Slipknot’s Corey Taylor recently spoke about his inspirations earlier in Slipknot’s career during an appearance on Doug Bradley’s Down To Hell. He stated that grunge bands back in the ’80s and the ’90s influenced him, and he adapted their music to Slipknot.
Corey Taylor joined Slipknot in the late ’90s and became a solid member of the band for over 20 years, making them one of the most known heavy metal bands. Corey has brutal and distinctive vocals that allow the group to distinguish itself from other artists. Also, they reached quite a reputation for being original with their performances, particularly with their stage masks.
The frontman recently stated that he had been inspired by many music genres, especially in the early days of his career. He explained that punk and hard rock music were huge inspirations, but he also named hip hop as a genre he ‘absorbed’ while working on his music. However, Taylor indicated that his main inspiration was grunge, once called ‘college radio.’
He stated that watching grunge on MTV for two hours straight immensely helped Slipknot develop their music. According to Taylor, one of their most significant strengths is that they can turn anything into good music. The band members are not shy to use whatever genre and implement it in their hard rock productions, whether heavy or melodic.
Here is what Corey Taylor said about grunge:
“I was taking my cues from not only ’70s punk but ’80s hard rock, listening to stuff like that, all the heavy metal that had come out of that time, the hip hop that was coming out of New York and the West Coast and whatnot. I was absorbing all of that. It was cool because the late ’80s is when it really started to come on, and it wasn’t even called grunge then; it was just called college radio. So we all started listening to that. We would watch 120 minutes on MTV.”
He continued:
“That really taught me a different way to write songs and stuff, and I took that and applied that to Slipknot definitely because it was almost like a shirking of the convention. Not only the fact that you got nine people trying to turn this collision into something that you can dance to you and whatever, but also trying to make something interesting. For me, our greatest strength is the fact that we play to our strengths like the Clown has a great year for melody and art.
I’ve always been the one that puts everything and tries to form it up and do a song. We’ve all been able to contribute to that over the years. That ’90s revolution definitely set the tone for the fact that we were just going to say, ‘Screw the rules.’ If you’ve got a hook, no matter what it is, whether it’s something heavy, a little creepy, or really melodic, give it to us. We’ll turn a song into it.“
You can watch his interview below.
