Corey Taylor recently appeared as the special guest on Steve-O's Wild Ride Podcast. The conversation with the veteran frontman of Slipknot, Stone Sour, and now his own namesake with his wildly successful solo effort in CMFT, allowed Steve-O to understand the man, the mask, and the music that has always been so important to him.
Among the highlights of the exchange included some background on how the masks that have become so synonymous with Slipknot actually came about. Particularly with clown, Taylor shared that even before Slipknot had established their counter culture esthetic with the masks, barcodes and jumpsuits, clown actually began wearing his childhood clown mask to rehearsal. Slowly but surely, the other members starting wearing their own masks to practice too and the concept began to take shape.
Taylor also elaborated on how technology has functioned as a bit of a double-edged sword. While the convenience of the digital age has allowed fro artists like himself to work at his own creative pace, it has also paved the way for people to pretend to be better than they really are. Ultimately, Taylor feels like the audience just has to be discerning and know the difference.
Steve-O and Corey Taylor also connected over their mutual sobriety. Speaking candidly, Taylor discussed how he had overdosed twice while he was using and ultimately found himself not liking how the future looked had he not made the choice to stop. Citing shitty experiences with fair-weather friends and the loss of his brother in Paul Gray, Taylor confided that he made the decision to get clean.
Taylor took it way back and revisited the very first Slipknot show, a concert he was at as a spectator. He detailed to Steve-O how the band actually came through the crowd to get to the stage and scared the shit out of everyone. The masked madmen would then proceed to get onstage and start their set with a 3-minute assault of noise that Taylor said convinced him he would be the singer of Slipknot. A year later, the reality would com to fruition.
In discussing Slipknot's longevity, Taylor explains that while people are always going to try and write the band off, their last three records have each debuted at number one. 2019's We Are Not Your Kind was arguably the biggest record of the genre in that year and it came as the band was prepping to celebrate 20 years in the game. As for the secret to that success, Taylor attributes it to the ability to allow the fans to miss you. Detailing the cycle of offering something new in the way of music, art, and esthetic and then going away to recalibrate, Taylor says that is at least in part why the band has been able to maintain their output and remain relevant.
The hour plus discussion touches on Taylor's upcoming socially-distant CMFTour, the passionate Slipknot fans that make Japan one of the best places to play, and Corey's accomplished career as a New York Times Bestseller - covering lots of ground in a relatively short amount of time.
Stream the entire episode below.
