Slipknot’s Corey Taylor: Joey Jordison’s death ‘broke my heart’

Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor says that the passing of Joey Jordison broke his heart.

The founding Slipknot drummer died “peacefully in his sleep” last July of an unspecified cause. He was 46 years old. He also previously battled with transverse myelitis, which strongly affected his ability to play drums.

Taylor addressed Jordison’s death publicly during a February 18 question-and-answer session at the annual Mad Monster Party, a three-day fan convention which took place at the Embassy Suites in Concord, North Carolina. Asked how he has dealt with the loss of his longtime bandmate, Corey said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth):

That’s a tough one. It hit me hard, even though I hadn’t seen him or talked to him in a very long time. And I won’t get into certain things, but I will say that it hit us all really hard. The first person that I called was Clown [Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn Crahan] to make sure he was okay. Because those guys… I can remember going down and seeing them both at the gas station that Joey worked at — like, way back in the day. And he would work the overnights. When I wasn’t working at the porn shop, I would go down. And they were always scheming; they would always sit together scheming. It’s, like, ‘I’ve got this fucking idea. All right? We’re gonna set our faces on fire.’ And I was, like, ‘No. You’re really not gonna do that.

All that history and all the memories came back then. And his health was obviously part of that. And it was sad because this man was probably one of the most gifted people I’ve ever seen in my life… It was far, far too soon. And it broke my heart. Regardless of what had gone down between us, it broke my heart. It was a hard… It’s still hard to think about. I think about it now and it doesn’t seem real. So it hit us just as hard. It’s one of the reasons why we pay homage to him and Paul [Gray, late Slipknot bassist] at the end of [each Slipknot] show — to make sure that people realize that even though he was gone, he’s still part of the family, and he always will be.”

Corey Taylor

Corey previously opened up about Joey’s death during a September 2021 appearance on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk. At the time, he said:

Our first concern was obviously his family, so we reached out immediately to make sure that they were okay, to let them know if they needed anything from us, they could absolutely ask.

It’s a damn tragedy, he was way too young, and he was way too talented to lose him like this.

I know a lot of people wonder about the circumstances that led to him not being in the band anymore, and it’s, like, we’re not gonna talk about that, because I’d rather talk about his legacy, which is that he helped create this band that we all have fought to keep out there and keep going.

Just the fact that he’s not here now, it’s still — I still can’t believe it.

Corey Taylor

Slipknot announced its split with Jordison in December 2013 but did not disclose the reasons for his exit. The drummer subsequently issued a statement saying that he did not quit the group.

Several years ago, Jordison overcame the neurological condition acute transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord which damages nerve fibers, which ultimately led to the drummer temporarily losing the use of his legs.

Jordison and the members of Slipknot had been silent and evasive about the reasons for his dismissal from the band, but Joey finally spoke about it in 2016 while accepting an award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in London, England.

At the time, Joey claimed that he was fired from Slipknot without a band meeting or “anything from management.”

All I got was a stupid fucking e-mail saying I was out of the band that I busted my ass my whole life to fucking create. That’s exactly what happened and it was hurtful. I didn’t deserve that shit after what I’d done and everything I’d been through.

Joey Jordison