Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Corey Taylor discussed witnessing Slipknot perform thirty years ago, a year before he became the new vocalist for the Iowa-based group, in a recent interview with Josh Scherer, the host of the YouTube series Mythical Kitchen, as per Blabbermouth.
I started Stone Sour in ’92. I was in it until I joined Slipknot in ’97. I had moved away for a little bit. I was living in Denver. So I come back, and everyone’s talking about the new band that all the guys had put together. And I knew everybody in Slipknot, because I knew all of their individual bands. And everybody’s, like, ‘They’re gonna play April 4th.’ I remember it like it was yesterday. It was like April 4th, I wanna say it was ’96.
I was, like, ‘Oh, kickass. All right. Here we go.’ First of all, no one knew what to expect. So the first thing that they did was they start their intro, and it goes on for an incredibly long period of time, which I loved. So I’m, like, right in front of the stage. I’m, like, ‘I can’t wait to see this.’ Intro starts, and then all of a sudden they walk through us. They crawl through us from the back, and we’re, like, ‘What the hell is…?’ They all roll onto stage or climb up onto stage… And I was, like, ‘Oh, shit. What the hell, dude?’
There was such a feeling of threat in a good way, ’cause we all had grown up listening to extreme music, whether it was hardcore or punk or metal or — I mean, just whatever. Because it was Iowa, it was never hard enough, it was never fast enough, it was never crazy enough. ‘Cause we just needed that. They got on stage, and then all of a sudden Clown does a flip, and Joey at the same time starts this blast, and it’s just feedback…
And everybody is playing at the same time. And it was psychotic, dude. I was, like, ‘I love this.’ I’d never seen anything like it. And I remember distinctly having the thought, ‘I’m going to be the singer in this band.’ And I’d never had that thought before that. I’ve never had that thought since. I remember that specific thought going through my head, ‘I’m going to be the singer in this band.’ And I was, like, ‘Wait, what the…?’
When Scherer asked Corey if he believed he was physically capable of singing for Slipknot, he responded as follows.
Stone Sour was so much more melodic. It was so much more — I don’t wanna say singer-songwriter, but it was grungy. It was alternative. It had heavier elements because I was listening to that, but it was riffier. It was safer… And there was definitely a hint of Korn there, but there was also Slayer. There was also Minor Threat. There was also hip-hop. I mean, the beautiful thing about Slipknot is that they were taking all of these elements and kind of fusing them together. It was insane. And you had people in this band who could play anything. Even before Jim and I joined, Mick — incredible guitar player. Joey, obviously, just an insane drummer. Everyone in the band was so specific, and what I learned later is that everyone was in that band because they were all hungry.
They were all driven. They were the dudes in their bands, in those individual bands that I knew and that I’d done shows with, and we had all done, like, all-age shows on Sundays and played for 20 people for nothing, they were all the dudes in those bands that were driven and were, like, ‘I’m going to do this for the rest of my life no matter what.’ And then the next night, I was playing with Stone Sour, and I went up to the guys and I was just, like, ‘Well, jump on our show.’ So there was one night that Stone Sour and Slipknot played together. And it was crazy. And we admired each other. There was definitely competition, and that’s one of the things that brought them to me later.
They admired me. I admired them. They came to me and they were, like, ‘Listen, we’re going to do this. We’re going to make it. We love what you do. We want you to be a part of it. Are you into it?’ When I wasn’t working, and I had two jobs, I was going and I was flyering for the next Stone Sour show, I was going and climbing up on overpasses and zip-tying sheets that had been spray painted with all the details. So they saw that hustle. And I saw that in them. And it’s so weird to say it now, but it was so meant to be.
