DAVE LOMBARDO: If I Can Play With SLAYER One Time Every Ten Years, It'd Be Fun

SLAYER fans would be well advised to check out the latest issue of Midwest Metal magazine (click here to view official site),which features an excellent interview with drummer Dave Lombardo, conducted during the sticksman's recent brief reappearance as the group's touring drummer, and an equally interesting Q&A with guitarist Kerry King. A variety of topics are discussed, some of which have not been explored to the same degree elsewhere as they are in this fine publication. Here are a few select quotes lifted from the above-mentioned interviews (reproduced with the kind permission of Midwest Metal editor Thomas Trakas):

Dave Lombardo on how he ended up coming back to tour with the band:
They called me. And it was really a freak thing that happened, it was a week or so before Christmas and I got a call from the manager. He told me what happened to [former drummer] Paul [Bostaph] and this and that and he said the guys wonder if I wanted to do some shows as they had this tour booked for a certain amount of dates. And I considered it, it took me about 24 hours to consider it actually and I just said 'OK' we worked out a price and here I am.

Lombardo on his initial reaction to being asked to return:
I was going through ups and downs, 'No', 'Yes', 'No', 'Yes' I was excited about it and then I wasn't excited. I didn't know what to expect I didn't know how things were or how they felt, just things like that. I hadn't seen [frontman] Tom [Araya] or [guitarist] Jeff [Hannemann] in ten years, I never crossed their path, but I'd seen Kerry. I used to see him a few different places so the ice was broken with him and the manager as well so there was some apprehension and some excitement as well.

Lombardo on his reasons for coming back for the tour:
I [thought] about doing it for the fans. There's a whole generation of kids who have only heard what was, you know? And I think those who did see us are like 'wow, I'd like to see that again!' It's just the insanity of the music and the chemistry and you know it's really, really cool. So to the whole generation of kids I thought this would be great I mean if it can happen one time every ten years, it'd be fun.

King on JUDAS PRIEST's latest, Demolition:
Oh it's f.cking garbage! I've wiped my ass with better sh.t than that record, my god! It's f.cking atrocious! It sounds like [JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] Glenn Tipton's solo record from a few years back [Baptizm of Fire]and that sh.t was better than this! [Jugulator] was a little better than their new one, which isn't saying much.

I think HALFORD's new record [Resurrection] is bad ass, well the first song is bad ass, the first one sounds like a traditional PRIEST album opener but the rest sounded like filler.

King on Paul Bostaph's initial audition for the group:
I remember listening to FORBIDDEN and I was like, 'ah, he can't do it', so a buddy of mine called me up and told me to listen to it again, so I did and I thought to myself, 'he ain't f.cking anything up', but then again he wasn't doing anything interesting but that was because the music didn't require it. So when he came down to try out he messed up like three times in nine songs and I was like 'Holy Sh.t'!!! I mean he was just nailing stuff, stupid nailing stuff he was just playing it like the record, he wasn't changing stuff saying 'I thought this would go better here' or sh.t like that because I was always ready to tell people 'Don't f.ck with a great record, idiot'! People would come in, there was one dude who came in and said 'Dude, can we play 'Raining Blood', I just want to be able to say I was here and we played 'Raining Blood', how does it go?' "