‘s been on the fence about Dave for awhile,” King told Rowatt. “And I was pretty much the one that said, ‘Nah, I’m not comfortable moving on.’ And then it got thrust in our face, and I took action immediately, and I got a very lucky… culmination of things that happened.”

  King delivered checkmate.

  Once he was released, Lombardo personally tried reaching out to King and Araya. The messages went unreturned. Araya and King were busy lining up new drummers.

  DRUMMER UP: DETTE RETURNS

  Dette was in Australia anyway, drumming with Anthrax for the festival season. The replacement drummer had less than a week to practice, but he knew the catalog. Over three days of practice, his old muscle memory kicked in. The songs came back to him.

  “It was like riding a bike; it was like I’d never forgotten [how to play it],” Dette told Raquel Figlo of Big Drum Bonanza. “I think that our experience onstage… was such an amazing experience. Just because we all knew each other, and it was almost like a reunion, so to speak. It was a reunion under such unfortunate circumstances, but under those circumstances, an amazing result happened. So it was just an honor and privilege to be part of their history again.”

  Dette also noted that, despite the high-pressure circumstances, the atmosphere wasn’t too tense.


  “They’ve matured as people,” Dette told Figlo. “I think that things are much more — despite what’s happened with Slayer in recent years — they’ve become much more relaxed as people and maybe not so uptight with things.”52-13

  Slayer’s set at Brisbane, their first with Dette, was heavy on Hanneman material. The guitarist had contributed to every single song in the best-of setlist:

  1. “Disciple” (music by Hanneman, words by King)

  2. “War Ensemble” (music by Hanneman, words by Araya and Hanneman)

  3. “Die by the Sword” (lyrics and music by Hanneman)

  4. “Chemical Warfare” (lyrics and music by Hanneman and King)

  5. “Mandatory Suicide” (lyrics by Araya, music by Hanneman and King)

  6. “Altar of Sacrifice” (lyrics by King, music by Hanneman)

  7. “Jesus Saves” (lyrics by King, music by Hanneman and King)

  8. “Seasons in the Abyss” (lyrics by Araya, music by Hanneman)

  9. “Dead Skin Mask” (lyrics by Araya, music by Hanneman)

  10. “Angel of Death” (lyrics and music by Hanneman)

  11. “South of Heaven” (lyrics by Araya, music by Hanneman)

  12. “Raining Blood” (lyrics by Hanneman and King, music by Hanneman)

  Dette took the Slayer gig for the run through the festivals. For the Australian shows, he did double duty and still played with Anthrax. He had already joined King and Mustaine in the rare distinction of having played full sets with more than one Big Four group. (In 2004, Lombardo sat in for Metallica’s “Battery” and “The Four Horsemen” while Lars Ulrich was sick.)

  After 32 years, Araya and King were done with Lombardo.

  On the internet, hundreds of commenters had spasms. A vocal majority sided with Lombardo and denounced King as a money-hungry tyrant for diluting the lineup. But thousands more fans turned out to cheer at every Slayer concert.

  And Slayer, now, for the first time, was playing with just two original members.

  Statistically, that’s better than Korn touring with two of five classic-lineup guys (as they did in 2009). And it’s better than Sepultura and “the Misfits” playing with just their original bassist. And better than Guns N’ Roses, which is just Axl Rose and hired guns.

  Website Metal Sucks responded with its trademark one-two combination of well-informed commentary and wiseass wit. It created a graphic of one famous SLAYER logo in slashed letters, surround by quotation marks in the gnarly font: “SLAYER.” Then it served up the headline: “Watch Half of Slayer Perform a Whole Concert.”52-14 (The site also supported Chimaira’s ongoing existence with a new lineup featuring just its original singer, but the Slayer barbs did represent a vocal portion of the fanbase.)

  On April 1, Metal Sucks posted an April Fool’s Day story claiming that Araya couldn’t play an upcoming tour, and he would be replaced by former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. At that point, without the behind-the-scenes information, the fake news seemed believable.

  FALLOUT

  Lombardo didn’t waste time waiting for a reconciliation. He couldn’t afford to.

  In March 2013, Lombardo decided he wanted to renegotiate his contract with his ex-wife Teresa, too. He filed a request to set aside key parts of his divorce agreement. The divorce settlement was, he said, a bad deal — and one that he shouldn’t have entered into in the first place.

  “I am 48 years old,” he declares at the beginning of the document. “I have no formal education other than a high school diploma. I am a self-employed [sic] with my own lending services company, Drum Shaman, LLC…. When I signed the Stipulated Judgment I did not have an attorney and was representing myself, as I did not have the financial means to retain an attorney at the time…. I also believed (mistakenly) that a [child] support order could not be determined to be a fixed amount rather than using a percentage of my actual income…. While I can certainly read and write in English, I have, as indicated above, no formal education in law or family law, for that matter.”52-15

  The divorce records provide a glimpse into Slayer’s finances. As an employee of Slayer, Lombardo averaged around $200,000 a year in his final years with the group52-16. And he felt that cut of the group’s overall take was unacceptable.

  In 2011, Lombardo’s income included around $40,000 in assorted royalties. The vast majority of it was Slayer money, with under $1,000 from Ipecac Records, home to Fantômas and Philm52-17. While on tour, Slayer paid him $5,000 a week, plus all his expenses and travel costs; when the band was off the road, Lombardo was paid $4,000 a month as a retainer52-18.

  Now Teresa claimed she couldn’t pay her bills.

  “The reason we lost our house is because Petitioner [Dave Lombardo] decided to leave the marriage and I could no longer pay the mortgage of over $4,000 per month on our home on my one-half of the income,” she claimed in the divorce records. “Now my standard of living has drastically changed because of Petitioner’s decisions while he has a great job that takes him all over the world and he still basically lives the same standard of living.”52-19

  (Lombardo responded that his family lost the house “pursuant to a ‘short sale,’”52-20 a transaction in which a property is sold for less than the debts owed against it.)

  In short, Lombardo believed Teresa was still entitled to approximately half his income from the projects he had launched while they were together — but not necessarily the same dollar amount, as agreed to in their divorce settlement.

  As of this writing, that financial dispute was ongoing.

  Slayer retained the same management that had guided their career since 1986.

  As spring 2013 progressed, Hanneman sent Araya a new song he was working on52-21.

  Fans waited to receive an answer for when — and, God forbid, if — Hanneman would return to the band. Hell, King himself was still waiting for word.

  "I don't have an update,” King told MetalObsession.net's Nick Tevelis. “I haven't seen Jeff in forever. He's always been a recluse, and he's even been more of a recluse since he's not going on tour with us. But our manager talks to him from time to time and sees him in L.A. just randomly. But I'm far from L.A., so I'm not in that loop.”

  King said the band had begun to contemplate what was, then, the worst-case scenario.

  "If Gary played with us forever? I'm OK with that,” King told Tevelis. “But if Jeff got better and said, 'Hey, man, I'm ready to play,' and he came to rehearsal and showed us he was good enough, that's his show.”52-22

  In May 2013, Slayer fans received final word on Hanneman’s status. It was the answer nobody wanted.

  Click here to Google search “Slayer photos 2013”

  Chapter 53:

  Postmortem II

  Jeff Hanneman never made it back to Slayer.

  May 1, 2013. The collective Slayer fanbase are complaining about King’s domineering ways and calculating the over-under on Lombardo returning to the group.

  Even Lombardo is hopeful that he will return to the band. Israel radio station KZRadio asks Lombardo about his status with the group. Lombardo replies, “I hope things work out. I hope everything works out for the fans. That’s what I want.... When we get older and we can’t play anymore, I want the band to go out being still Slayer. ’Cause we’re all still alive. Can you imagine if one of us was dead?”53-1

  Lombardo’s rhetorical question receives a quick answer.

  Thursday, May 2, 2013. Slayer fans worldwide are arguing whether Slayer without Dave is really Slayer. Bad news hits the metal world like a shock wave.

  Jeff Hanneman, absent for over two years, is dead.

  Slayer issue a brief statement:

  “Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 – 2013)

  “Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and hi
s brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.”53-2

  Secondhand accounts link Hanneman’s untimely demise to the spider bite. In the following hours and days, the news graduates from entertainment sites to mainstream outlets like the New York Times. Reporters start investigating the cause of death, interviewing doctors and medical sources about how a spider bites culminates in liver failure a year and a half later.

  Questions go unanswered. Then the Slayer camp release a statement that clarifies the cause of death: “We've just learned that the official cause of Jeff's death was alcohol related cirrhosis. While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life. Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving – he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record.”53-3

  Medical sources don’t blame the spider.

  “The necrotizing fasciitis and the liver failure both are awful,” notes infectious-disease specialist Kent Sepkowitz, writing for the Daily Beast, “but despite the tidiness of the narrative suggesting that the old necrotizing fasciitis caused the new liver failure, the story is exactly the opposite: People with severe underlying medical problems, such as chronic liver disease, are at increased risk for necrotizing fasciitis.”53-4

  Only those closest to Hanneman saw it coming, but it’s still a shock.

  “Was I surprised by how he died? No,” King tells Jeff Kitts of Guitar World weeks later. “Was it a surprise that it was that quick? Yes.”53-5