FaceCulture conducted an interview with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya at the final show of the band's "European Carnage" tour with MEGADETH on April 14, 2011 in Eindhoven, Holland. You can now watch the chat in four parts below.
SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who was forced miss all of the band's shows this year after undergoing emergency surgery on his right arm in January, made a surprise appearance during the group's set last night (Saturday, April 23) at the "Big Four" concert at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, joining his bandmates on stage for the two-song encore of "South Of Heaven" and "Angel Of Death" (EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt filled in for Hanneman during SLAYER's main set).
In a recent interview with Austria's Stormbringer.at webzine, SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo stated about the decision to hire Holt as the initial temporary replacement for Hanneman, who is recovering from an infection thought to have been caused by a spider bite, "Well, that was a hard decision to make. We had to think to ourselves, 'Do we cancel — again? Or what do we do? Do we keep going?' It was a difficult decision, but we had to make it — to find a guitar player to take Jeff's place until Jeff gets better. And Gary, really, was a no-brainer — meaning, we didn't have to think about it. Because at Hellfest in France [in 2010], Kerry [King, SLAYER guitarist] and myself were watching EXODUS. And SLAYER and EXODUS go waaay back. We go back to '83 or '84 when we first got together and did shows up in San Francisco together. So we saw Gary play with EXODUS [again last year], and we loved it. And Gary's performance was outstanding. So the first person that came to our minds was Gary — to take the place for Jeff. Again, it was difficult to make that decision, but we had to do it to fulfill our shows; we couldn't cancel again."
Hanneman will return to the SLAYER lineup as soon as he has fully recovered.
While Hanneman's doctors were not able to definitively identify the infection's origin, they diagnosed necrotizing fasciitis, an infection caused by bacteria. According to WebMD, necrotizing fasciitis can destroy skin, fat, and the tissue covering the muscles. The disease sometimes is called "flesh-eating" bacteria.
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