Earlier this year, legendary Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo was kicked out of the band. The news became public shortly before Slayer began a string of Australian tour dates, leaving fans shocked and somewhat disappointed. Lombardo has offered his two cents on the Slayer split, but for the first time since the drummer's departure, frontman Tom Araya spoke out on exactly why Lombardo was given the boot.

On Feb. 14, Dave Lombardo was reportedly told by Slayer's lawyers that his services were no longer wanted. A week later, Lombardo took to his personal Facebook page to address the issue, describing business-related issues and shady practices. “Last year, I discovered 90% of Slayer’s tour income was being deducted as expenses, including the professional fees paid to management, costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us," Lombardo claimed. "Kerry made it clear he wasn’t interested in making changes and said if I wanted to argue the point, he would find another drummer."

Slayer did find a new drummer in Jon Dette for the Australian dates, later recruiting Paul Bostaph as the band's permanent drummer.

“That whole issue came down to this: Dave had been jamming with us for a while, as a working member of the band, but he wasn’t a partner,” Tom Araya tells Steppin’ Out. “Like all things like that, you have to have agreements, so nobody feels cheated. We had ongoing issues and finally he put us in a position where we had to find someone to replace him. He wasn’t happy, so he decided to have his Facebook rant and told the world about a lot of issues going on within the band that are legally binding and private. I thought that was wrong and it was upsetting. A lot of the claims he made were untrue. Kerry, [the late] Jeff [Hanneman] and I got on the phone and made a collective decision and we let Dave go and gave Paul [Bostaph] a call."

Araya didn't go into deep detail about those "legally binding and private" issues, so a bit of mystery still surrounds the ousting of Dave Lombardo.

Slayer are currently on a North American tour, performing an old-school set heavily based from the band's early years. Check out our recap and photo gallery of the Los Angeles gig here. For Slayer's full list of tour dates with Gojira and 4Arm, click here.

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