More than a quarter of a century has passed since Slipknot's eponymous album debuted via Roadrunner Records, but the Iowan metal monster continues to carve out its legacy as a major player and instigator in the bizarre history of heavy metal music.
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00:00More than a quarter of a century has passed since Slipknot's eponymous album debuted via
00:04Roadrunner Records, but the Iowan Metal Monster continues to carve out its legacy
00:08as a major player and instigator in the bizarre history of heavy metal music.
00:12Before hitting the big time, Slipknot built up a reputation as a must-see force of nature in
00:16the 90s. The fans, known as the Maggots, traveled from far and wide to witness the hype for
00:21themselves and to see if the rumors were true. One of the most notable stories from this era
00:25is how percussionist Sean Clown Cran used to lug around a jar containing a dead crow.
00:30But what could be the reason Slipknot kept a dead crow in a jar in the first place?
00:34According to DJ Sid Wilson's comments to Spin, it's so they could experience, quote,
00:38what death smelled like. As Wilson explained, the bandmates would open the jar and take a
00:42whiff of the decaying animal corpse inside in an effort to put themselves in that dark place.
00:47While that sounds disgusting enough as it is, it isn't the most eyebrow-raising incident
00:51involving the poor crow, as Wilson revealed. He said,
00:53But the O.G. Maggots, before we made it big, they were nuts. They were saying,
00:57let us smell it. So we put the jar down there, and they started pulling out this stuff and
01:01eating it. The kids were sicker than we were. They always had something to prove."
01:05Years later, Cran admitted that he had no desire to carry around a dead crow or smell it now.
01:10It looks like it's gonna storm like a motherf----er. Welcome to Iowa.
01:13Anyone who listens to Slipknot's sophomore album,
01:16Iowa, instantly feels how the music ratchets up a level in terms of pure intensity.
01:20There's a ferociousness and anger to every track that surpasses their 1999 eponymous album,
01:25which already overflowed with uncaged rage and unbridled aggression.
01:28In the years after its release, the band revealed they weren't in a good place while recording Iowa,
01:33and their unrestrained emotion and personal turmoil come out in the music and lyrics.
01:37Speaking to Revolver, the various people involved in the making of Iowa discussed
01:40how it was an album that almost destroyed the band, figuratively and literally.
01:44Corey Taylor explained that the process of making Slipknot's self-titled debut record
01:48felt cathartic to him as he freed himself of the anger inside of him.
01:51But the Iowa experience was just wrath for its own sake. He said,
01:55"'I just remember a lot of darkness, a lot of anger. I was cutting myself,
01:58recording songs in the studio. I was bleeding everywhere. I just wanted something. I didn't
02:03care what it was.'" Much like his bandmates stated, Taylor agreed that Iowa came at a cost,
02:07but it enabled them to create, quote, a dark, brutal, amazing album out of it.
02:12Due to Slipknot's sinister appearance and the dark nature of their lyrics,
02:15they are a parent group's worst nightmares all wrapped into one. In 2003, these committees
02:20received further ammunition for their cause after Slipknot's music became embroiled in a
02:24disturbing crime. According to Chart Attack's reports, 20-year-old Jason Lamar Harris and
02:2916-year-old Amber Rose Riley stabbed 22-year-old Terry Ray Taylor to death in April 2003.
02:35Reportedly, the pair confessed to planning for months in advance,
02:38as Harris wanted to know what it would feel like to kill someone while Riley wanted to see a corpse.
02:42But how does Slipknot figure into this appalling event? Well, according to the authorities,
02:46the pair listened to the band's music before and after the crime, while also singing a
02:50controversial lyric out of Slipknot's disaster piece, which is off 2001's Iowa album, as they
02:56enacted the gruesome crime. Ultimately, Harris received a 50-years-to-life sentence for his
03:00role in the crime, while Riley was sentenced to 26 years to life.
03:04When someone explores the real meanings behind Slipknot songs, they discover the lyrics are
03:08deeper than what's on the surface level. From tracks discussing the band's complicated relationship
03:13with the music industry to even trying to inspire people to be better, Slipknot tackles a multitude
03:17of topics in their music. While it's common for fans to tattoo lyrics on their bodies or find
03:22other creative purposes for them, someone decided to leave behind the lyrics for the Slipknot song
03:26Surfacing, off their 1999 self-titled album, at a grave site that had been robbed.
03:30For those who haven't heard the song before,
03:32Surfacing is a brutal rager that serves as a metaphorical middle finger to the world.
03:37According to Metal Underground, Justin Manning's grave site was robbed in August 2006.
03:41The 17-year-old Manning died after an automobile accident,
03:44and an urn with his ashes was buried at the Bonner Springs Cemetery in Kansas.
03:48The cemetery's sexton, Kenneth Brooks, disclosed that Manning's urn was stolen,
03:52while authorities discovered a note in the vicinity that featured the lyrics of Slipknot's Surfacing.
03:57According to Brooks, there had been prior issues at this grave site.
04:00Manning's mother, Angela Bickham, didn't want to speculate that it was her son's friends
04:04behind the incident. However, there was confirmation of an incident that took place
04:07at the funeral where Manning's friends wanted to bury hats and CDs along with his urn in his grave.
04:12Reportedly, this caused a ruckus on the day.
04:15Slipknot experienced a PR nightmare in South Africa in 2008 after a horrendous
04:20crime sent shockwaves throughout the country. In Krogersdorp, Johannesburg,
04:2418-year-old Morne Harmsa walked into his school, Nick Diedrich's Technical High School,
04:29armed with a sword and proceeded to kill 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius and injure three
04:33more people. What caught attention, though, were reports that Harmsa wore a Slipknot-inspired mask
04:38during the attacks. In addition, there were reports that Harmsa was a big fan of Slipknot's
04:42music and heavy metal as a whole. Due to these factors, Slipknot drew the ire of several groups,
04:47with some believing that the band should be held responsible for its perceived negative
04:50influence on the younger generation. In a later interview, Taylor addressed the incident,
04:54expressing concern about what happened, but also categorically denying the band provides any kind
04:59of message that encourages people to harm others. In 2009, Harmsa received a 20-year
05:03prison sentence for his crime. He was paroled in 2022.
05:07Family feuds aren't unusual. Sometimes relatives clash over the most trivial of matters.
05:12In the case of Slipknot guitarist Mick Thompson and his brother Andrew,
05:15their argument went way too far in March 2015. According to the Des Moines Register,
05:20the inebriated brothers started quibbling in the early hours of the morning. Their conflict soon
05:24moved from inside to outside of the house. Police officers were dispatched to the scene after the
05:29incident turned violent and a knife fight broke out, which ultimately resulted in Mick being
05:33stabbed in the back of the head. Both brothers suffered injuries in the melee and were taken
05:37to the hospital in separate ambulances. However, none of their wounds were deemed to be life
05:41threatening, and they both recovered. The police investigation found Mick and Andrew to be equally
05:46at fault for the incident and slapped them with charges of disorderly conduct by fighting.
05:50Neither brother chose to lay charges against the other, though.
05:53Joey's f----- best drummer in the f----- world. Hands down.
05:57Joey Jordison wrote his name into music legend thanks to Slipknot. The musician established
06:02himself as one of the best drummers in heavy metal history as his mastery of the double-bass
06:06pedal inspired a generation. He also remained one of the most popular members of Slipknot,
06:10so it came as an absolute shock when the news broke that he was gone from the band in 2013.
06:15Slipknot's statement suggested a mutual parting of ways, while Jordison emphasized that it wasn't
06:19his decision and the whole ordeal caught him off guard. In a later interview with Metal Hammer,
06:24Jordison revealed that he had been fired from Slipknot via email. He explained how it had
06:28blindsided him since there had been no meeting or conversation with anyone in the group or the
06:32representatives. On his last tour with the band, Jordison had experienced several physical issues
06:36that impacted his legs. Only later did he discover that he had transverse myelitis,
06:41which is a neurological condition that causes inflammation of the spinal cord,
06:44according to Mayo Clinic. Jordison explained,
06:47They got confused about my health issues, and obviously even I didn't know what it was at first.
06:51They thought I was f----- up on drugs, which I wasn't at all.
06:54What upset Jordison the most was how his firing was handled,
06:57especially after all they had been through together. He said,
06:59The way they did it was f----- cowardly.
07:07Disagreements between band members happen all the time. In some cases,
07:10they end up being too big for everyone to move past, and someone departs from the group.
07:15In Slipknot's case, however, the simmering animosity between Corey Taylor and Sid Wilson
07:19boiled over and resulted in them sorting out their issues with fists. In 2022, during an
07:24appearance at Monster Maniacon, Taylor opened up about a tumultuous period between him and Wilson
07:29in 2016. He explained that the pair was butting heads at the time, though he couldn't explain
07:33the specific reason for it. It reached the point where one of them would leave the room if the
07:37other entered. The built-up tension would come to a head during a meet-and-greet with Slipknot fans
07:41in Sweden. As Taylor explained, a fan had given him a comic book when Wilson appeared and knocked
07:46it out of his hand. Taylor exploded in fury, and a fistfight ensued. He said,
07:50That turned into us turning on each other and going at each other hard,
07:54to the point where the band had to pull us apart. He was saying he was going to go home
07:57and leave the tour. I wasn't going to apologize. It was bad, man.
08:01According to Taylor, he and Wilson mended fences when Wilson was the first person from the band
08:05to reach out to him after a spinal surgery, and they both apologized to each other.
08:09Aside from Joey Jordison, percussionist Chris Fenn's departure from Slipknot was the other
08:13one that caught everyone by surprise. After all, he had been a part of the act from 1998 until 2019.
08:20The split certainly did not happen on the best of terms, as Fenn filed a lawsuit against the
08:24band thereafter. Fenn's suit claimed that Slipknot, specifically mentioning Sean Crann and Corey
08:28Taylor by name, purposely misled him by setting up various other companies for the group without
08:32informing him about it. Feeling deceived and wanting his share of what he believed was his,
08:37Fenn demanded a full accounting report and breakdown of the band's finances from the start
08:41until 2019. In a now-deleted post on Slipknot's website, the band claimed Fenn's accusations were
08:47false and insisted that he knew why he was terminated from the outfit in the first place.
08:51Taylor also replied to a comment on X to say he was wrongfully accused,
08:55and it hurt to have fans believe he stole from a bandmate.
08:58Fenn's lawsuit against his former group was withdrawn in 2020.
09:02Joey Jordison, the founding drummer of the American heavy metal band Slipknot,
09:07has died at the age of 46.
09:09In 2021, news of the devastating death of Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison spread through
09:13the music community. For fans, Jordison's passing stung that little bit extra since he hadn't
09:18received the opportunity to rejoin the band since his firing in 2013. Now, the reunion would never
09:23happen. In 2022, Corey Taylor revealed to NME that Slipknot hadn't met up with Jordison after his
09:29firing. However, several members had been in contact with him over the years. Taylor claimed
09:33that he and Jordison resolved their differences before the latter's death, calling the relationship
09:37strained but civil. In 2024, Jordison's estate filed a lawsuit against Slipknot for allegedly
09:43profiting off the drummer's name and death. According to the lawsuit, Sean Cran and Taylor
09:47were in possession of items belonging to Jordison, which they had agreed, in writing, to return to
09:52him after his dismissal from the band. Reportedly, Cran and Taylor withheld information about other
09:56items in their possession and used them in a mobile museum. In addition, the lawsuit claimed
10:01Cran and Taylor lied about checking in on Jordison's family after his death, accusing them
10:05of peddling this false narrative to further their own album sales, and saying they never cared about
10:10Jordison. Slipknot's lawyers denied all claims made by Jordison's estate and asked for the lawsuit
10:15to be dismissed entirely.