Slayer's legendary guitarist Jeff Hanneman has been forced to miss the Australian Soundwave Festival, which Slayer is schedule to perform at on February 26th after contriving an acute infection known as necrotizing fasciitis (usually caused by a spider bite). The band made this hard decision because they didn't want to cancel on their loyal fans, specially after being forced to postpone or cancel a significant amount of tour dates in 2009 and 2010 after Tom Araya underwent a surgical procedure in order to relieve the extreme pain he had on back and neck. Speaking of Araya, here is his official statement about this new challenge for the mighty Slayer:"Jeff is our brother, we've all been friends and together as a band for almost 30 years, so we just want him to completely recover as soon as possible."
To this Kerry King added:
"After everything that happened last year, we all agreed that we just can't let our fans down again. Jeff is totally on board with this decision, so we will tour as planned. At this point, we can't pinpoint exactly what day he'll be back, but he'll be back as soon as he possibly can. And we can't wait for Jeff to get better and get his ass back on the road."
In a recent interview that Kerry King did for Australia's Loud magazine, after being asked why Slayer has outlasted so many bands, he said: "Well, the front three people never changed, and I think that's important. You've got to have a nucleus of people where you never wonder who is going to be onstage. As far as a band thing, I think that's important. I don't mean that as a shot on MEGADETH, but at the end of the day, MEGADETH is Dave Mustaine and that's it. It's whoever Dave decides to play with on this record. Could you imagine watching SLAYER without me, Jeff orTom? It just couldn't happen! That's something to be said there, because we're all irreplaceable. The last few years I've noticed people in bands are almost interchangeable. I've seen some of my friends stay home because their wives were going to have a baby and they'd have somebody replace them when they play live, and I think… how can you fucking do that?"
The band has announced that Gary Holt from Exodus will replace Jeff on this tour. This information is official and it comes from reliable sources that are close to the band. Anything else your read or hear, is just a rumor. We wish Jeff a speedy recovery and to the rest of the Slayer team the best of luck with this new challenge!
Related links:
Slayer's Official site
Image by Damien Maurer
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