Slayer’s Dave Lombardo Left Out Of Australian Tour

Dave Lombardo. Photo: Sony Music

Grammy-winning metal band Slayer’s drummer Dave Lombardo announced on Facebook today that he will no longer be part of Slayer’s 2013 Australia Tour, which is scheduled to begin on February 23^rd. Lombardo said that accounting discrepancies were his reason for the skipping the tour. “Last year, I discovered 90% of Slayer’s tour income was being deducted as expenses including the professional fees paid to management, costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us,” he posted adding that he was “shocked by the situation.”

In response to Lombardo’s objections to the band’s business practices, the drummer was notified last Thursday by the band’s lawyer that he would be replaced for the upcoming tour. “I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays realizing I had toured all over the world in 2012, but yet, had not been paid (except a small advance) or provided a proper accounting for a full year’s sweat and blood,” he added.

Since 2011, Slayer’s guitarist Jeff Hanneman stopped touring with the American thrash metal band, after having contracted necrotizing fasciitis (a flesh eating disease), leaving just Kerry King and Tom Araya from the original lineup for the upcoming tour. King and Lombardo, the founding members of Slayer, are not in agreement lately: “Kerry made it clear he wasn’t interested in making changes and said if I wanted to argue the point, he would find another drummer,” Lombardo added.

Read Dave Lombardo’s original post here