Dave Lombardo: Yeah, he’s fine. We took a day off. He lost his voice in Melbourne, we cancelled Adelaide, which was the day after, and flew to Perth. He was fine after that.
You had to wing it a bit during the Melbourne show, I understand, and even play some songs as instrumentals.
I wish they were all instrumentals. We had some people I didn’t even know who they were, and I don’t know who they were to this day, get up there and try to sing Slayer without knowing the words. It was a joke. You can’t have another singer without rehearsal, or any other musician for that matter, go up on stage and try to pull off what the band is trying to do. It’s just stupid. I didn’t approve of that. I’m sympathetic toward Tom losing his voice, but I’m not into bringing other musicians up on stage and trying to pull this off. You don’t want to short change the kids. At least the kids could have sang it on their own. They might have done a better job. I don’t know who went up there, but it was horrible, almost to the point of embarrassment.
Was that the first time you had to do something like that?
It was the second or third time. I hope it never happens again. If Tom loses his voice, shut the stage down. Nobody else is to sing the songs.
With so much material under your belt, is it tough to put together setlists for tours?
I would think so, but I’m not the one who does that. Kerry does. We pull out the hits, the best ones. But with this record, I want to play a lot of it, half minimum. There are a lot of great songs on there.
Is it any different for you playing the songs from the albums you weren’t a part of recording?
When I listen to the old songs they did, I approach them as being demos. Then I will do what I do to them. That’s what I did.
I was looking at your Wikipedia page, and it’s amazingly detailed with biographical information.
They got that info from my website. I sat down and wrote an autobiography. I put in all the details of everything. I guess they picked that out and added it to Wikipedia. It’s pretty accurate unless somebody changed my birthday from 1965 to 1955, or put a middle name where I don’t have one. Somebody was joking around and put David Juan Lombardo. I went in and changed it. I don’t know what’s there now.
There’s been talk that President Obama may open things up with Cuba, where you’re from, and allow travel there. Do you still have family there, and would you be interested in visiting Cuba if it was allowed?
Absolutely. I still have family in Cuba. I’ve also made contact with a record company called Brutal Beatdown Records. It’s a French based company, but the A&R guy lives in Cuba. He’s worked with various Cuban metal bands. I’ve contacted him, and I’m looking forward to maybe one day going over there and producing a record of these bands doing remakes of Slayer songs. It would be a Slayer tribute with Cuban musicians.
Are your kids showing any musical interest or aptitude?
Yes, all three of them are. My oldest is the drumline captain for the high school. He’s a senior now. He’s moving onto college and continuing with his engineering and producing skills. Jeremy is a great pianist and is doing well in school. Sophie is taking piano also, and loves music. My daughter told me the other day she knows how to only listen to the bass drum or just the high hat. That takes a lot of skill. A lot of people don’t know how to do that, they just listen to it as a whole. She knows how to tear things apart in her mind when she listens to things.
So you’d support them if they wanted to embark on a musical career?
Absolutely. But I think it’s really important to have some sort of management skills, accounting skills. It goes hand in hand. You hear horror stories of musicians who don’t have anything left in their later years. You need to learn how to do it right.
