The Most Metal Stories About The Members Of Slipknot
Vocalist Corey Taylor OD'd When He Was 15 And His Friends Tossed Him In A Dumpster
Photo: Brian Leli / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0In various interviews, Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor has described his time living in a trailer park near Waterloo, IA, in a way that brings to mind Harmony Korine's Gummo, but with more dumpsters:
At a place like that, there's only two things to do, really - you take drugs, and you f*ck. Crank was just starting, and I was a total speed freak and really into coke. I remember waking up one morning in a dumpster. And, instead of taking me to a hospital, they took me somewhere and dumped me in a trash can, thinking I was dead. So I come to, I've got no shoes on, I've got no T-shirt, I've got blood on my face. I'm 12 miles from my house, and I proceeded to walk from there. The whole way home. I was like, I've gotta get out of here.
Guitarist Mick Thomson Had A Public, Drunken Knife Fight With His Brother
Photo: Gamerscore Blog / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0Mick Thomson, the gargantuan guitar player (who's 6'4") otherwise known as #7, is not someone that most people would want to get into a physical altercation with. In 2015, he and his brother got into a knife fight on the front lawn of a residence in Clive, IA. When cops showed up, they found the intoxicated guitarist covered in non-life threatening, but nonetheless serious, stab wounds.
The brothers refused to press charges against one another but were charged with disorderly conduct.
Before The Band Blew Up, Clown Kept A Decomposing Crow In A Jar To Huff Before Shows
Photo: Slipknot / Alliance EntertainmentEvery performer needs to get into the right headspace to achieve purity in his or her art. This is especially true of musicians, whose job requires manual dexterity, athleticism, and showmanship.
In the early days of the band, the members of Slipknot had their own special way of getting into the mood before a show. Clown (percussionist Shawn Crahan) kept a deceased crow in a jar, which he was allowing to decompose. Before each show, he took a big whiff of its terrible scent and passed it around to his bandmates. Wouldn't you know it, fans wanted in on the action, and they ended up eating the rotting bird.
Said DJ Sid Wilson of the ritual:
We had a dead bird in a jar. Clown kept it in there for a long time. We’d bring it out on stage and take big deep breaths out of it, see what death smelled like, have that inside you, gets you in that dark place. It would make you throw up immediately, vomit in your mask. He had it in there for so long it started getting this gelatinous liquid in the jar as it decayed.
The Recording Of Slipknot's Second Album Was Fueled By Substances, Depression, Hatred, And Suicidal Tendencies
Photo: Slipknot / Roadrunner RecordsWhile recording Slipknot's second album, Iowa, vocalist Corey Taylor was in such a terrible place, he self-harmed during vocal takes. "I was cutting myself while recording songs in the studio. I was bleeding everywhere. I just wanted something, I didn’t care what it was."
While the band was recording Iowa, its manager, the now-deceased Steve Richards, was creating unnecessary tension between members. As Mick Thomson recalls:
I should dig Steve Richards up and beat his f*cking corpse. Every once in a while I think there may be a God that put a cyst on his brainstem and caused him to be a f*ckin’ zombie. The dude just stepped into our lives and tried to cause rifts between band members...
Clown recalls similarly depressing memories about making the record:
It was a disaster because the world got in. Drugs, women, just listening to, 'You guys are gonna be huge.' Everybody wants our money. So I hate the album, but it is brutality at its finest. People are like, “Do another Iowa.” And I’m like [extends middle finger], 'Sit on this! You know why? We almost all died.'
It was bad. There were chemicals. I was probably the worst, man. My wife was very ill during those times. I felt really isolated because I couldn’t be with her. So out of the sadness of not being together, there’s that frustration and anger, too, that she’s taking care of three kids and we’re being lied to about money and we’re still broke. I was just anti-everyone in the band, coming for everyone in the band.
Clown Hired A Drum Tech Because The Guy Drank Urine, Puked It Up, And Drank It Again
Photo: YouTubeIn an interview with Rolling Stone, Slipknot's Clown revealed that he hired his drum tech based on his ability to swallow anything. "I told him, 'Drink this piss,' He's like, 'How much?' I give him a hundred bucks, he downs the piss.
Then he's like, 'Another $75 to puke and re-drink it?' Sure. He rolfs, re-drinks it — 'See you guys later.' That's why he works for Clown."
The Band Brought Mayhem To The 2000 Kerrang! Awards, Including Lighting Its Table On Fire
Photo: Irene Sassu / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0At the 2000 Kerrang! (a British heavy music magazine) Awards in London, Slipknot won three awards. When band members stood to take the stage for one of these awards, they smashed their chairs on the top of their table, breaking the chairs and lots of glass.
At some point during the show, the band managed to set its table on fire.
In The Early Days, Clown Kept His Own Excrement In Snapple Bottles And Rubbed It On Himself And His Bandmates
Photo: Slipknot / Roadrunner RecordsAccording to guitarist Jim Root, on a 1999 European tour, Shawn Crahan would:
... put his sh*t in, like, a Snapple bottle and leave it on the speaker during the set. Then he'd smear it all over his drums and himself and Mick's back and, I think, mine, too. It just reeked — I was dry-heaving while we played.
A Competitive Relationship With Marilyn Manson Led To Corey Taylor Drinking His Own Vomit
Photo: bill shouldis / Flickr / CC BY 2.0During the Ozzfest 2001 tour, as Slipknot was blowing up worldwide, vocalist Corey Taylor managed to shock the shock master himself, Marilyn Manson. He told Rolling Stone:
I do remember throwing up in a cup and drinking it in front of Manson and he kind of freaked out. He didn't really know how to take it. And then he ran into our dressing room in tighty-whitey underwear and kind of danced for us and kind of ran back out, and we were like, 'What the f*ck just happened?'
Despite the weirdness of this scene, Taylor calls Slipknot's relationship with Manson one of mutual respect and friendly competition.
We don't really try to f*ck with each other, and when we do, it gets really weird," he continues with a laugh. "At the same time, there's a positive competition there that we both respond to. When we play with him, we watch him tear it down every night, and that just makes us want to tear it down every night, too. So there's a mutual respect that goes along with that positive competition that will make for great shows no matter where we are. To me, that's the best respect that you can show a fellow artist, especially someone you really enjoy what they do.
The Band's Official Scent Is Camel Dung
Photo: Mark Coatsworth / Wikimedia Commons / Fair UseSlipknot wanted to give something special to fans attending their inaugural two-day Knotfest, so they created a signature scent for the event: camel dung.
According to percussionist Shawn Crahan (the clown):
We did the camel dung on the first Knotfest. It was awesome; it was beautiful... A very distinct smell. You can't huff it, but it's got this smell. And it's not necessarily the most comfortable thing, but it's not necessarily the worst thing, it's just remembering thoughts — it's gonna be a re-occurring thing.
Since we're not a band anymore — we're a culture, everybody needs to get used to that real quick — that culture has to have a smell. You have to be able to be somewhere in the world, maybe be in a little pain, and then all of a sudden smell that and feel good again.
Clown Almost Drowned Partaking In Ritual Self-Harm He Likens To Blood Letting
Even if you've never heard Slipknot's music, you've no doubt seen pictures of them, and can probably surmise they get nuts on stage.
One of the band's wildest stage stunts almost took the life percussionist Shawn Crahan, more commonly known as Clown:
I went headfirst into this barrel on Ozzfest and I didn’t realize it was half full of water. I got stuck in that thing for about 35 seconds and I remember thinking, ‘You’ve done it, you f*cking went somewhere you shouldn’t have gone and now it’s going to get you.’ Then I got pushed over, came out of the bin and I was spitting out water. It was pretty serious dude.
From that day on I realized that, if I was going to go into that zone, I had to at least pick my battles. At first, though, I didn’t care about the harm I was doing myself, in fact personal harm was invited. It felt good; it was like blood letting.
Producer Ross Robinson Physically Abused The Band To Ensure Their First Record Sounded Great
Photo: Slipknot / Roadrunner RecordsAll great music producers develop a unique relationship with bands that helps them bring out the best material and performances. Some are hands on, others hang out on a couch and let whatever happens happen. Then, there's Ross Robinson, the producer of some Slipknot albums.
According to drummer Joey Jordinson:
Ross is the most intense person I’ve ever met in my life besides the nine of us. We were out for blood and Ross saw that... I would track my drums and we would all be headbanging, throwing our headphones off, punching the f*cking walls. He would take potted plants and throw them at me while I was playing and I’d have to duck them. He made [percussionist] Chris Fehn drink two gallons of water to where he was totally bloated and on the verge of throwing up just to get a mic’d mallet sound out of his stomach...
Corey Taylor recalls:
I’ve never screamed or sang like that in my life. Ross pushed me every day to the point where, by the end, I was literally broken completely in half and wide open and bawling and I couldn’t stop crying. I was throwing up all over the f*cking place.
DJ Sid Wilson Got Into The Band By Attacking Clown Onstage
Photo: Gene Smirnov / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0If you want to be in a band like Slipknot, with its pack mentality, it makes sense you would have to be jumped in.
That's what happened to Sid Wilson, the group's DJ. As he explained:
They liked what I was doing but they were worried what metal fans were gonna think of Slipknot having a DJ. But I quickly sold them on the idea. I went to their next show as a fan. I knew that during 'Tattered & Torn,' Clown would go into the pit and wrap kids up with the microphone cord and drag them across the floor. People would usually run when they saw him coming, but at that show, I saw him and instinctively went for it.
He was thinking, I’m gonna show this motherf*cking new Jack what’s up with our band. So he came after me... I grabbed him by the head while he was still on the stage. I counted to five and headbutted him on six, which is his number... It almost knocked him out.
He went back to Joey and said, 'I don’t care what anybody in the f*cking band says, that dude’s in.' From the moment I joined, there was chaos. Once at practice, Clown and Joey had been arguing, and Clown literally plowed through Joey’s whole drumset and threw it clear across the practice room. I started unplugging my turntables because I was like, These are the only decks I got. Don’t f*ckin’ break them!
Bassist Paul Gray And Guitarist Jim Root Once Jump Off Stage To Fight Fans Of A Rival Masked Metal Band
Photo: Gene Smirnov / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0Before his passing from an overdose, bassist Paul Gray discussed how he and guitarist Jim Root fought a couple of Mushroomheads (fans of metal band Mushroomhead, the members of which also wore masks and jumpsuits) at one of their shows.
He told Revolver Magazine:
Back in the day, we had a problem with this band from Cleveland called Mushroomhead. They had masks, too. And when we came to Cleveland, we were ready for some sh*t. And there were about 20 kids in the crowd that were Mushroomhead fans that were whipping batteries at us.
Me and Jim jumped offstage and took our masks off and started swinging at people at the end of one song. When we were done with that set, everything came off and we went straight through the crowd to try to find those people and we ended up finding those dudes and we threw down. One of the guys in our crew got maced by the cops and arrested.
They Don't Clean Their Masks
Photo: Brian Leli / Wikimedia Commons / Fair UseAs Shawn Crahan told MTV, the masks can get very nasty:
I remember, in the early days, when we had no money, we were in Europe on the first record cycle, and we were in Spain. I was in the bathroom with Shawn Economaki, the bass player from Stone Sour, and I was washing my mask for the very first time — it hadn't been washed since I was 14 years old.
I put the mask in the sink, and let hot water go over it, and the water turned brown. I dared him to drink a Dixie cup full of it — and he did. I can't tell you how much piss and other things, dirt from rolling around on floors... I mean, I can't even tell you what was in that water, bro.
