Slipknot Members Open Up To The Next Generation of Musicians
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The diverse group of students waited eagerly for the talk to begin. Many of them, women and men, were dressed in all black, with long shabby hair, dark black eyeliner and a lot of piercings. When the two Slipknot members Corey Taylor and Shawn Crahan, better known as “Clown,” came out, the audience went crazy cheering for them.
Their reaction: “I was expecting not as many people,” said Taylor.
The first question asked about when they were first introduced to rock music. They both jokingly answered by saying a bunch of gibberish over each other for less than a minute and ending their answer with, “Yeah that was about it,” and the crowd burst out laughing.
From there on everyone knew the talk series was going to be a fun ride.
They began to get a little more serious with each question asked. Being that the talk was held at a music school, Taylor talked about how he never really had any formal music training.
“I just figured, not that the irony isn’t lost on this audience, but why go to school to learn music?” Taylor giggled. “I never had proficiency in school to begin with so I knew ‘If I’m going to do this I’m going to do it on my own terms.”
For Crahan, discovering that he was musically talented was completely different. Even though he didn’t explicitly say he was a child with behavior issues he did say, “For some reason I did grow up with a lot of anger and till this day I don’t know where it came from, but I had a lot of problems.”
Crahan thanked his mom for allowing him to use music as a therapeutic way of dealing with his problem, and it worked. Now almost twenty years later, 42-year-old Crahan is one of the best percussionists in the world.
Throughout the talk both of them got more comfortable and began to opening up more.
They started talking about how they have dealt with the sudden 2010 death of Slipknot bassist and founder Paul Gray, who would have turned 40 years old on Easter Sunday this year.
Gray was found dead at a hotel in Iowa May 24, 2010. After an autopsy was done, his death was ruled as an accidental overdose of morphine.
“We lost our main writer and our best friend,” said Taylor and Crahan. “We lost a huge piece to our puzzle that will never ever be replaced.”
Although Slipknot is known for the controversy surrounding the band, as some of their songs are linked to violent and criminal incidents, Taylor and Craham showed that they are all just ordinary human beings with normal lives and a passion for music.
“You grow up listening to heavy-metal, hard-rock and rock-and-roll and it’s all you see,” said Taylor. “There’s a whole side that you don’t see; you don’t see marriages breaking up, you don’t see nine months of not getting to see your kid.”
Both Taylor and Crahan admitted that the band was at really dark moment at one point, but thankfully they were able to escape the heavy drinking, drugs and fast-paced life.
Now they are at a better place in their lives and even said they plan to eventually record another album but they couldn’t reveal when.
“We all have to be on the same page at the same time to do what we do best and that’s be Slipknot and I hate to say it but I feel that Paul will let us know when that is,” said Craham.
The conversation ended by them giving their words of wisdom to the future musicians of America: perfect your craft and be original.
“Too many people in this industry are too quick to let technology make up for the talent that they do not have,” said Taylor. “Too many people who have talent are overlooked because too many people with big cheek bones and [bad] hairdos have all the spotlight. You’re telling me that Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton deserve to put singles out?”
The crowd cheered and yelled, “No!”
Reach Anabell Romero here.
