On a recent interview with UK’s The Skinny Tom Araya referred to Dave Lombardo’s issue

of leaving the band, saying that it was totally his responsibility. Specifically, Araya said that everything begun when Bostaph left the band: Dave said, ‘I’ll sit in for a tour or two,’ and in the process of doing that, we drew up a contract for Dave, because that’s what you’ve got to do — make sure everybody’s taken care of, everybody’s happy. We came up with a simple agreement that lasted a while, and then we were in the process of trying to make it better for Dave, because after so many years of playing with us, you figure, well, s–t — we should redo this.”
Araya pointed out that they came up with a three year term deal for Lombardo, but he refused to sign it. “We had some obligations that came up and when you’re given an ultimatum or put on the spot, you have to do something, so we moved forwards, and Dave got really upset. We went back to him again and told him that if he signed the deal, we could move forwards, but he had other plans, so we made a phone call to him and ended it, because he was beginning to put us into a bad spot. We managed to find somebody to sit in, we went off to play in Australia and Dave went on a rant and told a lopsided story, and we let him talk and do what he does best.”
“I hate to say anything bad about him, but he did what he did and we had to move forwards,” concludes Araya. “He was beginning to put us in a really bad light, and we didn’t want to stop the wheels from turning.” He also said about Paul Bostaph that he is the only other drummer for Slayer and that he is highly appreciated: “We did several albums with him, and in fact, if he hadn’t left, he’d still be in the band. That was the level he was at with us.”