Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor opened up about a deeply personal period of self-reflection and growth in an appearance on Mythical Kitchen. He confessed that he had hurt the people around him and felt compelled to make a change.
Taylor spoke candidly about reaching a breaking point roughly three years ago. He acknowledged the damage his behavior had caused to those closest to him and explained what drove him to begin rebuilding himself.
“About three years ago, I woke up one day and realized that I wasn’t happy,” Taylor said. “I had hurt everyone that I loved. I’d hurt people I worked with.”
The Slipknot vocalist described how the situation had been building over time and how he came to confront the version of himself he had become.
“I had taken so many things for granted and I stopped appreciating not just what I built, but the people who I had in my life,” he continued. “And what I realized was that it had been coming on for years. It’d just been getting worse and worse until I realized that this person who I was, I hated.”
Taylor then reflected on the insecurities that had fueled his behavior and how even his professional success had begun to feel hollow.
“And I didn’t wanna be that. I didn’t wanna be a person who hid behind his ego because I was too insecure to realize that I was empty inside,” he said. “And suddenly it wasn’t enough that I had all this success. I had all these fans. Suddenly the thing that mattered the most, I couldn’t tap into ’cause it wasn’t there.”
He concluded by describing the ongoing and imperfect process of working to become a better person.
“And I kinda started the arduous process of building me back,” Taylor said. “And it hasn’t been perfect. It’s meant looking at a lot of the mistakes that I’ve made and doing my best to make amends for it.”
Taylor’s remarks offer a rare and candid look into the personal struggles the rock icon has faced behind the scenes in recent years.
These latest comments are not the first time Taylor has spoken openly about his mental health. In January 2024, he shared a video with fans describing a “complete and utter breakdown of boundaries” and a “very near relapse.” Those revelations led him to cancel his North American solo tour in order to prioritize his wellbeing and marked a turning point in how publicly he began addressing his inner battles.
Taylor has long carried the weight of deep personal trauma. He has previously spoken about surviving sexual abuse at age 10, a near-overdose, and an attempted suicide in his younger years. Those experiences laid the groundwork for decades of addiction and self-destructive behavior. The patterns he described in the Mythical Kitchen appearance are rooted in a history that stretches far beyond the last three years.
A diagnosed sufferer of manic depression, Taylor has been vocal about how misunderstood the condition is. He has described the numbness that accompanies the illness as an “impossible slog” that feels like “trying to run underwater.” That emotional flatness, he has suggested, contributed to the disconnection he felt even at the height of his success.
In response to these challenges, Taylor has taken concrete steps toward long-term recovery. He has engaged multiple therapists as part of a committed effort to better understand his mental state and sustain meaningful progress. The decision reflects a shift away from short-term fixes and toward a more structured, ongoing approach to self-care.
Taylor’s willingness to speak openly about his struggles has had a visible impact on how he engages with his own recovery. Being transparent with fans about his mental illness changed the way he handled the issue internally. It pushed him toward greater accountability and a more honest relationship with himself. For a figure of his stature in rock music, that level of public vulnerability remains both rare and significant.
