Shawn Crahan from Slipknot has explained why he prefers the appreciation he receives from fans in other countries over American fans.
The rocker was asked during a chat with Interview Magazine about the crowds in their 25th-anniversary tour and how they have been — and let’s just say he might piss off the American fans.
“You can’t compare the South American fans to anybody else in the world except for probably Japan. I say it all the time.”
“American kids are pretty lazy and spoiled when it comes to rock and roll.”
he explained.
“When you go over the pond anywhere, you get a deep appreciation of your brand, your art form, what you’ve created, your culture. We’re a straight up culture when you fly over the pond. We started in São Paulo with two sold out shows in a stadium. These people believe in grabbing a theme and holding onto it. When we just did four weeks in America celebrating the 25-year anniversary, I had no one in the fan base really talking about how special it is to be given the 25-year anniversary set. You go to South America and they’re basically in awe that you are giving them that,” he added.
While the percussionist isn’t happy with the way American fans welcomed the band, their recently finished South American tour wasn’t what he expected.
“I mean, there was one point we were playing ‘Liberate,’ and I felt the whole stage moving from how much they were jumping. That’s only occurred a couple of times in our career. I remember looking up at these columns above the general admission floor, and I was wondering to myself, ‘Man, is that going to collapse?'”
This month, Slipknot announced that they added more European dates to their 25th anniversary tour, extending into 2025.
The band spent much of 2024 celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1999 self-titled debut album with an extensive tour. The setlist for these performances was entirely made up of songs from before 1999. Although the set was a bit shorter compared to their more recent shows, it included a few tracks that hadn’t been played since 2000.
