Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. (24 page)

Gallery 3: Slayer 1986 and 2009

Slayer live, during the second show of a two-night stand in New York City’s Ritz, 7 December 1986. Left: Hanneman, playing a BC Rich Bich. Right: King and his first love: a BC Rich Mockingbird. Both axes fortified with note-bending Kahler whammy bars. Note Hanneman’s sleeveless Yngwie Malmsteen shirt. Photo by Georges Sulmers, one of Rubin’s informal rock department at Def Jam.

Live at the Ritz, Araya front and center. Background: King. Photo by Sulmers.

Live at the Ritz: Hanneman. Photo by Sulmers.

Live at the Ritz: Hanneman shreds, showing some soul. Photo by Sulmers.

Live at the Ritz: Hair flying, Lombardo thrashes his kit. Photo by Sulmers. The Ritz shows were his last before he left the band (the first time).

Live at the Ritz: King sports a Venom tee and stubble.  Photo by Sulmers.

Flash forward 23 years: King at the 2009 Mayhem Festival. Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Photo by Johnny Angell Multimedia/Photography/Music Production,
www.ClevelandFrequency.com
.

Hanneman, 1986. Salinas, California. Photo by Harald Oimoen.

Hanneman, 2009. Mayhem Festival, Blossom Music Center, Ohio. Photo by Amy Weiser Photography, reproduced with permission.
www.amyweiser.com

Chapter 19:

The First One of the Gang to Bail. And the New Guy.

After the New York show and the death threats, the band faced a threat from within.

“We had been noticing that Dave was becoming more withdrawn,” Araya told Gene Khoury in the August 1987 issue of
Metal Mania
, “not wanting to participate as much in band activities since he was more involved with his wife.”
^19-1

King was achieving his lifelong goals. And so, he thought, was Lombardo. He couldn’t believe the drummer wasn’t ecstatic.

“Dave announced one day at a band meeting that he wasn’t very happy with being in the band,” King told Khoury. “We asked Dave if he was sure that his feelings were this way, kind of prodding him to see if he was in another dimension.”
^19-2

Rubin, now their acting manager, caught wind of the simmering tension. Before heading home for the holidays, the band cooled their heels in New York. Rubin reached out to the Lyor Cohen, the future Warner Music Group CEO.

Cohen was a third right hand for Russell Simmons, Rubin’s partner in Def Jam. What Rubin was to Def Jam’s art, Cohen was to the label’s artist relations. As head of Simmons’ Rush Artist Management, he oversaw business, promotions, publicity, management, and day-to-day affairs on tours like the 1986
Raising Hell
roadshow. He was another unlikely fit for Def Jam’s rag-tag band of street-smart movers and players. Cohen was Rubin’s doppelganger: an aggressive, white, Jewish college graduate with a punk past and hip-hop present.

Cohen’s wealthy parents were from Israel, where his grandfather had been a general in the army. Cohen earned a business degree from University of Miami, then bounced to L.A., where he promoted shows by the Circle Jerks, Social Distortion, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Running Rush, Cohen was able to bring a more formal structure to business at hand. As his clout grew, he would develop a reputation as a blustery ogre. But in the early days, he was the nice guy at Def Jam, the peacemaker, the negotiator. He defined conditions, terms, and issues. Cohen could bring people together, get them talking, find a neutral ground, and find a way everyone could make some money moving forward.

As Cohen would become more involved in Def Jam, a rivalry would develop between the label’s resident college boys. But now, in December 1986, they were harmonious allies. Rubin turned to him for help with his boys. The producer arranged for a sit-down, with Cohen mediating.

“That was a strange experience,” recalled King.

Even with Cohen facilitating the conversation, it wasn’t so much a negotiation as an echo chamber. At the heart of it was the Lombardo family. Slayer didn’t want Teresa on the road. Lombardo did.

“Every point we made, Dave would say, ‘Yeah that’s right,’” said King. “So Jeff and I would say, ‘So
this
is going to happen?’ And he’d agree with everything you said, but he’d say no. We’d make these points, ‘This is why we don’t want your wife here. So she’s not coming, right?’ [And Lombardo would say,] ‘No, she’s coming.’”