SLAYER's JEFF HANNEMAN On Return To Live Stage: 'I'm The Happiest Man In The World'

April 25, 2011

Founding SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman stepped onstage with his band at this past Saturday's "Big Four" concert in Indio, California, marking the first time he has played with SLAYER since last October. In January, Hanneman contracted necrotizing fasciitis, likely caused by a spider bite, and has been undergoing surgeries, skin grafts and intense rehab since. Hanneman surprised the crowd of 50,000 when he walked out onto the stage, unannounced, and played the two-song encore, "South Of Heaven" and "Angel Of Death".

Backstage in SLAYER's dressing room afterwards, Hanneman relaxed on a couch and said, "I'm the happiest man in the world."

SLAYER's setlist was as follows:

01. World Painted Blood
02. Hate Worldwide
03. War Ensemble
04. Postmortem
05. Raining Blood
06. Black Magic
07. Dead Skin Mask
08. Americon
09. Silent Scream
10. Antichrist
11. Seasons in the Abyss
12. Payback
13. Snuff
14. South of Heaven (with Jeff Hanneman)
15. Angel of Death (with Jeff Hanneman)

Gary Holt (EXODUS) has been the primary guest guitarist with SLAYER since the band started its 2011 touring schedule in February, and will continue in that capacity until Hanneman has completely recovered.

In a recent interview with Austria's Stormbringer.at webzine, SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo stated about the decision to hire Holt as the initial temporary replacement for Hanneman, "Well, that was a hard decision to make. We had to think to ourselves, 'Do we cancel — again? Or what do we do? Do we keep going?' It was a difficult decision, but we had to make it — to find a guitar player to take Jeff's place until Jeff gets better. And Gary, really, was a no-brainer — meaning, we didn't have to think about it. Because at Hellfest in France [in 2010], Kerry [King, SLAYER guitarist] and myself were watching EXODUS. And SLAYER and EXODUS go waaay back. We go back to '83 or '84 when we first got together and did shows up in San Francisco together. So we saw Gary play with EXODUS [again last year], and we loved it. And Gary's performance was outstanding. So the first person that came to our minds was Gary — to take the place for Jeff. Again, it was difficult to make that decision, but we had to do it to fulfill our shows; we couldn't cancel again."

Photo credit: Andrew Stuart

Photo credit: Raymond Ahner

Photo credit: Andrew Stuart

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