Corey Taylor’s son Griffin Taylor recently shared his memorable first encounter with his father in full Slipknot regalia. According to Louder Sound, this encounter happened when Griffin was just a toddler.
Griffin’s babysitter brought him to see his father before a performance. At the time, Corey was wearing the distinctive face stitch mask from Slipknot’s 2004 album era, Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses.
“I actually don’t really remember it, but, so I’m told, I was a baby, or a toddler, and my babysitter took me over while they were getting ready to go onstage,” Griffin explained. “I got handed to him – this was when it was the face stitch mask era – and I was obviously taken aback, very curious, like, ‘Who the f*ck is this guy?'”
His father began to interact with him, and the initial shock quickly turned to curiosity. “Then he started talking, like, ‘Hey buddy,’ and I just started feeling his mask and was fine,” Griffin continued.
Griffin’s anecdote offers a humorous glimpse into what it was like growing up as the son of one of metal’s most iconic masked performers. Understanding the significance of that particular mask requires exploring the evolution of Corey Taylor’s visual identity throughout Slipknot’s career and the unique challenges that specific design presented.
Corey Taylor’s mask during the Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) era marked a significant departure from his earlier designs. It represented a turning point in Slipknot’s visual identity, as detailed by Impericon. Rather than covering his entire head like his previous masks, this new design resembled a grotesque, mangled face with burnt, rotting skin that was stitched together in various places. The mask took on a more experimental and artistic quality, featuring a burnt appearance that was simultaneously creepy yet visually compelling.
The Vol. 3 mask presented significant practical challenges during performances, despite its striking appearance. Loudwire reported that Taylor revealed the mask was relatively simple to create but proved to be the hardest to sing in. The asymmetrical design made it difficult to position the microphone properly against his mouth. This actually altered the character of his vocals during that era. This experience influenced his approach to future mask designs. He later ensured that the rubber on subsequent masks would be flushed with his mouth to allow better microphone placement.
The Vol. 3 mask’s appearance directly reflected the band’s artistic evolution and their more experimental musical direction during that period, as noted by Louder Sound. Like all of Corey’s masks, this design served as a physical representation of his inner self and the band’s progression. He believes that masks represent who people are inside and that change is natural over time.
The future Vended frontman’s candid recollection of his childhood encounter with that particular mask offers a touching reminder of how Slipknot’s iconic imagery has been woven into the personal lives of the band members’ families. What seemed frightening to a toddler—a grotesque, stitched face—would eventually become a symbol of his father’s artistic legacy and creative evolution in one of metal’s most visually distinctive bands.
