PAUL BOSTAPH Breaks Silence On Departure From SLAYER

April 23, 2003

Former SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph has finally broken his silence regarding the real reason he left the group in December 2001 (he has since been replaced by his predecessor in the band, original SLAYER skinsman Dave Lombardo). An official press release issued by the SLAYER camp had listed a chronic elbow injury as the reason for Bostaph's departure while a number of people had speculated that he left the band in order to join SYSTEMATIC. According to Paul, however, his reasons for leaving were purely musical.

"I didn't leave SLAYER because of an arm problem, and I certainly didn't leave SLAYER to join SYSTEMATIC," Paul told San Francisco-based Internet music magazine Perfect Pitch Online. "I was ready to go. It was nothing personal towards anybody in the band, it was just my time to leave. Musically, I wanted to do something else. And in terms of the problem I had with my arm, I re-aggravated an old softball injury by lifting up a laptop at the airport. That happened right at the beginning of the tour, and it never had time to heal. But even at that point, I was considering moving on from the band. SLAYER's a great band, and I had a lot of fun playing with them, but I have to feel like I'm taking chances musically. The first time I left SLAYER, I did [a project called] THE TRUTH ABOUT SEAFOOD — sure, it never got signed, but I enjoyed it a lot. SLAYER took my drumming to a new level, but there are also other levels of drumming that I haven't even touched yet. I want to become a more eclectic drummer."

SYSTEMATIC's sophomore CD, "Pleasure To Burn", was released April 15 through Elektra Records. The album — the group's first to feature Bostaph and former ECHO 3/MAXIMUM PENALTY bassist John Mark Bechtel (a.k.a. Johnny Chow) — was produced by Howard Benson, who has previously worked with P.O.D., MOTÖRHEAD, SEPULTURA and CRAZY TOWN, among others.

(Thanks: Perfect Pitch Online)

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).