Slipknot: Spit It Out

Slipknot have redefined the confines of new metal with their mind-blowing and defining Roadrunner debut. In opening for Coal Chamber and touring non-stop across the United States, the 9-piece band from Iowa has brought upon a reputation not easy to beat. We sat down with Joey Joridson (#1) to discuss everything that is Slipknot and some strange music facts.

Joey: Fuck the salt & pepper shaker, the sweet & low, the candle and the ash tray. That’s the first thing you list when you print this.

ARW: How do you change when you’re behind a mask?

Joey: We don’t necessarily change. People are always asking us about the mask thing. They’re like “you wear masks” and we’re like “no we don’t”. That’s the way feel, that’s the actual personality that we live everyday. The fact is that we just get to go on stage every night and be that, it is our medication and we’re really lucky that we get to do that. We don’t change at all. Whatever you see is exactly how we are, all day long.

ARW: Is it easier to express violence with anonymity?

Joey: No, I don’t think in that way. Being of the anonymous factor is to keep all the rock star cliche and the ego bullshit gone, so the bigger the band gets we can remain grounded. We can keep the music focused and not rob the kids of any music. You see a lot of bands, as soon as they start getting big, closing endorsements, getting involved with money, producing videos, going out with fucking porn stars and that’s not where it started. What got them big is when they were grounded. It got to a certain point and then they moved away from it and we don’t ever want to move away from it. That’s why the anonymity comes in.

ARW: Why do you think you guys express this pure hate, pure violence, pure emotion better than most people?

Joey: The way we portray comes from where we come from, our home town and the evolution of trying to come from somewhere, and make it out of somewhere, when there was absolutely no outlet for what we were trying to do. We were walking around with our wrists split open, going please look at what we’re trying to do and there was no one there. Where we come from it’s baron, there’s nothing there as far as music’s concerned, there’s not one thing there. You really have to develop a sense of self, super early-on, to make sure you can take the music and have enough substance and content for people to see it for what it’s worth. If you can make it in Des Moines, or come out of Des Moines, I think you can pretty much do it anywhere. There no one gives a fuck, I mean there’s no outlet, there’s nothing for heavy music. That’s where most of that comes out because we were degraded for so long and had fingers pointing at us, no one really gave a fuck.

ARW: I’ve heard that it is rumored that Korn wants you guys to open for their upcoming tour?

Joey: I’ve heard that, but we haven’t committed to anything. I don’t think necessarily that it’s that much of a true rumor. There’s been certain talk, because our management works at their record label and helps a lot with a lot of their records, but as of now there’s no plans to doing it.

ARW: Is that something you’re opposed to?

Joey: No, we’re not opposed to it at all. I’ll go on the record saying I’m not a fan of Korn’s latest record, I mean there’s a couple good songs on it, or even their last one. I am a huge fan of the first two and I think what they did is they opened a lot of doors as far as this music is concerned. I would love to go out on the road with them because their crowd is so big. A lot of our crowd is the concert-going public, the really hardcore underground metal kids. We’re like a huge underground metal band, we’re getting so big so fast. Everyone that comes to these shows generally has our record, to where like a lot of people that might sell more records than this don’t necessarily go to concerts because maybe they’re 10-years-old and bought it because they’re on MTV. Or they’re on the radio all-the-time and there’s a guy that has a 9-5 job with a wife and 3 kids who never even goes to shows. Those are the people we need to get out to next and that would be the perfect tour for them.

ARW: “Wait & Bleed” is hitting radio now. Is that a song you’re glad is representing you?

Joey: We wouldn’t have wrote a song if we didn’t plan on it representing the band right, even though it’s not one of the more hate-filled song, the emotion in it is so thick you can cut it with a knife. It showcases the songwriting structure that is really concise with the band where by everyone is still doing something in it, but it’s not so complex where you lose your mind. Corey has a lot of good vocal melodies in that song so it really helps us out in that area too. So we’re really glad that one is getting a little airplay here and there. Hopefully it will help sell a couple more records and turn more people onto your side, as far as liking the band, and make a couple more fans out of it.

ARW: What are the video plans for “Wait & Bleed”?

Joey: There’s video plans and the video is going to be something that has never been done before. I think you guys will really like it. The video is complete complex with it. I can’t put the cat out of the bag, but soon you’ll be hearing about it on the internet and you’ll be hearing about what we did with it. It’s bad ass.

ARW: We just interviewed Dez from Coal Chamber and he was talking about their second album “Chamber Music” and how they moved a little more from the hate and rage because not every emotion in life is hate and rage. Do you ever envision you guys doing that?

Joey: I don’t know necessarily about moving away from that type of sound, because that’s what we’re drawn to mostly. I do agree. You can’t go through every element of life like that. The things that have been done to us and the evolution that we’ve tried to come through as a band, we have enough hate and rage to fill probably 3 or 4 records, we have a lot of shit to work out still. You keep someone in a cage and you cage them up for 24 years, then you let them out upon the word with what he wants to get out, he wants to live his life the way he wants to live it. You cage him up for 24 years and let him go, he’s got some shit to work out and there’s a lot of more years left of that. We still have a lot of fucking demons to exercise, it’s not nearly done yet.

ARW: I took a bus to Woodstock this Summer and went through Iowa, all through Iowa. I was listening to Slipknot the whole time.

Joey: That kicks ass dude.

ARW: I was just like, how the fuck did these guys come out of here?

Joey: That’s what everyone’s asking.

ARW: What are your guys goals?

Joey: We want our record to go gold, we want to nail a couple more tours. We want to tour for at least another 10 months on this record, taking as furthest as possible without becoming a parody of ourselves. Like only going out for touring for money and or scared to write the second record. We want to write a second record that buries this one. A lot of critics right now are like there’s no way they can top the first record, in a way I can see where they’re coming from. First of all, you have a 9-piece band with 3 drummers, 2 guitar players, a bass player, DJ, a sampler and a lead singer and come out with 15-tracks of mind-numbing noise. Selling fucking 10,000 records, plus without hardly any radio or video play. They’re like there’s something about this that when the next record comes it might not be as important. So that’s why we’re really concentrating, really trying to get in touch with ourselves to write the next record. That’s the next goal. We don’t have a plan, we go day-by-day and see what happens with it. That’s what we’ve always done, it was never a plan that this would even happen. I can’t believe it’s happening, it’s freaking us out. It’s a real important part of the band’s evolution to write the next record and have it be just as pointed as this one.

ARW: Would you be happy if “Wait & Bleed” was on MTV getting lots of play?

Joey: We don’t plan for it. I’m not scared of it, but it’s not something that I necessarily crave at all. I kind of like where we’re at right now, playing for our hardcore fans, it’s more personal that way. Sometimes if a band gets a lot of MTV play, the next thing you know people are like automatically not liking that band because some schmuck down the street, who has no clue what heavy music is, is listening to it now. The part that will pave the way for us will be the next album when it comes out, twice as heavy as this one, our true fans will understand and they’ll stick with us. It’s not something I necessarily want.

ARW: What might you draw on for the next record? How will life on the road change your perspective?

Joey: I’ll tell you what, we come from a place, that when you actually get something through there, through yourself, you really appreciate it. You’ve got to respect your gift a lot. This is our gift and you can’t take it for granted. Don’t abuse your gift. It’s not something that can be fucked with. I don’t want to destroy it, I want it to last as long as possible, because I know it’s not going to last as long as possible. We’ll go on to do other things after a while, they might suck, they might be good, who knows. None of it will be Slipknot, none of it will have the substance of what we’ve already created.

ARW: Do you feel proud that you’ve sold this many records without radio play. Just because someone like me has told 20 people that you have to go out and buy this record.

Joey: Thanks man, we’re totally proud of the factor of that. It’s amazing. It’s amazing for us and we’re so thankful we have the fans, if we didn’t have the fans we wouldn’t be shit. We’ll stand out in the rain, out in the show, every fucking night to make sure to sign as much of their shit.

ARW: Are you guys going to go back to Des Moines for the next record?

Joey: Yeah, we’ll write it in Des Moines and we’ll probably go out with our producer Ross Robinson in the confined hills of Malibu at Indigo to record it there. We’ll probably mix it at a different place, to get a little more of a crisp sound out of it.

ARW: Any final words?

Joey: Thanks to our fans, keep coming out to the shows. Thank you so much for supporting. We have slipknot1.com, slipknot2.com. You can go and check that shit out. Updates will be coming, we’ve had a hard time updating them lately. We run both those sites, we don’t have some jackass at some fucking computer lab running those things that knows nothing about music. We handle everything by ourselves, we make all the decisions by ourselves and that way we’ll make sure the fans never get fucking robbed out of any fucking thing. Thanks to everyone else and thanks to you guys for the interview, I appreciate it a lot.

• MIKE: (Question thx to Brian Coleman): You guys know about mtv and what they do for bands’ careers. Will you ever feature a censored video or something that is not you just so you can be on mtv?
• Shawn: We did submit a video called “Spit it out”, we did a rendition of the Shining, they didn’t take it so we are not doing anything else for mtv. We then put it on home video at a low price, and gave it to our fans. We can give two shits less for what’s going on.
• Joe: We recognize that the current success of the band is thanks to the fans and the fans only. Not because of mtv or magazines cause you won’t see us much in either one of those. However, thanks to our current success, they might in turn look at our next video and actually play it.
• MIKE: I noticed on your cd, the opening of (sic) …it reminds me a little bit of Marilyn Manson. What is your opinion of him?
• Joe: The first two records are really good…
• MIKE: Do you like his old shit?
• Joe: Yeah…
• MIKE: What do you think about the new image that he is trying to get out there?
• Shawn: I just think he’s out there to do his thing, and i don’t think Slipknot is anything like him. We never met him, but if you’ re a musician and you are working very hard at it, we respect you.
• Joe: I think he’s just pushing the limits of what he can do.
• MIKE: How do you feel about Korn and their success?
• Joe: The first record was really good, the second has some good stuff on it, but the third one, i didn’t care much about. The latest one, i haven’t heard much of.
• MIKE: Do you guys fuck with your masks on?
• Joe: (Laughter) I think Shawn might have, but i haven’t yet.
• MIKE: Have you ever slept with anybody so ugly that you had to put the mask on her?
• Joe: Oh, no.
• Shawn: That’s what the lights are for.
• MIKE: The sound effect at the end of your cd… what is that. Some kind of fucked up porno?
• Shawn: We can’t tell you.
• Joe: You gotta keep something secret.
• MIKE: To me it sounds like some nasty ass porno.
• Shawn: It’s like this man… number one, we are against the whole hidden track thing. A whole bunch of bands that were doing well started doing it. But with that particular thing going on in our lives, it was so real and so disgusting…
• Joe: It was one of those things you’ ll remember even when you’re eighty.
• MIKE: How did your appearance on Howard Stern affect your popularity?
• Joe: I don’t think it did shit! If we didn’t do it we’d be at the same level of popularity that we are at now. We were only on for a second and i don’t think when people heard us it made an impact.
• MIKE: If you were a New York City cab driver, would you pick up a black guy?
• Joe: Yeah, sure, why not?
• MIKE: How do you feel about the distribution of MP3z?
• Shawn: I’ll be honest you with man… I think the Internet is the greatest invention the world has ever seen. If a kid can’t be at a Slipknot show, he could be with you intimately at home, regardless of where he is around the world. MP3z I think are fine, but it’s very dangerous when certain people get a hold of an album before it is released and leak it out to the public. Then people download it and distribute it… You have to understand; if you’re a musician, you learn how to, and i’m gonna quote something from Henry Rollins here: “you learn how to starve creatively”. This is our livelyhood, and MP3′s can be very dangerous. I’m a great supporter of the Internet. Our Slipknot1.com page got over 230,000 hits last month, and it’s a great way of reaching out.
• Joe: It’s more fun to me to go out and buy a CD from a record store, than to just get it off the Internet.
• Shawn: I think the corporate world needs to wake the fuck up and make it more fun for fans to go online and get educated about their favorite bands.
• MIKE: What’s the hot cd’s in your player right now?
• Joe: The new “Amen” record is really good and the new “Accused”.
• Shawn: And i got to say, the new “Nine Inch Nails”, whether you like them or not, is an awesome album.
• MIKE: What about Limp Bizkit? What’s the story between you and them?
• Shawn: Let’s go on the record and say something right now: We live of the most common things in life, number one of which is respect. I don’t talk shit about anyone, unless i have something to say. A couple of people in that band said that we’re with RoadRunner so we’ll never go anywhere. And also that we speak for fat ugly kids. So take that for what it is, but when we see Limp Bizkit for the first time, we are going to get naked and take it in cromag style. I’m gonna have a fucking quarter in my hand and we’re gonna flip for fucking punches.
• Joe: Punches in the face. Fifty fifty chance of winning.
• Shawn: We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. I’ll flip for a punch with those cock suckers any time! But if they didn’t say anything, then we’re all good.
• Joe: Let me make something clear about them. Wes, the guitar player, fucking rules. Wes is the shit.
• Shawn: Few people have the gift, and Wes is one of them.
• Joe: He can jam with us any time.
• Shawn: The rest of the band, whatever, but Wes is the man.
• MIKE: What kind of background are you guys from?
• Joe: As far as musical asperations, we grew up with “Black Sabbath”, then we got into the black metal shit like “Venom”, and “Slayer”. Then we started getting into the “Jane’s Addiction” type of staff. Pretty much a wide range of everything. Right now, we’re so involved with “Slipknot” we don’t listen to anything except from the few we just mentioned. From an attitude perspective, we were all raised pretty well, but we were raised in an environment were you had to develop your own sense of individuality. I had 16,000 imaginary friends. I had my own fucking army. Where we came from you don’t really have an outlet to let go. This is why we stuck with this for ten years.
• Shawn: It’s beautiful because we know were we wanna be, and it’s easy because we’re all guys and we’re all best friends. We’re doing it all and it’s easy. We’re just starting, so this is just fucking foreplay. (At this point Shawn gets very excited and sticks his head through the wall.

In this installment we speak erotica, comic books, and cathartic soniference with #8 (frontman Corey)

Des Moines, Iowa. Some refer to it as the middle of America, while others refer to it as the middle of nowhere. Regardless of your stance on the region, one thing’s for damn sure: Des Moines knows how to rock. Actually, I’m not sure about the whole town, but the nine guys who make up Slipknot definitely know how to rock.

In just a few short years, Slipknot has risen from the dying cornfields and barren farmlands of this bastion of Americana living to turn the world of heavy music (once called metal) on it’s collective ass. Surging throbs of molten rhythms and scream therapy verbal discharge are the Slipknot specialty.

Last week IGN For Men brought you an entertaining 2-part interview with Jim and Mick, the guitarists behind the grueling Slipknot six-string assault (if you missed that one, slam your cursor here to read it).

Now IGN For Men is proud to bring you an exclusive interview with Slipknot frontman Corey (a.k.a. #8). Before Slipknot, Corey spent time working in an adult bookstore, so he has a wee bit of erotic connoisseurism lodged within his persona. On top of that he’s a comic book readin’ fool. And of course, he’s a rock-n-roll maniac.

So now, without further adieu, here’s the IGN For Men Interview with Slipknot.

IGN For Men:Hey man, I recently interviewed one of the vivid girls. I only bring this up ’cause I know you have a bit of a erotic background yourself.

Corey: Which one was it?

IGN For Men: Kira Kener.

Corey: Ooooooh, yeah. She rules.

IGN For Men: So, let’s talk erotica , baby!

Corey: I was watchin’ er otic movies when I was 13-years old.

IGN For Men: What’s your all-time classic flick, then?

Corey: Oh $%&*.! I don’t know man. My taste expands. But like in the ’80s when they had really bad $%&*!@# hairdos and the bright lipstick was goin’ on, I wasn’t down with that. Once the ’90s kicked-in though, man! You know, that’s when amateur stuff really started to kick-in, you know, and I was pretty down with that. But I’d have to say that my favorite of all time would have to be Vivid’s Nylon. Very good movie. It’s got Celeste in it.

IGN For Men: I’m more from the Deep Throat era myself.

Corey: Okay, right on. I dug that movie. I loved the ’70s ones because everybody was hairy, you know. It was real, pretty $%&*!@’ real lookin’. Everybody was ugly and they were just $%&*!@!

IGN For Men: How did you fall into the adult bookstore gig?

Corey: A friend of mine was working there. It’s kind of funny because she’d been working there for awhile and then after I started she quit. I said ‘What the $%^&, man!?’ So I worked at a shop called the Adult Emporium for about three years, you know? It was probably the best job I ever had, you know? ‘Cause I’d work the midnite-eight shift, the graveyard shift, and all the freaks would come in on my shift, you know? It $%&*!@# ruled, because what else do you need to write about except for real people?

IGN For Men: Is that where some of your lyrical inspirations evolved from?

Corey: Ummm, not really. A lot of it was just spending a lot of time sittin’ there by myself. See, I worked by myself, you know? And a lot of times I was just kickin’ it, gettin’ very introspective. When there’s nothing to do, you’ve got all your work done, all you can do is sit there and kind of reflect. I think a lot of that [my lyrics] had to do with the long hours I spent there.

IGN For Men: Are the craziest mutha$%&*!@# really from Des Moines?

Corey: Most of ‘em are. I tell ya, this comes from a standpoint where a lot of the crazy people in the bigger towns, a lot of it is shock value. You know, they put on a huge front ’cause they want everyone to think that they’re $%&*!@# outrageous, so out there. But you go to a town like Des Moines, man, where a lot of people are so full of pent up energy, man, that it’s just amazing dude. It’s like you get ‘em in a $%&*!@# party situation and you do not know what the $%&* is gonna happen. Especially when you’re growing up, man. There’s nothing for kids to do. So you definitely develop a destructive $%&*!@# behavior just from the fact that the only thing to do is break #$%* and it pisses the old people off, which is pretty cool, you know? So, like I said, you get really introspective, you develop a really cool sense of self.

IGN For Men: Wouldn’t you say that you guys are going for shock value, what with the disturbing nightmare masks, the visceral soniference, and the $%&* you! attitude?

Corey: Not really, man. I mean you’ve got to realize the reason that we did this, was that we put the masks on because so many people…we’re musicians and we play music, man. We’re kind of rebelling against [the continued commercialism of modern music; musicians doing Calvin Klein ads, etc.]. Obviously it [our masks] have a great look, but the reason that we started doing it in the first place was because we’d seen so many $%&*!@ bands suck the money dick and just completely cheese out to where they would get onstage and they’d be like ‘Hey, look! Do you like my new hairdo?’ ‘Cool!’ ‘D’ya like my new shirt that I bought on Santa Monica Boulevard today?’ ‘Cool!’ ‘Here’s my new shoes, I’m endorsed.’ ‘Cool!’ It’s like ‘$%&* you, man! Play your $%&*!@’ music!’ Nobody gives a $%&*, they want to $%&*!@’ hear your music. And that’s why we did the masks, that’s why we did the coveralls, that’s why we did all those things. We were like ‘$%&* my face! Here’s my mask, this is what the music turns me into.’ And ‘You know what? $%&* the clothing and the $%&*!@’ fashion show that these other mutha$%&*!@# are puttin’ on! Here’s my coveralls, deal with that!’ And ‘Oh, music is product?’ ‘No, music is expression, here’s my $%&*!@’ barcode. There’s your product!’ ‘Oh you want my name? You want to $%&*!@’ be a namedropper? Here’s my number on my right arm.’ ‘Piss off and die!’ You know, we were so $%&*!@’ tired of being let down and seeing so many other kids being let down by this $%&* that it was either you wait and wait and wait or you do it yourself.

IGN For Men: And there isn’t any corporate Slipknot sponsorship either, right?

Corey: $%&* no! The only real sponsorship we have is for like guitars and $%&*, which we need ’cause we can’t afford to buy our own $%&* right now.

IGN For Men: So I guess we shouldn’t expect a Slipknot Gap commercial anytime soon, should we?

Corey: $%&* no! Negative. You will not and if you ever do see us, dude, shoot us in the face ’cause we don’t know what the hell we’re doin’. We’re not in this for the $%&*!@# modeling. We’re not in this for any of that $%&*, dude. The music mainly and $%&*!@ foremost. We don’t give a $%&* about all that crap.

IGN For Men: And the chicks. I know you want to get the chicks and backstage groupies.

Corey: Oh well, you know. It used to be that, but I have a girlfriend right now. I’m behaving myself, I’m not getting into the ‘Road Warrior’ stories yet. Y’see, I did that $%&* a long time ago, man. Like everything you can do on the road, I did. So it holds no #$%&*! mystery or secret key for me, know what I’m sayin’? If I ever want to do it I’ll probably have to take $%&* in somebody’s mouth. That’s how $%&*!@ far out there I’ve become, dude. I’m tellin’ you.

IGN For Men:Well that would be takin’ it one step further than Mike Patton, who once took a $%&* on stage in the early days of Mr. Bungle.

Corey: Oh I don’t doubt that, man. He’s $%^&*!@ gone. He’s like one of my heroes. He’s like one of the baddest $%^!@ singers of all time. He’s a really incredible singer, man. He has done so much with his voice, just his voice. I don’t know if you’ve heard his solo record, with the throat noises? It’s amazing. Plus the Fatomos album, it’s so good, dude. It’s a very acquired taste. We had the privilege of seein’ them live when we recorded our album. We were just blown away. We bought the album when it came out and it was exactly like it was on stage, man. If you can, definitely check it out. And listen to it with an open $%&*!@ mind. It makes Bungle look like Lawrence Welk. It’s that $%^&!@-up.

IGN For Men: Besides showing what the music does to you inside, the masks also provide quite a bit of anonymity. I mean earlier you said I could shoot you if you ever took a Gap commercial. Hell, I’d be delighted to honor that request, but I don’t know what the hell you look like. That’s why you guys really wear the masks, so if anybody really hates your $%&8, they don’t know what you look like.

Corey: [laughs] Yeah, I love it dude. I was walkin’ around in the Virgin Megastore the other day and I saw so many Slipknot shirts, it was $%&*!@’ hilarious ’cause none of ‘em recognized me. It ruled. I mean that’s what it’s all about.

IGN For Men: So will you ever do the ‘Slipknot Unmasked Tour’ a la KISS?

Corey: I don’t think so, man. I mean, no [laughs] $%&* no! I don’t know man. I mean if it ever gets down to the point where we take the masks off, I think that’s gonna be the time to call it a day, you know what I’m sayin’? Because that’s so much a part of what we are. The masks are really just another $%&*!@’ instrument for us to use.

IGN For Men: So you’re not hiding from the world, then?

Corey: Not really. We’re not really hiding anything. I mean we’re actually showing more of what we’re expressing than you think. Everybody wants to think that we’re hiding behind these masks, you know? That’s bullshit. If we were hiding, you’d never see us. But we’re out, we got out and $%&*!@’ live our lives. We do our things. If kids $%&*!@’ recognize us, we stop and talk to ‘em. I think they respect that more than a bunch of guys that kinda just huddle on the $%&*!@’ bus and don’t talk to anybody and then just get out and do our thing. Because we do this it keeps us well rounded. It keeps us very down to earth, it keeps us doing what we want to do, it keeps our eyes on the prize.

IGN For Men: Since you don’t huddle on the tour bus, what do you do to pass the time while out on the road? Mick confessed to being a bit of an N64 head, but that he doesn’t bring his set-up on tour as the rest of you guys thrash his controllers.

Corey: [laughs] Mick likes to bitch, that’s all I’m sayin’. As for me, I like to watch, I like to coach, y’know? I see patterns and $%&* and then I’ll tell ‘em about it. I don’t have the hand coordination for it for some reason. I can work a joystick like a mutha$%&*!@, like the old Atari 2600′s. That was my game. I can play at the arcade and $%&*, but I can’t get into the Nintendo thing. There’s only one real game that I like to play anyway and that’s Tetris, the heroin of $%&*!@’ arcade games. It’s so addictive, dude. I had to buy like two or three different games ’cause I was burnin’ ‘em out. I sit in bed, $%&*!@’ put on my headphones and play Tetris. And that’s on a boring night.

IGN For Men: What do you coach and who do you end up coaching?

Corey: Umm, I think it’s for like the first person games like Goldeneye, your Dooms. I remember $%&* because people are very busy looking around for other $%&*, so they forget to file things in their head. I’m not playing and I’m not sweating getting killed, so I’m remembering all the details and $%&*. So I coach like that. I coach on the new Tony Hawk game. I see $%&* when they’re $%&*!@’ skating and I remember where it is. I’m like ‘Go back! Go back! You might need a little more speed to $%&*!@’ do a grind on that pipe right there!’

IGN For Men: What kind of nightmares do you have?

Corey: [laughs] That’s a little personal, isn’t it?

IGN For Men: Okay, do they influence your lyrics?

Corey: A little bit, yeah. I wrote “Purity” because of a nightmare. I had the nightmare because of the story. It $%&*!@ me up so bad that I crawled underneath my bed and wrote it. But I don’t want to delve too far into that. Let’s just say that when I have nightmares they shake me so bad that I fall out of bed. It doesn’t happen all that often, but when they come on, they come on. I got some $%&* goin’ on, you know? But it’s nothin’ that I think any other normal maladjusted person wouldn’t have, you know? I deal with it. I have the perfect outlet for it. It’s [our music] very cathartic. It’s one of things that I’m very glad that I have because if I didn’t have it I’d probably be dead.

IGN For Men: Clive Barker told me something to that very effect about his writing.

Corey: Clive Barker? Cool. It makes sense, man, especially when you’re dealing with very personal subject matter.

IGN For Men: I know that the two things to do in Des Moines are to go to the skating rink or the graveyard. Which did you prefer hanging out at?

Corey: What do you think man? I was at the $%^&*!’ graveyard [laughs]. There was one, Woodland Cemetery, it’s like right in the middle of town, it’s not too far away from downtown, where we’d hang out. We’d get so drunk that we’d actually contemplate digging up a skull and drinkin’ wine out of it [laughs]. You know?

IGN For Men: Which superhero or super villain inspires you the most?

Corey: Oh $%&*! [laughs]. You would ask the comic freak which superhero/super villain inspires me.

IGN For Men: Hey, I didn’t know you were a comic freak.

Corey: Oh yeah. I am so into $%&*!@’ comics. I collect comics, I collect action figures. I do it up.

IGN For Men: Rattle off some titles that you dig.

Corey: I’ve been collecting Spider-man since I was a kid.

IGN For Men: Romita, McFarlane, or Larsen?

Corey: I like ‘em all, to tell you the truth. I’m not very particular. I care about the stories. I love McFarlane’s look. I love Romita’s look. I love Erik Larsen’s look. I love ‘em all. I even love the old Stan Lee/SteveDitko look. It’s all Spidey to me. Whenever anybody gives any love to Spidey, I $%&*!@’ love that $%&*. I like…ummm, oh christ, dude. When I really started gettin’ into it, I collected some titles that aren’t even $%&*!@’ around anymore, ’cause they got cancelled. Which is bullshit. I collected Hellstorm: Prince of Lies, I still collect Preacher, which is one of the baddest $%&*!@’ comics on the planet. If you read it, you’re lucky. If you don’t go $%&*!@’ check it out.

IGN For Men: I read Preacher, among other titles. Savage Dragon is my guilty pleasure, though. I dig Larsen’s art and the mindless bash ‘em up violence in every issue.

Corey: Oh absolutely! See I loved…I got into <1>DV8 for awhile before they changed writers and it turned stupid. DV8 were like the freaks of Gen13. They were the $%&*!@’ alcoholics, the $%&*!@’ drug addicts, the whores, you know? It $%^&*!’ ruled! The first 12 issues are probably the baddest stories I have ever $%^&*!’ read, man. They were so $%&*!@’ cool. There’s a lot more that I collect. But I started gettin’ really into $%&*!@’ action figures and kind of layin’ off the [comics]. Wait, The Darkness, it’s so $%&*!@’ rad, dude!

IGN For Men: I read the early Garth Ennis issues only.

Corey: Ennis $%&*!@’ rules!

IGN For Men: What’s your most prized figure?

Corey: Aww $%&*. I think all of ‘em dude. Ummm, I’d have to say…$%&*, I don’t know, dude. You’ve got to realize that I’ve got like 13 huge boxes full of action figures still in the package. Yeah, I’m pretty $%&*!@’ serious about it. See, when I didn’t pay rent I used to spend my whole paycheck on [action figures]. That and drinkin’. Those were like my two passions.

IGN For Men: Action figures and getting drunk, right on!

Corey: That was it!

IGN For Men: Did you ever get drunk and play with the figures?

Corey: Aww no, no. I’d only take ‘em out of the package if I had doubles. And I’d only get doubles when people would buy them for me. I’d be like ‘Oh, I’ve got this one already’ and then I’d take it out. I’ve got an old school Spider-man swinging from the light in my bedroom. He’s hangin’ from it. It rules. God, my most prized? Right now, at this moment, it would probably be the new Movies Maniacs 2 series. Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates, it’s got Michael Myers, it’s got Ghostface from Scream, it’s got The Crow, it’s got Pumpkinhead, it’s got Chucky and Bride of Chucky.

IGN For Men: My buddy is really into the Puppet Master ones.

Corey: I’ve got some of those. I want to get the two originals. I need the main guy with the hook and the knife. I can’t find him. I’ve got Six Shooter. And Pinhead rules. You know, those movies suck, but they’re actually pretty cool. I’m also a movie freak, too. Aww man, I gotta be done now. $%&* man, we’ll have to hook up next time around and we’ll talk some more shop. That’ll $%&*!@’ rule, man. I don’t get to talk about this $%&* very often.

IGN For Men: No problem.

Corey: That’s cool man, let’s save it for next time. Take it easy

• What did you do today?

Not a damn thing. Slept, ate, getting ready to play.

• How’s the tour treating you guys?

Awesome.

• You tired yet?

Yeah, we’re pretty burnt.

• Are you? You ready to retire?

Oh, not retire. Maybe like, three days off would be good.

• Not ready to pack it in yet, huh?

No way. We’re all good.

• So, tell me your latest good road story.

Seems like the band is better and better every day. We’re getting sicker and sicker and sicker. We’re getting closer to our real dreams and that’s, you know, world domination.

Last night, Joey (the drummer) – I’ve been playing with him for about 4 years and I’ve known him for about 10 – and he’s pretty anal about his equipment and he just destroyed his drums last night. It’s an $8,000.00 drum set. He broke like 4 cymbals, broke his cage, fucking tossed his drums, threw kegs on ‘em. Just went pretty crazy.

• Whoa!

So, that was enlightening.

• That was a new one on you, huh?

Yeah, cut his leg all open and everything.

• I was going to ask you if anyone had been to the hospital lately.

No. We almost took him, but we were able to get the bleeding under control and everything.

• I heard that you don’t ever take your masks off during interviews. Are you wearing your mask right now?

Uhm. I’m not wearing one right now. (laughter)

• What ARE you wearing right now?

Uh.. shoes. Socks. Pants. Two shirts, a jacket, and a John Deere hat.

• Are you cold there right now or something? It gets cold in Iowa, doesn’t it?

Oh yeah. It’s Shining weather.

• You get buried in the snow, no wonder you’re so crazy.

Oh yeah, I get cabin fever.

• Have you toured the MidWest already?

Yeah, we’ve played at home and we’ve played Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska…

• How are they responding to your shows?

I don’t know if they’re onto it yet, but they got a big surprise if they fuck with us ‘cuz we fuck with you back. I don’t put up with shit.

• Have you had any run-ins with protestors like Marilyn Manson used to at their shows?

No, because we don’t talk about politics or religion so we’re not flat out just coming on and saying “worship the devil” or any of that…

(Strange sounds in the background of someone coughing and Shawn is telling them to turn the hot water on really high. Sounds like Shawn is helping someone who is ill to steam themselves out.)

• What’s the matter?

We got a little sickness going on. But it won’t stop the show. Can’t kill us.

• Somebody sick?

Yeah, about all of us.

• Don’t get the flu, man. It’s putting everybody down for about two weeks.

Well what happened was uh…our drum roadie got pneumonia. And he doesn’t have it full-fledged but it’s starting to get on other people.

• Well I wish him the best of luck.

It can’t kill us. The show will go on.

• What’s the biggest misconception about your band?

Uhm.. (laughs) I hate it when [journalists] say, “Are you lke Gwar,, ICP or Kiss?” It’s like, SHUT THE FUCK UP. It’s like yeah, we’re exactly like all of them. Yeah, right.

I’m the kind of guy that like, you and your friend could be in your car, talking about say, Edgar Allen Poe going back and forth arguing about it, blah blah blah and I’m in the back seat and I’m not even paying attention. And, then we make a stop at my house and you go up and look in my bathroom, and on my book shelf I’ve got every book Edgar Allen Poe has ever done. I’m that way with the band. All these people have all these misconceptions. And they all wanna fuckin’ talk. They wanna talk about the coveralls and the masks and the 9 guys and the 3 drummers and they wanna talk all this shit, right?

• Right.

But you know what? They’re talking before they see. And then they come and see the band and then they’re fucking holes. They’re “sucks”, as I call them. Their dripping little sucks fucking shut the fuck up after they’ve seen us.

• Admittedly, I wasn’t as into Slipknot as I was after I saw your show. The next day, I was telling everyone I knew (even my goth friends) that if they do not come to the next show with me they would be making the biggest mistake…

So they’re all coming to the show?

• Oh yeah, they’ll be there. You’ll like playing at the Palace, too. Lots of room there for you guys to go off.

Yeah, that’s what our manager was saying.

• I’m curious what the story is behind the song, “Purity”.

Well, basically there was this thing on the internet. And it was a very frightening story…

(wretching sounds in the background …Shawn says to someone nearby – “Are you puking?”)

Uh.. there was a webpage that had this story, and it seemed off the bat that the story was probably made up, but if you put that aside, and just read the story, it was a pretty fascinating story and it was extremely disturbing. And when I showed the story to Corey, our lead singer, it really fucked him up. And, you know, he wrote off it. He tied personal experiences with the collaboration of what it was about and he wrote the song “Purity” and that’s about the extent of it.

• Interesting…

We’re actually having to pull it off the album. I can’t really talk about it, but it’s not directly because of the song “purity” it’s more because of some other stuff that I just can’t talk about. And, you know, it’s all right, because if people want to point fingers or whatever and people always want to go gold digging.. whatever, dude. We’re always going to play the song live. And if you’re one of those artists out there that isn’t fucking honored when you influence someone to take it one step further, you can just go fuck off, you know?

• You literally have to take it off of the CD?

Yeah, it will be pulled off.

• So, the people who have it now are lucky, right?

Very lucky, yeah.

• Whoa…that’s wild.

Just to let everyone know, we’re putting a song called “Me Inside” that is on the digipak and it’s also going to be on the free sampler, I mean, we’re not doing this to generate anything or whatever it’s just something that we have to do.

• Not a publicity stunt…

No. Absolutely not, because we’re always going to play the song and it’s one of those things that happened and you know, whatever. We’re not gonna sit here fucking spending a lot of time thinking about it. We’re always gonna play it live and if you have it, you can play it for your friends. It’s on with business. Let’s get on with it, you know?

• Right, cool. Are any of you guys related?

No. We’re related in the music scene, we all used to open up for each other in different bands. That’s how we’ve known each other for a very, very long time. But none of us were like old fuckin’ school hardcore friends from the beginning.

• Are any of the band members married besides you?

Uh, yeah. I’m the only one with the kids, you know.

• Wow. You’ve got kids, too?

Three kids. 8, 6 and 3. Two girls and my middle one’s a boy. And Craig, the sampler, is married.

• Do the wives and girlfriends get scared watching your live shows like the wives or girlfriends of boxers or racecar drivers do?

Well, I don’t know about anybody else’s girlfriends, but my wife, it’s kind of a catch 22 with her. I mean, I’ll call her up on Ozzfest like “Hey I cut my head open, I got 17 stitches” and she’ll tell me “You know, if you ever kill yourself for this band, I’ll tell your children that you chose the band”! She’ll give me shit and I’ll have to be really good. And then she’ll come to the next show and I’ll be like “Honey, what did you think?” and she’ll say “Oh the lights were good..” and I’m like “No.. what did you THINK?” and she’ll say “Well, you’re not doing flips anymore, you’re not throwing things” and I’m like “What the fuck”!?

(more commotion in the background)

Hold on a second…

(Shawn is giving someone direction about how to work the shower knobs… I can hear him telling someone “Hey it smells like puke in here!” He starts laughing uncontrollably…and then says “Ahhh I love my band members” laughs some more…”We have a black cloud that follows us” laughs a lot more. )

• What did you do for Halloween?

Uh, dressed up like Slipknot and played.

• Have you seen anybody impersonating you guys yet?

Every show.

• Are people making their own masks and stuff?

Yeah, making their own masks and they come as…

(Someone screams in the background… Shawn starts laughing really hard and can’t talk

and finally asks me, “Did you hear him”? …laughs some more… “This band’s fucking nuts”!!! laughs and laughs)

• What would people be surprised to find out that you like to do with your spare time?

I, personally, I’m really in love with art. Anything to do with it. I’m constantly working with my children. They all have a very awesome talent, drawing and painting. I weld, I make sculpture and stuff and I’m always creating stuff on the computer, like movies and pictures. And Corey, he’s a fucking movie freak. Movies and comic books.

• What kind of movies does he like?

Everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s humor, or what it is, as long as it has a little substance. It can’t just be a piece of shit movie.

• Did you guys see “Fight Club’?

Yeah.

• What did you think?

Fight Club is exactly what I have been probably for the last 10 years of my life. And I am not making that up. That movie aggravated me, made my stomach so upset. There are so many things in that movie that are me, personally, that I almost lost it. I mean, I was like “Oh my God”. I mean, forget that you’re beating the fuck out of yourself or out of someone, you’re doing it to get the fucking pain of being born… you’re getting the pain of the world out.. and that’s what I do every day in this band. I just beat the shit out of myself.

• You’re one of the lucky ones. You’ve got an outlet.

Yeah. Totally, I’m fucking so privileged. It can be taken away at any time. So that movie made me mental. So anyway, there’s Sid, he’s the DJ. He’s got a group that he’s a part of. It’s like all these local DJs where he’s from called SPC, that he’s kind of involved with and they do raves and that kind of stuff.

• So, he still has time to do that then?

They don’t have albums out or shit like that, they’re just good friends, best friends, they’re all DJs and they go support each other. They’ll do a rave and everyone will come out and support them; it’s just something they’re all a part of. Craig, he’s a computer genius….

• Do you both work on the band website?

I do Slipknot 2 and Craig does Slipknot 1.

• It’s incredible work, you should be really proud of yourself. It’s a total experience to go there, it’s not just a website.

Thank you. Thanks very much. It’s me and one other guy. And the other guy does the actual programming and we sit there for hours and hours together. Conceptually, we did it together. I was involved in Slipknot 1 in the beginning, but it wasn’t making me happy. That page needs to be more informational. You know, banners and (sarcastic voice) if you don’t have Netscape, click here…all this bullshit. All this ugly shit that I hate, that takes away from the artistic Then I saw Flash 4 for the first time, with the guy who helps me do this one (he’s a guitar tech and he was in a different band at the time ) and he showed me and I was so impressed with the way it moved, that my brain started making movies and when came together and we did it!

• The site is awesome.

It’s actually gonna get a facelift. It’s gonna get “eviller”. It’s gonna get so evil, that.. you’ll leave your work and school and your boyfriend to come home and figure out puzzles to get information! It’s gonna be so fucking nuts people aren’t gonna be able to handle it.

• Kind of like PinHead from Hellraiser’s little box, right?

Yep! Exactly!

• Can’t wait… when are you going to have the time? On the road or what?

We’re all looking for a little bit of time off. A little bit of time off would really, be nice. Once we get some time off then I’m gonna start doing some web page shit again and we’ll go from there.

• I’ve got one last question and then I’ll let you attend to your band’s medical needs. What do you want for Christmas and have you been good this year?

I’ve never been good. Ever. I don’t think there’s one year that I’ve ever been good. But to be honest, I just want to be home for Christmas.

• You think you will be?

Yeah, we are. We’re actually going to Europe and we won’t be back until the 23rd. and then I’m home from the 23rd until New Year’s. I just want to be home with my children, that’s all I want. I want to get a Christmas tree and I want to watch them wake up and open presents.

• Well, good luck on the rest of the tour.

Well thanks; say hi when we come through.

• Yeah, I’ll definitely see you at the show here in Hollywood.

Cool.

Stay as healthy as possible.

• I will, and I’ll see you at the show.
• Thanks for talking to me, Shawn.

All right. Bye Lesa.