Dave Lombardo has been doing a lot of media interviews the last few months, promoting his new band Philm. He's also been talking a lot about his breakup from Slayer. So much so that you'd think he hates Slayer and takes any opportunity to bash them. But that's not quite true. It's not his fault interviewers keep asking him questions about it, and then blogs basically just pull the one moment from the forty minute interview where he talks about his former band.
But, Lombardo is learning. When we recently interviewed him for the Livecast, we got specific instructions that if we ask about Slayer, he will likely hang up. Which is fine, we didn't want to talk about anything negative anyway.
But it looks like the damage has been done. A few weeks ago, Lombardo mentioned that he had written all the drum parts for the next Slayer album to the point where we asked if he would be given proper credit (the answer is likely no). Naturally, all of this has gotten back to the current drummer for the band, and he is none too pleased.
In a new interview with AndrewHaug.com, Bostaph talks about writing the new album and then basically takes a jab at Lombardo:
"Kerry has a specific way he writes, and it really hasn't changed throughout the years. That's the one thing about Kerry and, respectfully, Jeff that I knew. I knew how they wrote. Both Kerry and Jeff have a very strong idea of what they want the drums to do when they come in. Kerry, when he comes in and he shows you an arrangement, he's gonna go, 'I want this kind of beat here,' or 'that kind of beat here,' or 'double bass here.' After a while, you figure it out and you interject your different ideas into the parts. Certain drum fills here, or maybe there's a part of the song where he's, like, 'I don't really know what I want the drums to do here, so do whatever you do here.'"
He continued: "It's kind of one of those things where I've written with Kerry so many times. The first time I [wrote] with him was 'Divine Intervention' and Kerry and I roomed together. So I got to know how he did things over the years pretty well. So when Kerry shows you something, I know he's got in his mind what he wants. So there's not a lot of room for a drummer to do anything in the music, but you have to know how to color it. But certainly the songs are brought in in a very strong format before you really get a chance to dig in. And maybe the arrangements may change a little bit here or there, but that's one of those things where you've just gotta get in a room [and work it out].
"Like I said before, I know what the structure is. And I know what to change and what not to change.
"It's a tough nut to crack here.
"I'm not gonna call Dave 'the other guy.' He's Dave. He's Dave Lombardo.
"People tell me all the time about, 'Hey, he said this,' 'He said that.' And it's one of those things, it's like… After a while, you've just gotta, like…
"I just wanna play drums, man. That's all there is to it.
"In terms of the new record, I heard that Dave [said that he] wrote all the parts on the new record for the drums. It's funny that I didn't see him anywhere around when I was working on the music. So it's one of those things where I get where he's coming from, but, man, there's two sides to every story, and I'm getting a little tired of hearing his. And I'm just gonna leave it at that, because I don't take it personally."
You can't blame him! And, for bloggers like myself, this is the type of stuff dreams are made of – DRUMMER FUED!!! But, it's clear that's not the case, so we will avoid sensationalizing this story and instead just point out how musicians should be really careful with what they say in interviews, because one pullquote can change perceptions and create drama where there previously was none.
[h/t Blabbermouth]
