Slayer, the word is an institution in and of itself, with its membership complete these days with all four original players, setbacks due to lead singer Tom Araya’s back surgeries and the inclusion in the “BIG FOUR” tour and documentary along with other living legends of the metal world, Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax, Slayer are still going stronger than ever in their near 30 year career.

With a new The Vinyl Conflict box set out, on the eve of this interview back in August 2010, and the American Carnage tour about to begin, it was only time to talk to drummer Dave Lombardo, who was then in Canada, about sandwiches, Slayer, side projects, and Kerry King’s love for snakes.

Dave: Yo

Pandie: Hi Dave it’s Pandie, how are you doing?

Dave: Pandie how are you? Good, well you know, it’s not bad, when did you get back from tour?

Pandie: About two weeks ago.

Dave: Wow, how long were you gone?

Pandie: About a month, so I’m almost adjusted back to normal life, kind of.

Dave: Wow. You’ve got to jump into it night and day, you go out on tour, it’s all clubs and on stage and when you get home,  it’s like woah let’s go. I kind of get used to it pretty quick.

Pandie: Completely! Where are you exactly right now?

Dave: Toronto, I had a day off yesterday but we flew in and we played London, Ontario, then we fly over to England and we do a few shows in Europe that we need to make up and a few festivals or something like that.

Pandie: That’s cool, and then are you coming back to the States for your statewide tour?

Dave: Yeah right away we come back from Finland, and we jump on the States and the American Carnage starts.

Pandie: That should be cool, who’ve you got with you on that tour, Anthrax?

Dave: And Megadeth yeah.

Pandie: Have you got Testament joining you for a few dates?

Dave: They’re doing the Canadian Carmage

Pandie: The Canadian dates? Yeah that’s cool

Dave: Yeah and then we have Anthrax which should be fun, we’ve been having a good time.

Pandie: Tell me about your other projects you’ve got Philm going on, what else have you got going on?

Dave: Well I’ve been working on a project with Piers Baron over at Volcom, you know Volcom Clothing, and he has a side company called Volcom Entertainment and they put out records and soundtracks for skateboarding and snowboarding videos. So I’ve been putting together some drum tracks for a new snowboarding video that’s going to be out I think in the fall or winter of this year. I did that in my time off, I’ve been working on Philm, we finished doing this demo, working on that. We still haven’t landed a deal yet, we’re still looking for a home to put this music in, but that’s pretty much it, those two projects. I was just waiting for Slayer to take off and start working, and one delay after another, things started getting postponed and I just needed to put something together so I put Philm together. I’ve known Gerry (Nestler) the guitar play since ’97 and we’ve had this band since then. Now we have Pancho (Tomaselli) he plays in the band called War, and he’s in the band now. It makes things a little different, it’s definitely exciting.

Pandie: How would you describe the type of music, the sound, of Philm?

Dave: It’s a trio; it’s like a power trio. It’s described as post-hardcore I guess. There’s a little blues in there, there’s a little drum ‘n’ bass, there’s some industrial. It’s been compared to Jesus Lizard, it’s been compared to a little bit of Prong. But it’s very organic, it’s not dabbling in the electronic...yet. In the future I’m hoping to bring in some electronic sounds, more spacey, ambient sounds because Jerry can create those sounds with his guitar, you know.  We’re looking into kind of developing the band. Right now it’s a trio and it’s a little industrial sounding again without the electronics, it’s more of a musical style.

Pandie: I know you like a lot of different types of music, I know you like mindless self indulgence

Dave: There’s all kinds, I go from MSI to...I’m always watching out for new bands, there’s a new band called The Heavy, again very kind of organic, I’ve been getting to that and I’ll go from that to Amy Winehouse to Mindless Self Indulgence to The Locust. My catalogue of music is very diverse, probably like yours, I think you listen to all kinds of music too.

Pandie: You’ve kind of got to, especially I think it helps being a musician, obviously you’ve got to expose yourself to lots of things, don’t you think?

Dave: Absolutely, yeah it does. Because what is does is it opens your mind, like wow I could put this drumbeat into this. Nobody will know where it came from, just so long that it influences you in one way or another and you develop your own style. I think that’s what happened to me, to where I’ve never really closed any musical doors. I’ve always listened to it – it could be as weird as something Tibetan or (from) Afghanistan, or Turkish music and then you know we’ll start going into Moroccan and Spanish flamenco and listen to the influences there. And you start finding all these similarities in different music, whether it’s the beat or the melody or the notes that they use. And it’s cool because it all breaks down to twelve notes on the keyboard and it’s how you play those notes, that’s what makes everything interesting, you know?

Pandie: I actually read an interview you did where you said something like you don’t just play Slayer,  you  know how to play other things too. What kind of music would you really like to get into if you were going to get into something?

Dave: I would really like to get into Latin jazz, because you know I was originally born in Cuba. Or that dance music, that kind of spice in music, I really would like to get into that one day, but that’s going to take time. I still have to develop that even though I know it very well and apply it to my style of playing, like some of the drum rolls that I do are very much influenced by that Afro-Cuban style of playing. That is definitely what I would like to get into.

Pandie: That’s cool. What’s it like being on a Slayer tour, what exactly is it like?

Dave: Sometimes the fun just falls on your lap, like you know we’re having a blast. Other times you have to get out there and find some trouble, you have to be the one to start the party because it doesn’t seem like the other guys do anything like that, at least Jeff and Tom, but Kerry and myself, we try to hold the party flag and carry it around, “come on let’s do shots, or come on let’s go over and raise some hell” or whatever. It’s a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of work. But  I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining but it is a lot of work because not only the music is very demanding, but also our touring schedule is pretty brutal.

Pandie: I actually wrote an article for the suicidegirls blog recently on how to survive a tour, do you have any tips or advice for how to survive a Slayer tour...or any tour?

Dave: What I do is, I try to stay as healthy as possible. I have to because if not I will feel like shit, during the show and after the show. I just recently had a little drinking binge with a friend of mine who plays in Black Eyed Peas and he came over to the show in Quebec City or one of the cities here in Canada. We had like four beers at the restaurant and then after that we went to the hotel bar and got together with Kerry and Jeff and some of the crew guys and drank some more, and then we went to this other bar and drank...it ended up being one of those nights where you wake up the next day and feel like shit. What I try to do is kind of get that out of the way at the beginning or the end of the tour. At least have one time during the tour where I get totally hammered, then that’s it - the rest is just one constant buzz.  You try not to abuse your body that much and you try to eat right, drink the right juices and have a lot of vitamins – take a lot of vitamins. That’s pretty much it, that’s how I do it.

Pandie: Yeah, definitely. How is it different now from the beginning days of Slayer, like how life is with Slayer?

Dave: Well we’re talking U-haul trucks and a Camaro when we first started. Now we’re in a tour bus, business class...

Pandie: A nice Prevost tour bus

Dave: Yeah a Prevost tour bus, you know Four Seasons hotel here in Toronto. Things have changed, a little bit. I remember standing outside The Stone in San Francisco, this club that Slayer used to play at and I remember asking the kids in line for some money, for some change to go down the street  and buy myself something to eat with that money. You got any change? I’m the band. They didn’t care at the time, they were just there to see some metal show.

Pandie: Really? That’s crazy! You guys are kind of like an institution now. Slayer is fucking huge and keeps growing, why do you think that is? Do you think that’ll ever change?

Dave: You know, what I think is cool, is that we’re the same four members. Sometimes you lose that momentum when you start changing members, Slayer’s been able to regain that, I guess you know people say that’s because I’ve returned. And loyalty to the music, and loyalty to the fans, that is so important. When you start changing and you start talking shit in the press, it just ruins everything, the whole view of the group. A lot of things matter to keep that success going.

Pandie: For sure, you just have a video for World Painted Blood that I just saw. Do you know what the concept exactly was behind that video, were you involved with that?

Dave: Which one is that, oh the cartoon one?

Pandie: Yeah

Dave: I’m sorry I have absolutely no opinion on that.

Pandie: Reaaally?

Dave: Well let me be diplomatic, it’s pretty cool, that’s all I have to say. I don’t know whose idea that was but all I know is I’m in the video for about two seconds, wait one point six seven seconds. Which is okay, I don’t care.

Pandie: Are you guys going to make more videos for this album?

Dave: I don’t know. I’ve heard that it’s just a waste of money and there’s only a couple of video shows that play it.

Pandie: Yeah MTV doesn’t really play music anymore.

Dave: No it’s ridiculous!

Pandie: It really is. If you hadn’t joined Slayer, what do you think you’d be doing now?

Dave: I’d still be doing what I was doing when I wasn’t with Slayer, working with different bands, probably would have continued with Fantomas and I would have probably formed another group by now because the Grip Inc singer had died. So probably would have been doing what I was doing – creating. I don’t stop creating.

Pandie: Well that’s good!  How does it feel to be one of the bands considered “the big four” it’s kind of a big thing, the big four, you played these big four shows, there was this documentary..?

Dave: Awesome, it’s like,  how do I say this? it’s time to recognize! Because we’ve been around for such a long time, and Metallica kind of went away from  its hardcore fans, and now for them to come back and do these shows with us and kind of relock themselves with what they started, what we all started. I think it’s great, it was really, really good. I had Mustaine texting me last night “come down to my room.”  It’s a really cool camaraderie that’s being re-established, everybody’s getting along, it’s great. It’s a lot of fun.

Pandie: That’s cool! The name Slayer has this certain ideology associated with it, this image of a kind of a Satanic, devil-worshipping, chaos-loving thing, what are your personal views on this, is this what you think too?

Dave: Personal views, I mean it all started to gain attention, you know, Venom was up there they were doing it, Merciful Fate they were doing it, so you know what, Slayer is so synonymous with being something evil so we had to kind of marry the two in a way and it’s just stuck. And it’s kind of cool because we dabble in the darker things, whereas Metallica is a little more...brighter you know, they’re not as dark as Slayer is. So we’ve established our own personality which is really cool because some bands go through their entire career without finding themselves, or try to establish a career without really knowing who they are and I’ve realized that I like music with kind of like that hard edge, that’s a little darker, a little twisted, it just dabbles in the minor keys I like that.

Pandie: For sure, have you ever gotten yourself into some strange situations because of this, you know, fans who want to get you involved in some black magic and satanic rituals?

Dave: No, nothing like that, but my life has not been free of dabbling in things maybe I shouldn’t have dabbled, so you know it’s there, it’s always there.

Pandie: Kerry King told suicidegirls.com in 2007 about snake breeding, do you ever do anything crazy like breed snakes as well?

Dave: No I don’t, he does though, he’s always doing that, you know reptile magazines on the plane...

Pandie: Does he ever take them on tour with you?

Dave: No, no, last time he did that he bought a snake somewhere in Canada I think and it was in the U-Haul truck I think and I remember him feeding it at the hotel, we had let it loose and we bought a rabbit and put it on the ground and the snake went after it really quick. The scream that that rabbit made...it was pretty creepy.

Pandie: That is creepy! With the back surgery that just happened with Tom, that meant some cancelled dates, did you have any angry fans?

Dave: Yeah all the fans have been really understanding, I think the response that the fans have given us on stage, you know the applause when we walk out on stage, I think that says it right there. They understand. There’s really nothing we can do, you just have to give Tom his time, you know we’re going to need our time maybe in the future where we’re going to have to heal from something or whatever, you just go with it, you go with the flow and just let it be. But no we haven’t got any slack or anything from any fans. And if there is one fan out there, I’m sure he’ll get a beating by his friends!

Pandie: Well that’s good! Is everything all okay with him now, he’s all already to go now?

Dave: Yes, he’s good, everybody’s doing good, the shows are kicking ass. Well we had to cancel a couple shows in Europe because of his voice but he got some vocal tips from a teacher so he’s doing much better.

Pandie:  I have one last question that I was told to ask you by a mutual friend of ours – he said to ask you, when was the last time you went to The Hat?

Dave: (laughing) Oh God! When did we go to the Hat? Have you ever had anything at that place?

Pandie: Noo, what do they have there?

Dave: You haven’t? Oh my god it’s great! Pastrami sandwiches, the most amazing pastrami sandwiches. The last time I was there...damn I don’t remember! It must have been before I left on tour to Europe, because I didn’t go when I was home for like ten to eleven days. I was just home for a while and had to leave again and I didn’t go by that area where the Hat is located.

Pandie: Is that one of your favorite places?

Dave:  Yeah it’s great, two friends were helping me move out of my house up in the high desert and I said “we’ve got to stop at this really good sandwich place it’s called The Hat,” and they both look at each other and start laughing. I go “what are you guys laughing about, man, come on!” And they go “Dave it’s our favorite place” and they had pictures of The Hat and the menu and all that stuff. It was cool, it was a great moment.