During a recent interview with the magazine Revolver, Dave Lombardo, ex-drummer for Slayer, was asked if he wished to play in the band’s final tour in 2018-2019, since he was unable to perform alongside his old bandmates. According to Blabbermouth, he said, “No, not really. I was already doing so much… I’d known for years that Tom wanted to retire, so it was no surprise. During the later years — I left in ’13, so maybe around 2009 or 2010 — Kerry and I were thinking about putting together another band. It might have been at Hellfest when Kerry and I said, ‘Hey, let’s go see Exodus.’ We walked to one of the other stages and we saw Gary Holt play. I said, ‘Dude, that guy’s a badass.’ And Kerry was, like, ‘Yeah, that’s who we need to recruit for this new project.’ And again, at that time we knew Tom wanted to stop. He was tired. And then the whole Jeff Hanneman thing went down and the first person that crossed our minds was Gary Holt.”

When asked further about whether or not he would agree to play with Slayer again if the opportunity arose, Lombardo said, “I don’t even go down that path. I don’t see it ever happening. If they ever do decide to come back, they’re going to piss off a lot of fans because, man, they really hyped that farewell tour. They’re going to have to be very careful on how they approach that. But who cares? The fans will be happy regardless. So, I don’t even think about that.”

Photo credit: Marv Watson.