Drummer Dave Lombardo revealed on his official Facebook page on Thursday that he is being forced off Slayer’s upcoming Australian tour after he questioned the band’s financial situation. Sitting in for these dates is Jon Dette, who previously played with Slayer and is already in Australia with Anthrax for the Soundwave Festival filling in temporarily for Charlie Benante, who is currently unable to leave the United States.

Lombardo, who co-founded the thrash metal outfit in 1981 with guitarist Kerry King, had recently been trying to look into Slayer’s financial documents, which he felt left the four band members with very little income from the tour after deductions. He eventually proposed a new business model, which was met with resistance from King, who’s one of two guitarists in Slayer. According to Lombardo, King warned him that if he continued to argue for his new business model, he would “find another drummer.” After a recent rehearsal – one in which King did not show up – Lombardo received an email from the band’s lawyers stating that he was being replaced for the Australian tour, which is set to begin on February 23 at the 2013 Soundwave Festival in Brisbane and run through March 4.

Here below you can read Lombardo’s full statement, which goes into details about what he thought was going wrong with the band financially and what’s occurred since he began questioning the situation (including what amounted to be a gag order on him).

Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo recently joined a metal mariachi group on stage for a rendition of his band’s 1986 song “Raining Blood.”

Lombardo posted to his Facebook page video of himself pounding the skins on the song with Metalachi, who are apparently the first and only heavy metal mariachi band.

Check out that video here below shot from the crowd of the Lombardo playing with Metalachi at the Roxy Theater in California on January 3, 2013.

In the video, Lombardo warms up behind the kit as the crowd chants “Slayer!” before Metalachi takes the stage and runs through their unique take on the song, which was a standout on Slayer’s Reign in Blood album and is til this day a concert favorite.