In a recent interview with Zero Hour Squared, Testament’s Chuck Billy mentioned that they planned to hire Paul Bostaph before Dave Lombardo rejoined the band.
Previously, Testament announced that they parted ways with Gene Hoglan due to their incompatible schedules because Hoglan was also busy with his solo tour. Hoglan expressed his excitement about his solo career as a new chapter in his life. Both parties offered their best wishes in the Instagram posts they shared.
After Gene Hoglan left the band, Testament started to discuss who would be the next drummer. They ended up announcing Dave Lombardo, who worked with them for a short time in the past. Testament shared their happiness to work with Lombardo again.
Chuck Billy stated that they contacted Paul Bostaph before Lombardo during the recent interview. However, they already chose Lombardo when Bostaph reached out to them, as Billy said. He also mentioned that they made an offer to Chris Adler, but Adler declared he was not ready to commit to the band.
Chuck Billy indicated that the connection between the band and Lombardo went well. According to Billy, Lombardo coming back after years made them feel nostalgic and comfortable.
Chuck Billy explained the Testament’s consideration of hiring Paul Bostaph:
“You know, we did reach out to Paul Bostaph. Paul got back to us later after Dave committed. But, you know, there’s a lot of great drummers, we got a lot of great drummers, and the one that was right there, if he had made the decision, we probably almost would have chosen him before Dave even contacted us, because we were putting our feelers out before the announcement.
But Chris Adler was one guy who was ready to step up and come in, and then, just the last minute, came out; he just wasn’t ready to do that. And so we’re like, okay, back to the drawing board. And then we made the announcement. And then Dave got a hold of us. So, you know, it worked out great.
We had had Dave come up about three or four weeks ago, we had a week of rehearsals, and then he came up about two weeks ago, we’ll go for another week of rehearsals, and then he’ll be up here next week for the final rehearsals with us. And it was just fun hanging out. You know, just catching up. And, you know, so it just felt like, you know, putting on an old pair of shoes he hadn’t worn in a while.”
You can watch the whole conversation below.
