Sepultura's farewell tour was set to mark the end of an era, but just weeks before the first show, longtime drummer Eloy Casagrande abruptly left the band — to ultimately join Slipknot, even when those details were unknown at that point — in a move that blindsided his former bandmates. Now, in a new interview with Overdrive.ie, Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser reflected one more time on the surprising departure and how the band moved forward with drummer Greyson Nekrutman stepping in at the last minute.
When asked whether Casagrande's decision to leave was connected to Sepultura's upcoming farewell tour, Kisser didn't hold back his frustration. "I have no idea, man. You have to ask him. Because we were very surprised by his decision," Kisser said, adding that Casagrande's exit came after years of preparation for the tour. "We were working on the Sepultura farewell tour for two years — with him — and three weeks before the first show, he decided to leave out of nowhere. It was really weird."
Kisser emphasized how involved Casagrande had been in planning the farewell shows. "And he decided three weeks before the first date that we had been working for two years to happen, with his approval and everything – we were discussing setlist and all the effects and everything — but he decided to go at that moment and he left," he explained. The sudden change left the band scrambling for a replacement, but Kisser soon had a potential candidate in mind: Greyson Nekrutman.
"My son, Yohan, showed me his videos," Kisser said. "Derrick [Green, Sepultura singer] saw him playing with Suicidal Tendencies in L.A. And he came to my mind right away. And I called him, and 48 hours later, we were together. [Laughs]"
Despite the unexpected shift, Kisser expressed confidence in Nekrutman's ability to fill Casagrande's shoes. "Yeah, we had to rebuild or to rehearse with Greyson," he said. "He did an amazing, amazing job. Every time it's better. Every time we got connected, playing, touring more, and getting to know each other better. And it's fantastic."
Interestingly, there's been a noteworthy drummer shuffle between Sepultura, Slipknot, and Suicidal Tendencies, which honestly feels like the musical chairs game in real life. Casagrande left Sepultura for Slipknot, former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg joined Suicidal Tendencies, and Nekrutman stepped into Sepultura's lineup.
For Kisser, it seems like a win-win situation for all involved. "For us, it's great. I guess for Eloy, Slipknot is great as well. And for Jay — maybe it was better for everyone."
Meanwhile, Casagrande recently shared his side of the story in an interview for the cover story of the January 2025 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, detailing how he got the call from Slipknot and why he ultimately decided to leave Sepultura. "Everything happened at the end of 2023 when I got a call from Slipknot's manager asking me if I was interested in doing an audition for Slipknot," he said.
At that point, Sepultura's farewell tour was already on the horizon. "That year, Sepultura decided to stop playing, so it was a very natural decision for me to keep playing with someone else instead of just retiring," Casagrande explained. He described the Slipknot audition process as highly secretive. "At the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, I wasn't supposed to talk to anyone about that. The audition was a big secret. Nobody could know about it. Sepultura didn't even know, it was just something between me and the guys from Slipknot. It was my decision to do the audition. I said, ‘Okay, I'm interested in doing an audition because Sepultura is going to stop. I have one and a half years left of working with them and I'm going to be done.'"
Casagrande's admiration for Slipknot made the transition an easy choice. "Through the years, I have played many times with Slipknot," he said. "We shared stages when I was playing Sepultura, and that was the place that I always wanted to be. I grew up listening to their music, so I wanted to have the experience playing live with Slipknot with a mask on my face."
The moment he joined Slipknot on stage was surreal for Casagrande. "In my first show with the band I was thinking, ‘Oh, this is really happening. Oh my god. I can't believe it.'"
