Clown reveals: Slipknot to play debut album in its entirety, planning smaller anniversary shows

In a recent interview, Slipknot‘s percussionist, M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, has told  Kerrang! they’re playing the entire debut album (“Slipknot”, 1999), front to back, on a surprise tour, still to be announced.

When asked if the band has plans to perform the album live, Crahan responded:

Are you joking right now? You’re talking about the anniversary of one of the greatest metal albums to ever be released in the thought process known as reality, and you think this 54-year-old man who just told you ‘I’m going out the way I came in’, you think for one moment that this album isn’t going to be played in its entirety in front of, like, a hundred people, 200 people, 300 people, 50,000 people.

I’m not going to live forever, man. Neither is everybody else. Things are changing very quickly. I ain’t got no more time to fuck around. That is the vehicle of my soul, and the remembrance, the memories, the heartache of lost brothers and even sisters — all these people that are gone and we’re still doing it.

Clown then hints at small venues, locations shrouded in mystery until the very last minute:

Yeah, we’re going to play that album from beginning to end. But I sure as hell am not going to just succumb to the corporate world and give all those people what they want. They’re going to get it. But you know what we’re going to get? We’re going to have fun, too. So that means small shows and you won’t know until you hear it. And if you heard it, you’re already too late and you’re not going to see it. So you better open up your soul, because then you’ll feel it and you won’t have to hear it because I’m being very serious.

He then concludes with remarks about the band’s happiness to be their own bosses as of late:

We are in a very special place. We’ve never been happier because we’ve just been working on ourselves for a long time. And I’m not trying to sound crazy or whatever, but there is still a very deep thing between the OGs, and there’s five of us. And we have some pride in that and we have deep things we still work on fixing and we’re doing a lot better at that, and because of that, things are a lot easier. We’re really happy.

We’re off a record label, we’re off a merch company, and we’ve decided to move on. We’re moving on. We’re already there. We don’t pull a trigger unless it’s loaded, and we already hit the target. We’re confident enough to put out some dates. That’s all I can tell you, but I think you’re going to be happy. I think everybody is because nobody knows anything. That’s all I know. Because of that, I’m super-happy.