Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan recently spoke with Vulture about the Slipknot songs that reminded him of his late bandmates, Paul Gray and Joey Jordison.
Gray passed away in May 2010 while still part of Slipknot. Jordison, on the other hand, was already let go from the band when he died in July 2021, though he reportedly remained in touch with them.
“I miss them. You know, it’s too much,” The Clown told Vulture. “I feel bad even doing interviews about our 25th anniversary because most of it lives with them. Their contributions to my life are incomprehensible. Yet here I am. It’s really hard for me. I don’t like that they don’t get to talk. They are the two people you should be talking to right now. Now it’s all memory. And, you know, not that many people try to take Paul from me but a lot of people try to take Joey from me because of the circumstances.”
“But none of the band ever talk about that. Why would we? That’s our brother. It’s hard today because so many people have all these opinions on what Joey’s thoughts might have been of me. A lot of humans like to tell you exactly what they know that I don’t know. All I can tell you is that those are my brothers, and, love me or hate me, it doesn’t matter. We did some sh*t.”
Clown mentioned that ‘Vermillion’ from their 2004 album, ‘Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses),’ reminded him particularly of Gray, as the bassist played it often while they were recording at Rick Rubin’s Los Angeles mansion.
Regarding Joey Jordison, the percussionist feels that ‘just about everything’ reminds him of the drummer, especially the track ‘Scissors,’ which was recently added back to their setlist to mark the album’s 25th anniversary.
After Jordison’s departure, Slipknot brought in Jay Weinberg as their new drummer. More recently, Eloy Casagrande took over the drums, performing for the first time with the band earlier this year at Pappy & Harriet’s Palace in California.
