73 Facts About Dave Lombardo

David Lombardo was born on February 16,1965 and is a Cuban-American drummer, best known as a co-founding member of the thrash metal band Slayer.

Dave Lombardo currently plays drums with Fantomas, Dead Cross, Mr Bungle, Empire State Bastard, and Misfits.

Dave Lombardo previously played drums on nine Slayer albums, including Reign in Blood and Christ Illusion.

Dave Lombardo has performed with numerous other bands, including Grip Inc.

Dave Lombardo is widely known as an aggressive heavy metal drummer.

Dave Lombardo has had a significant influence on the metal scene and inspired modern metal drummers, particularly extreme metal drummers.

Dave Lombardo was born in Havana, Cuba, on February 16,1965, where his father owned three meat markets.

Dave Lombardo is of Italian descent through his paternal great-grandfather, who relocated to Cuba in the 19th century.

Dave Lombardo moved with his family to South Gate, California, when he was two years old, and still speaks Spanish.

Dave Lombardo has two older brothers and an older sister; his brothers had previously emigrated to the US via Operation Peter Pan.

Dave Lombardo learned to play Kiss' "100,000 Years" by repeatedly listening to the record until he could play the drum solo perfectly.

Dave Lombardo grew bored because the lessons were repetitive and did not challenge him.

Dave Lombardo's friends introduced him to disco, which appealed to his affinity for funk, Latin and soul.

Dave Lombardo became a temporary DJ for a mobile disc jockey under the name A Touch of Class.

Unimpressed with their son coming home at 4:00 am, Dave Lombardo's parents pressured him into quitting the DJ gig or face military school.

Dave Lombardo returned to playing rock music in 1978 and befriended several like-minded musicians around South Gate.

Dave Lombardo performed Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode" with a guitarist named Peter Fashing during the school's talent show.

Dave Lombardo soon formed a band named Escape with two guitarists.

Dave Lombardo found a vocalist to join the band after he transferred to South Gate High School in 1979.

Dave Lombardo's parents convinced him to quit the band because he was withdrawing from everything except music.

Dave Lombardo honored her wish and graduated from South Gate High School in June 1983.

Immediately following, Dave Lombardo was recommended by his technical drafting teacher to Diesel Energy Systems Company.

When he was 16, Dave Lombardo's friends told him about a guitar player, Kerry King, who lived a few blocks away.

Dave Lombardo introduced himself, mentioned he played drums, and shared that he wanted to start a band.

Dave Lombardo enlisted producer Rick Rubin for their third album Reign in Blood.

Unhappy with the change, Rick Rubin repeatedly called Dave Lombardo asking his return.

Dave Lombardo initially refused before eventually returning to the band in 1987.

Dave Lombardo recorded drums on the Slayer albums South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss.

Dave Lombardo left Slayer because he wanted to be present for his first child's birth.

Dave Lombardo was firm in his decision and insisted he would not miss his child's birth.

Ten years after leaving Slayer, Dave Lombardo got a phone call from the band in 2001, asking if he would like to perform a few shows.

King thought Dave Lombardo was not up to snuff, but was "blown away" by Dave Lombardo's performance in rehearsals.

Dave Lombardo's first show was at Toad's Place in New Haven, Connecticut on January 24,2002.

Dave Lombardo toured with Slayer as part of Ozzfest, H82k2, Summer Tour, and the 2004 Download Festival.

Dave Lombardo performed the songs "Battery" and "The Four Horsemen", while Jordison and Larsen performed the rest of the songs.

Dave Lombardo recorded drums on Slayer's 2006 release Christ Illusion, promoting the album on The Unholy Alliance tour.

King said Dave Lombardo was a major attraction for the fans, and one of the reasons for their surge in popularity.

Dave Lombardo recorded another album with Slayer in 2009, titled World Painted Blood.

Dave Lombardo left the band in February 2013 shortly before the band was scheduled to play Australia's Soundwave festival, due to further contract and pay disputes with band members.

Dave Lombardo stated that he had no interest in attending their final performances because he was busy with his own musical projects.

An early five-piece line-up briefly featured former Overkill guitarist Bobby Gustafson who claims to have come up with the name Grip which Dave Lombardo expanded to Grip Inc after Gustafson's departure in order to avoid a potential lawsuit.

Jeffries praised Dave Lombardo's "crushing drum work" which takes center stage on the album.

Dave Lombardo said the band is on the "back burner" because of time taken up touring with Slayer.

Dave Lombardo left the group a couple of months later and proclaimed its demise in early 2016.

In 1998, Dave Lombardo joined a side project called Fantomas with Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton and Melvins' guitarist Buzz Osborne.

Dave Lombardo revealed the formation of yet another new musical project, Dead Cross, in November 2015.

Dave Lombardo joined crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies in February 2016 and toured with the band for their spring tour with Megadeth and summer European dates.

Fans speculated Dave Lombardo was only playing with the band as a fill-in drummer.

The video showed Dave Lombardo recording drums for a new album, World Gone Mad.

Dave Lombardo performed two shows - one on December 28,2017, at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas and December 30,2017, at the Forum, Los Angeles, California, in which all 16,000 tickets for the show were sold out in less than one minute.

Dave Lombardo has continued to drum for them and has played at every reunion show from 2016 to the present year.

In 2019, Dave Lombardo was announced as the drummer for the seven upcoming Mr Bungle reunion shows in 2020 in which the band performed their 1986 demo The Raging Wrath of The Easter Bunny.

In 1999, Dave Lombardo performed drum work on the Testament album The Gathering, rounding off a veritable "supergroup" with Steve Di Giorgio and James Murphy.

On March 1,2022, it was announced that Dave Lombardo had rejoined Testament as the replacement of Gene Hoglan, who had left the band nearly two months earlier.

Dave Lombardo expressed uncertainty that he would return to Testament after announcing that he would be sitting out of the band's 2023 tour dates.

Dave Lombardo has appeared on two albums by John Zorn: Taboo and Exile and Xu Feng performing with Zorn, Bill Laswell, Fred Frith, William Winant and others.

Dave Lombardo played in Paris with Zorn, Laswell and Frith in an improvisatonal quartet project called Blade Runner.

Dave Lombardo played an epic drum solo accompanied by a swarm of angry bees on the track "The Man in Black".

In 2005, Dave Lombardo recorded Drums of Death with DJ Spooky.

Spooky played some records with Dave Lombardo playing along and interpreting his own rhythms.

Dave Lombardo recorded six tracks with the Finnish cello metal group Apocalyptica on their 2003 album Reflections.

Dave Lombardo has contributed to television and film scores including Dawn of the Dead, Insidious: Chapter 3, and the seventh season of the Showtime series Californication.

On March 1,2023, Dave Lombardo was announced as touring drummer for a short run of UK shows by Empire State Bastard, the side project of Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil, and touring guitarist Mike Vennart.

Dave Lombardo named Bill Ward, Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, Ian Paice and Ginger Baker as main influences at early age.

Dave Lombardo is known for his fast, aggressive style of play utilizing the double bass drum technique which has earned him the title "the godfather of double bass" by Drummerworld.

Dave Lombardo comes into the venue 10 or 15 minutes before we hit the stage and he doesn't warm up.

Dave Lombardo just goes and does it, after me and Jeff [Hanneman, guitarist] have been warming up for like an hour.

Dave Lombardo's work has been an influence on many rock and heavy metal drummers.

Per Moller Jensen of The Haunted cites Dave Lombardo as a major influence, having grown up listening to Slayer; the band was a big influence on his style and The Haunted's.

Dave Lombardo endorses and uses Tama Drums, Promark Drumsticks, Paiste Cymbals and Remo Drumheads.

Dave Lombardo is left handed, but drums right handed and plays a right handed kit.

Dave Lombardo began the creation of his first art collection, "Rhythm Mysterium" in early 2014.

The book is a comprehensive look at Dave Lombardo's artwork built from rhythm, and the vinyl contains Lombardo's improvised drum interpretations for each art piece within the book.