Fans are still taken aback by Dave Lombardo’s statement claiming that Slayer were replacing him during their upcoming Australian tour due to a disagreement over business matters. We knew it would be only a matter of time to Slayer issued a response. And now we have Lombardo’s former (?) bandmates’ take on the matter.

In addition to confirming that Jon Dette would be filling in on drums, Slayer had the following to say:

“Slayer confirms that Jon Dette will drum for the band on its Australian tour that starts this Saturday, February 23 in Brisbane. As regards Dave Lombardo‘s Facebook post, Slayer does not agree with Mr. Lombardo‘s substance or the timeline of the events, except to acknowledge that Mr. Lombardo came to the band less than a week before their scheduled departure for Australia to present an entirely new set of terms for his engagement that were contrary to those that had been previously agreed upon.

The band was unable to reach an agreement on these new demands in the short amount of time available prior to leaving for Australia. There is more to the account than what Mr. Lombardo has offered, but out of respect to him, Slayer will not be commenting further. Slayer is grateful to its Australian fans for their understanding of this unfortunate last-minute change, and very much looks forward to seeing them at these shows.”

While Slayer confirms that Lombardo isn’t joining them on tour over business matters, they certainly don’t appear to be on the same page as him. In fact, Slayer essentially is pointing the blame at Lombardo (granted, that’s what the drummer did in his statement). It’s still unclear if Lombardo’s absence will only affect the Australian tour. However, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine that this will lead to Lombardo’s permanent exit considering how public this has become.