Yesterday, everybody was shocked when Dave Lombardo announced he was sitting out the band's current Australian tour, bringing the count of original members on stage down to 1/2. You can read Lombardo's statement here, but basically it all came down to the money.
Today, Slayer collectively released a statement responding to Lombardo, essentially disagreeing with him, but also seemingly taking the high road. Here it is in full:
“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. 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.”
As I mentioned yesterday, it just pains me to see this go down. I don't want to pick a side. I just want them to get along.
In a moment of great coincidence, Lombardo posted the following photo on his Facebook page:
Of course, that is original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, with whom Lombardo had dinner this weekend. Ward has had his fair share of disputes with his band as well. Hopefully, things can get resolved quicker for Slayer.
