Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. by D.X. Ferris Read Free Book Online Page B

you had to step over Hanneman, who was passed out on the staircase. Hanneman was the band’s party king, but Slayer’s actual King was absent.
     
    “I’ve never known Kerry to be a party guy,” recalled De Pena. “He’s driven as hell. He bleeds Slayer blood, and I’m sure he goes to bed thinking about Slayer The ones that I remember partying most were Hanneman and Araya. The stories about Jeff Hanneman are legendary.”
     
    King wouldn’t take his first drink until he was 21, and never used drugs. Since he skipped the parties, even scene regulars just knew him as a swaggering, cocksure figure at shows. But he was shy when pinned down one-on-one, hesitant to make eye contact. In either mode, he wasn’t as well-liked as Araya and Hanneman.
     
    “I thought he was pompous jerk,” recalled De Pena. “But now, I totally get him, and I understand what he’s about. He’s one of the guys that I respect most in the music scene.”
     
    Also absent was drummer Dave Lombardo, who was already sidelined with future wife, Teresa. She was two years older than Lombardo, but her brother had been in his class in elementary school. She caught Lombardo’s eye when shopping at K-Mart in Cudahy, California. At the time, the community was a seedy, small, trailer-park-dense city in Los Angeles county. Lombardo worked at the department store, often serving as a greeter at the courtesy desk. He didn’t always make a great impression. For some shifts, he would show up dead tired, with raccoon eyes from the makeup he wore at the previous night’s show. One day Teresa walked in, and he locked in on her. And their paths wouldn’t diverge for nearly 30 years. (The former Mrs. Lombardo’s name is most often transcribed as “Theresa,” but it’s “Teresa.”)
     
    Teresa’s ongoing presence eventually became the greatest source of friction in the band’s 30-plus year history. The future Mrs. Lombardo saw Slayer play a party early its career. She was on hand for the band’s first club show.But she was no groupie or club rat.  As Slayer’s renown for thrashing it up on and offstage grew, the Lombardo clique completely skipped the party scene. The drummer remained loyal to his number-one fan.
     
    Recalled Lombardo, “We had our own party going on.”
     
     
     

Chapter 7:
    Slayer Takes the Scene
     
    From the start, Lombardo and Slayer were often on different pages. Araya, Hanneman, and King were the product of local public schools. Lombardo attended Catholic school until high school.
     
    Slayer had played their first show Halloween, 1981 7-1 , an afternoon show at South Gate Park Auditorium Battle of the Bands. Hanneman didn’t get much attention at home. But on stage, he did.
     
    “I was nervous as fuck before we went on,” Hanneman recalled for Guitar World ’s Randy Howard 7-2 . “But as soon as we started playing, I loved it, because I loved showing off. Once I got up there, I was like, ‘Yeah! This is great!’”
     
    The all-cover set included “Rock the Nation” by Montrose, Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” and if Hanneman recalled correctly, UFO’s “Lights Out.” 7-3
     
    When the aspiring musicians weren’t partying like rock stars, Slayer played shows wherever they could: high schools, house parties, and back alleys behind industrial units, where they could unload their gear and plug in to an unprotected outlet.
     
    Slayer hit the big time in June 1982, landing their first cover photo. It was part of a feature in South Gate High School’s Rambler . The student paper gave the band a vague review in a feature about a new program that let bands play lunchtime gigs Fridays — if no conflicting events were scheduled 7-4 .
     
    “When we started, nobody liked us,” said King. “We just kept going, and people stuck around.”
     
    After a year, the band graduated to club gigs at Costa Mesa’s Concert Factory and Anaheim’s bar the Woodstock Concert Theater, a middle ground for heshers from Los