Testament recently named Dave Lombardo as their new drummer, though he was far from the only person to apply for the position. In an interview with Mike Trujillo of Zero Hour Squared, Testament vocalist Chuck Billy reveals that both Paul Bostaph and Chris Adler also applied to join the band. Bostaph had already been in Testament here and there between 1992 and 2011, while Adler contributed drums to the bonus track "A Day In The Death" on the band's 2012 record Dark Roots Of Earth.
"You know, we did reach out to Paul [Bostaph] – Paul got back to us later after Dave committed," said Billy. "But, you know, there's a lot of great drummers, we got a lot of great drummers – and the one that was right there, if he had made the decision, we probably almost would have chosen him before Dave even contacted us, because we were putting our feelers out before the announcement.
"But Chris Adler was one guy who was ready to step up and come in, and then, just the last minute [he] came out to – he just wasn't ready to do that.
"And so we're like, Okay, back to the drawing board. And then we made the announcement. And then Dave got a hold of us. So, you know, it worked out great. We've had – Dave came up about three or four weeks ago, we had a week of rehearsals, and then he came up about two weeks [ago], we'll go for another week of rehearsals, and then he'll be up here next week for the final rehearsals with us. And it was just fun hanging out. You know, just catching up. And, you know, so it just felt like, you know, putting on an old pair of shoes he hadn't worn in a while."
Lombardo was previously in Testament between 1998 and 1999, and played on (and helped write) the 1999 record The Gathering. He's also expressed interest in helping write the upcoming record.
