Before Slayer was traveling the world in style, they were touring the country in a Chevy Camaro in 1984. On a recent episode of The Jasta Show, then-drummer Dave Lombardo recalls trying to crash one of Mercyful Fate's in-store appearances and nearly dying in Montana.
"There was a period where Slayer was driving across country in a Camaro and a U-Haul truck. There's some kind of famous pictures of Slayer and Mercyful Fate together. We had met up in Seattle after a show in Olympia, Washington, at one of their in-stores. We went in there and [we were] just, like, 'Let's go crash their in-store.' So after that, we started heading east, 'cause we needed to go up to Winnipeg. And we were driving across Montana.
"And I was driving the Camaro. I believe I had the band — I think Kerry, Tom and Jeff were [in the car with me]; Kerry and Jeff in the backseat, Tom in the front, or vice versa — I don't know. And we hit black ice while I was driving. I tried to take control of the car, but the car started spinning. And luckily, we ended up just in a ditch. But, man, when I got out of that car, I was nervous, I was shaking, I was rattled. I thought we were gonna go off a cliff — 'cause it was night, it was dark, and you can't see anything out there. And you lose control of the car and you start spinning, and you're, like, 'Okay. This is it. All right, man. Take over.'"
"Three roadies were in the U-Haul, and the band was in the car. Sometimes we would switch out. Like I said, I don't know who exactly was in the car. Jeff, I think, might have been in there and Kerry. But I don't know if Tom was. The U-Haul truck was ahead of us, and we were kind of behind. They didn't know what had happened until after several minutes of not seeing us, they pulled over and waited for us. So we eventually got the car out of the ditch, but, man, my nerves were shot; I was rattled.
"Like I say, you don't know what's gonna happen. You lose control of the vehicle, and there's no way of gaining any kind of traction, especially up in Montana. It's an eye-opening moment."
