Kerry King: Dave Lombardo is “dead to me”

Kerry King has slammed his former Slayer bandmate Dave Lombardo, calling the drummer “dead to me” in a new interview.

When Rolling Stone asks King if he’s spoken to Lombardo after Slayer fired him in 2013, he says, “No. Lombardo is dead to me.”

• READ MORE: Listen to Idle Hands, the blazing first single of Kerry King’s forthcoming solo album
  

The guitarist explained of Lombardo’s departure, which occurred shortly before the band were due to play Soundwave festival, “He went on that tirade when we were on a flight to Australia, and he knew we couldn’t retort for 14 hours, and he threw me under the bus. I was the only one keeping him in the band.

“Tom [Araya] wanted him out before that, and [the late] Jeff [Hanneman] had just gotten the spider bite, so he wasn’t playing with us much. I said, ‘We need [Dave]. The fans won’t get it if we replace him right now.’ And then the Australia thing came up. He threw me under the bus, and I’m like, ‘I’m the guy that kept you here.’ So I thought, ‘Fuck that guy.’”

King went on to discuss the financial conflicts that also contributed to Lombardo leaving Slayer, saying, “He’s super impressionable. He was listening to this woman that was his attorney at the time, and she thought we had Metallica money, which we’ve never had fucking Metallica money. So she’s just blowing shit in his ear, and he thinks he should be getting more than he should be getting. It’s like, talk to somebody that actually knows the situation and isn’t just blowing sunshine up your ass to make money in your commission.”

Yesterday (5 Feb) King also announced his debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, and shared the lead single Idle Hands. The album is set for release on 17 May, and features King’s former Slayer bandmate Paul Bostaph on drums, as well as Mark Osegueda on vocals, guitarist Phil Demmel, and bassist Kyle Sanders.