[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]http://youtu.be/KXssEEydD9s[/youtube]
Drummer Dave Lombardo’s fallout from Slayer has been well publicized. Now, with Slayer’s Australian tour sans-Lombardo well underway with Jon Dette filling in, guitarist Kerry King has had a fair amount to say about the band’s current predicament. During an interview with Soundwave TV, King had a lot to say regarding the turn of recent events, saying:
“It’s unfortunate that Dave couldn’t be with us; I planned on him being here up until the Monday before I left. And then I saw trouble in paradise, and since I am the mastermind on making decisions like this, I was, like, ‘Alright, I’ve got a backup plan. Just in case.’ ‘Cause I would have hated to have just Australia blown out. Can you imagine how shitty that would have been? … So I did what I thought was best, and we pulled it off.”
While the dispute may have come to a surprise to him, King claims that Tom Araya actually saw it coming, saying “Tom’s been on the fence about Dave for a while 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 also gave new insight into the recording of Slayer’s long-delayed new album, admitting that though he has 11 songs written, previously confirmed producer Greg Fidelman made not be involved anymore. “I think Metallica’s got him monopolized. He had February open and I was hoping to get some work done in February, and then February just got too busy for us,” revealed King. “I don’t know. If he gets another window, I would like to do it between Australia and Europe in June… Just be done with it, and it could get mixed while I am out on tour and be out in September or October. That’s the perfect world, so we’ll see.”
But more importantly than who will produce the new Slayer album, who will play drums on it? When asked about taking a break from recording, King said the following:
“I’ve been working on the new material a lot, and I worked on it a lot with Dave. So I haven’t decided — if we move on — I haven’t decided if I play the new guy what we’ve done or just play him the guitar stuff that I made up and say, ‘What do you think?’ ‘Cause I know what I want to be there and I can tell him, if it’s going in the wrong direction, ‘Nah, you’ve gotta play this.’ I haven’t even thought this far yet.”
While it seems clear that Slayer still aren’t clear whether Lombardo will return to finish recording, it’s a safe bet that Dette (who King highly praises in the interview) is a top candidate for replacing Lombardo on the album. Either way, it looks like Rick Rubin isn’t the only reason to blame for the new record’s delay. Watch part one of Kerry King’s interview with Soundwave TV above, while part two can be seen after the jump.
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]http://youtu.be/Yh8BXxyLGMU[/youtube]
