Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor joined Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio for an interview during which he shared his insights on Joey Jordison and Paul Gray‘s contributions to the band.
Two years after Slipknot released ‘All Hope Is Gone,’ the band’s bassist Paul Gray was found dead in a hotel room on May 24, 2010. Although his cause of death wasn’t revealed at first, it was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl. Slipknot decided Gray would want them to continue, and they kept on making new music.
In 2013, Slipknot began working on their fifth new album. On December 12, 2013, they announced on their official website that Joey Jordison had left the band after working with them for 18 years. Although Jordison didn’t confirm the news, he revealed in June 2016 that he was suffering from Transverse myelitis back then, and it made him unable to play drums. Recently, Slipknot lost another member as their drummer Joey Jordison passed away on July 26, 2021.
In an interview by HardDrive Radio, the host Lou Brutus asked Corey Taylor the effects of Paul Gray and Joey Jordison’s absence on Slipknot since the two were the band’s main songwriters. As a response, Taylor said it’s a great misconception because although Jordison and Gray’s contributions were great, all band members contribute to the makings of the songs.
Taylor then stated Slipknot has writers like Jim Root, Mick Thomson, and Clown, and they didn’t get much credit due to their songwriting. Moreover, he added that he wrote songs too, and his bandmates always worked on the new materials to make them better and more suitable for the band’s sound.
Following that, Corey Taylor revealed that it’s not that much different now than it was in the past. He then admitted that Slipknot’s music sounds different due to Gray and Jordison’s absence, but they are still able to make songs that sound very Slipknot. According to Taylor, this is because the material always goes through ‘Slipknot Filter.’
After Lou Brutus asked him about the changes in Slipknot after the two songwriters Joey Jordison and Paul Gray’s absence, Corey Taylor said:
“I think that’s the greatest misconception. People think that Joey and Paul wrote all the music. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Everybody writes. Joe and Paul were the ones that would get stuff going, but it would always change from their demo to the main meat of what the song would actually become.
So, from that standpoint, we’ve still got writers like Jim Root, we’ve still got writers like Mick Thomson, we’ve still got writers like Clown; Clown has written a lot of stuff over the years. And the people have just never gotten a lot of the credit that they’re due, I guess. I mean, I’ve written stuff for this band from time to time when I get the bug to write something super heavy. Then they take it and make it better — they always make it better.
So from that standpoint, it’s not really any different than the way it’s been in the past. Obviously, the music sounds different because Paul’s voice isn’t there, Joey’s voice isn’t there. And yet we still are able to write in a way that sounds very Slipknot, and that’s because it would always go through the Slipknot filter. No matter what demo we wrote, it would always go through the Slipknot filter and become a Slipknot song.”
You can watch the full interview below.
