#Joey Jordison Interview

[mattel]

[in-death-we-fall]

Brothers Beyond

Slipknot may never fully recover from the passing of Paul Gray, but their imminent return to the stage at UK’s Sonisphere is going to be an act of catharsis for fans and band alike. Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan and Joey Jordison open up to Hammer exclusively.

Words: Dom Lawson Pics: Steve Brown

Metal Hammer 218 - June 2011 (drive link)

Editor’s note: The dark lord speaks…

16 Gigantic Balls.

That’s what Slipknot had to have to get back in the saddle after the inestimable loss of Paul Gray last year, and judging by our breathtakingly candid interview this month, their appearance at Sonisphere this summer is going to be one for the history books. Slipknot’s return is nothing short of heroic, and we hope you’ll love reading Dom Lawson’s piece as much as we did putting it together.

But then Hammer’s always been about getting under the skin of things to bring you a depth and breadth of metal coverage that you won’t find anywhere else, and this issue’s packed with the kind of chest-swelling bravado that makes real metal bands tick. From Biff Byford’s frankly inspiring quest to defy trends and stick to his guns, to Mastodon’s rise from the depths of obscurity to become one of the world’s foremost lords of the riff, to our first glimpse of Iron Maiden simply fucking killing it on a world-tour that’s more like a global victory lap, Hammer is all about the sorts of tales that make the musicians we love as inspiring as the music that they create. Oh, and metal in… Botswana? The metal empire is truly growing at a staggering pace – be the first to read and read about it.

And as we barrel ever-closer to this year’s positively thrilling Golden God awards, we hope you’ll take the time to add your votes to the hundreds of thousands we’ve already received. It’s also your chance to win tickets to what’s sure to be the most ridiculously metallic award show in history. I mean really, Devin and Twisted Sister on the same night? Whollee. Fucking. Shiiiit! Just head to www.metalhammer.co.uk/goldengods to cast your vote and take a part in heavy metal history.

Before we kick off these headbanging proceedings, let’s take a moment to spare a thought for the late, truly great Scott Columbus, erstwhile Manowar drummer and an inspiration to any metalhead who’s ever felt their pulse quicken to the sound of a mighty drum. Our thoughts are with his friends and family in this difficult time. Horns at half mast.

STAY METAL..

Brothers Beyond

Slipknot may never fully recover from the passing of Paul Gray, but their imminent return to the stage at UK’s Sonisphere is going to be an act of catharsis for fans and band alike. Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan and Joey Jordison open up to Hammer exclusively.

Words: Dom Lawson Pics: Steve Brown

When the news broke last December, you could hear the cheers of elation and sighs of relief from the hot streets of Rio de Janeiro to the sun-blistered stone of the Parthenon. Despite having endured an horrific year that had seen them reduced from a seemingly invincible nine-man wrecking crew to a wounded but dignified band of brothers, following the tragic death of founder member and bassist Paul Gray back in May, Slipknot announced that (sic) were going to return, headlining the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth this July and playing a handful of other prestigious dates. The events of 2010 unquestionably pulled the rug from underneath this seemingly unyielding band’s feet and plunged them into a period of mourning and destabilising uncertainty; the endless and often witless speculation of pundits and fans on the internet only adding to the sense that the Iowans’ rudder had fallen off, leaving them lost and directionless. In the end, those who were predicting the end of the Slipknot story looked very foolish. The end of Slipknot? Don’t be fucking ridiculous.

Four months on from that announcement, drummer Joey Jordison and percussionist and visual king Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan, the other two parts of the unholy trinity of Des Moines miscreants who put the band together in the first place, are in a far more buoyant and defiant mood than many may have predicted after watching the heartbreaking press conference that followed Paul’s death. Speaking to Hammer as the wheels of progress start to grind into action, both men have plenty to say about the past, present and future of their band and, despite having barely spoken to the press since the passing of their friend, both are happy to answer the questions that fans have been dying to ask during those months of sorrow. First and foremost, we have to ask what prompted them to stage their comeback in Europe rather than at home in the US.

“If we were gonna return, why would we not go to Europe first?” states Joey. “It was the right decision at the right time. Europe’s always been amazing to us, especially the UK. I still remember our first show there, on December 13, 1999; I still have dreams about it! It was one of the biggest landmarks of our career so why not go back now? Slipknot is not going to die. It’s a lifeforce, man. With all the feelings and emotions and the passion of one of the people who really helped to start our band pushing us forward, this is how we start again.”

You always seem to have had a strong relationship with the UK; ever since the self-titled album came out in 1999 and UK metal fans immediately embraced what you were doing, arguably more so than in any other territory. Is the show at Knebworth going to be the most important of all?

“The show at Knebworth is going to be heavy, man,” says Shawn. “We thought Download was fuckin’ heavy in 2009, but this’ll be something else. I don’t even know how to describe it, because the UK kids know us, man. I remember the first show at the Astoria in ‘99. I walked into the Astoria and there was a kid in an orange jumpsuit and a clown mask, and he’d paid £85 to have the mask made so he could be me. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d achieved everything when I got to the UK; the UK totally gets us. That show will be the heaviest show on the tour by far. There’ll be a lot of tears that day.”

“The feeling right now between all the bandmembers is the same feeling we had when we first came to the UK,” adds Joey. “This is a special event. It’s not like being on tour. We’re doing this out of our hearts and out of respect for our band and mostly out of respect for our fans. This isn’t contrived, some list of tour dates. This is speaking directly to the UK and to Europe. This is not bullshit. People will be pleasantly surprised by what we’re bringing.”

One of Slipknot’s strengths has always been that they’ve been adept at presenting a united front to the world. Even though it’s always been apparent that this is a band full of wildly differing personalities, the whole point of Slipknot has often seemed to be the expression of a single, focused purpose, uniting band and audience in a grand outpouring of righteous anger and joyous energy. As a result, the last year has been a little unsettling for those observing the band, not least because for the first time it has been made plain that not everyone in Slipknot has been reading from the same tight-lipped, thoughtful page. In particular, frontman Corey Taylor has been making frequent public pronouncements that have carried a faint air of pessimism and negativity.

“Part of me is ready [to carry on with the band] and there’s a part of me that’s not,” he stated back in March. “I have a lot of trepidation about it. I don’t know how to feel. I know a lot of the guys in the band are trying not to show that side, and I can’t.”

In light of the fact that Slipknot had already announced their intention to return, thus strongly implying that the band could well continue beyond these few shows and make another record too, Corey’s comments, seem, at best, a little unhelpful. Do his publicly expressed doubts about the future of the band run deeper or is this simply a case of one man’s emotions leading him away from the general consensus?

“Well, I would get into a lot of trouble if I try to speak for people, so it’s important that you print it like I say it, and I’m saying that I’m not speaking for anybody except myself,” states Shawn, firmly but diplomatically. “But in my opinion the majority of people in the band need Slipknot, want Slipknot, have no doubt that Slipknot will continue. There may be people in the band who may have a harder time feeling what they’re experiencing and only they can get over that and only they can make themselves feel that way. Hopefully their feelings will work out, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, getting together to celebrate Paul’s life, his love for music, his love for Slipknot, his love for his fans.”

The last few years have been upsetting for rock fans, with numerous major figures passing away, leaving huge gaps that can never be filled. The loss of Paul resonated as loudly and powerfully as any, partly because he was such a talented and revered figure within the metal world, but also because Slipknot have always seemed to be impervious to the hazards that cause most bands to noisily disintegrate or feebly fizzle out, whether they be as trivial as ‘musical differences’ or as monumental as mortality itself. And yet, despite having been temporarily stopped in their tracks, few would bet against Slipknot roaring back into action at full strength and with renewed vigour when they hit the road again this summer. As another band appearing at Sonisphere this July once sang, “You cannot kill what doesn’t die…”

“It’s always been that way,” agrees Joey. “Our first tour was Ozzfest in ‘99 and we fuckin’ blew every other band off the fuckin’ stage, every night. It was not even a competition. It’s not like we were trying to beat anyone; we were just being ourselves. We toured with Coal Chamber and some other bands that year too, and I recall my friend Dez Fafara telling me that one guy from one of the other bands had looked at him when we were playing and said, ‘Can you see what we got ourselves into here?’ They tried to kick us off the tour, every band did. One show in Oklahoma City we couldn’t fit anything on the stage and they kicked us off the show and we still outsold every other band’s merch! That’s the strength of what we are when we’re together as a band. That’s not ego talking, it’s the truth. It is what it is, and I’m so happy and so fulfilled with everything we’ve done and everything that we’re gonna do.”

“A lot of people won’t know that we were done with All Hope Is Gone, and we were going to take a break like we do after every record,” says Shawn. “That’s why people love our band; we’re not trying to get off our label and make a bunch of shitty records and try to shove ‘em down fans’ throats. We take time off to get physically and spiritually sound, then we get bored and take what we’ve learned from where we’ve been and we apply it to right now and we get busy with art and music, then we come and kick the living shit out of you. That’s what we do.”

Just as the trials of life can never kill a band with Slipknot’s fighting spirit, neither can you replace the irreplaceable; a fact that made the band’s decision to fight another day such a painful one. There from the beginning, Paul made such an invaluable contribution to every aspect of Slipknot’s music, methodology and rise to glory that the idea of someone else stepping into his jumpsuit and mask was simply unthinkable. But there are always ways a means to circumnavigate even the toughest problems, and so the news that Slipknot have recruited Donnie Steele, a member of a very early lineup of the band and a close friend and musical collaborator of Paul’s, to perform bass duties on these upcoming dates has removed a great deal of disquiet from conversations about the future.

“I’m glad you’re speaking with me today,” notes Joey. “You have called me on the first day that I play with my new bass player. I’m starting with Donnie tonight. I start working with him first and we have over 35 songs that we have to rehearse tonight! Ha ha ha! When we headline in the UK it’s gonna be a longer set, so we have to go over a bunch of stuff.”

What made you go with Donnie?

“It was an easy decision,” he says. “I don’t want to talk about my brother’s death, but once it happened, our phones all lit up with all these guys from other bands. I took it at a disrespect level. I was like, ‘No, no, no!’ and it just came to me one night. I woke up from a dream about the early Slipknot days, before it was even known as Slipknot. Donnie was our first guitar player. We only had one guitar player but we had three drummers. You couldn’t even hear the guitar before we hired Josh [Brainard, Slipknot guitarist from 1995-1999]. So I called Shawn and I said, ‘This is the only thing that makes sense…’ Slipknot is a family. It’s a brotherhood. When we started together, Donnie was there. The last time I saw Paul was when I was with Rob Zombie in Iowa; Donnie was there and he and Paul were writing a new record for [pre-Slipknot metal project] Body Pit. I said to Shawn, ‘He’s part of our family!’”

“The gentleman who’s filling in for Paul was very, very good friends with Paul,” Shawn adds. “They come from a school of death metal and black metal, both very technical players. Recently Paul had hooked up with him and they were finally going to do their side-project. Paul was a guitar player and he attacked the bass like he did the guitar, and that’s exactly what Donnie’s gonna do. So he’s bringing more integrity than any freakin’ person who ever thought they had a chance of playing bass in something as serious as Slipknot. I laughed in the face of anybody who thought they had a chance!”

There’s been a lot of speculation about whether Donnie will be performing alongside the rest of the band onstage or whether he will be behind the drum riser out of sight. Can you confirm or deny any of this?

“We still have to figure out what we wanna do,” says Joey. “Will he be behind me? Right now, yes. In the future, I don’t know. Right now, he’s behind me or right next to me and he’ll be watching my every move and I’ll be watching him but it’s not going to take away from my performance, because by the time we hit the stage it’s going to be easy.”

“I can’t predict the future, but I know right now there’s no new mask, no new coveralls, no new number,” says Shawn. “There’s eight guys on stage and the first guitar player we ever had filling in for Paul, because there’s always gonna be nine.”

Clearly there can be no upside to the loss of such a loved and respected figure, but the last year has at least enabled the music world to finally acknowledge Paul as the influential and inspirational creative dynamo buzzing tirelessly away at the heart of Slipknot. It has always been left primarily to Joey, Shawn and Corey to communicate with the press and although Paul was not averse to doing interviews, his relative anonymity within such a populous band meant that he was able to exert his vast influence on Slipknot’s music and ethos away from the media spotlight. Now, of course, it’s apparent that his death has left a chasm inside this band’s furious heart and that these forthcoming live performances present a huge emotional challenge to those who mourn him, both on the stage and in front of it. Joey and Shawn are clearly still coming to terms with the loss of their friend, both close to tears when his name inevitably comes up in our conversations. For Shawn in particular, Slipknot’s return to the stage is all about paying respects and doing what needs to be done.

“Slipknot is more dangerous now than ever and I have the fuel known as Paul Dedrick Gray in my blood,” he says. “I’ve been here from the beginning, when Paul recognized my ability as an artist and said, ‘Just do it, man! Let your thoughts out and don’t let anyone stop you from what you feel and what you think!’ So now I’ve got his blood boiling in my veins. I’m not just playing for Clown; I’m playing for him, for his wife and daughter, his legacy, his love for the band, his love for music. I’m not discrediting anybody. We wouldn’t be where we’re at without everybody. We wouldn’t be here without Corey, Sid, Jim, Craig, Mick, Chris, all of us. But in the beginning, there was this idea that was created by Paul and I. He wrote the kind of music with Joey that just made me want to put my face through glass. I helped start one of the biggest metal bands in the world and I’m not necessarily a metalhead. I’m an alternative dude or an indie dude, whatever the fuck that means. I was on my way to being like Andy Warhol or something! I gave it all up to be in this band called Slipknot and I love it and I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Another major issue is whether or not Slipknot will ever make another studio album. Paul wrote a lot of the band’s music and was an integral part of the creative process on all four of their albums to date, but Slipknot have no shortage of creative brains to tap for fresh ideas. Corey added a dash of fuel to the fires of confusion when he stated recently that “there’s such a huge piece missing now, a piece that the fans can’t even understand. I mean, Paul always was that unconscious, almost lynchpin that held everything together. And he had such a great mind for the music that we created that without him, I don’t see it happening very soon, let’s put it that way.”

Given that it’s clear that at least one member of the band has doubts about the future, can fans truly be secure in the knowledge that their heroes will continue beyond these festival appearances and as far as a new album in the future?

“That’s the most important question you’ve asked so far,” says Joey. “We made this decision [to play shows this summer] out of respect for the music that we made and out of respect for our friend but mainly for our fans. Why would we not continue? It’s stupid to even think it. There are a lot of naysayers and all that shit. In the Slipknot world it’s blasphemy to say we might not continue.”

“Yes, I always knew we’d be back together,” insists Shawn. “Yes, I always thought we’d make another record. When? I don’t know. Is it being talked about? No, it is now. When would it ever be? I have no idea because I’m not a fortune teller, but in my heart of heart of hearts, and with Paul on my shoulder, kicking me in my face day after day, I absolutely believe there’ll be another record. How could there not be?”

Their unerring ability to sing from a single song sheet has been one of the biggest factors in Slipknot’s enduring appeal. From humble beginnings in Des Moines to their status as one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, these men prize collective focus above virtually anything else, and so it has been strange to see signs of hesitancy emerge in recent times. It’d be more than a little tacky to speculate whether Corey’s seemingly disruptive remarks about the future, and his bandmates’ self-evident but skilfully stifled testiness, are merely evidence that the grieving process affects different people in different ways, but it is also undeniably true that the internet age has made it more or less impossible for any high-profile rock band to conduct their affairs in private. The much-debated possibility that Corey is to be announced as Velvet Revolver’s new singer is a great example of this: what would normally be dismissed as idle gossip takes on a level of credibility far beyond what the known facts would seem to deserve. Social networking is the new grapevine, it seems, and Joey is not impressed.

“The internet can fuck off!” he barks. “I have an official MySpace and Facebook, but all that bullshit? I don’t use it. If you want to talk to me as a person, the internet is the worst thing possible. I do get it. Maybe it makes sense if you don’t have a life of your own. But that’s why i don’t use it. I have lovely people around me all the time and I’m blessed with everything I’ve been able to accomplish. I only have MySpace and Facebook to block people from imitating me. I don’t even have a Twitter account. But you know what? If I need to find where a good Mexican restaurant is, I can log on and find it. So the internet does have its uses, I guess! Ha ha!”

Bullshit and hyperbole will continue to make the world go round, but for now at least, all that remains is to get very, very excited indeed about seeing Slipknot again at Knebworth this summer. Anyone who witnessed the band tearing Download a collection of new arseholes in 2009 will be able to confirm that there are few bands more capable of commanding a festival headlining slot, and it goes without saying that the UK will welcome them back with open arms and pounding hearts, but our mounting excitement at the thought of Slipknot headlining a major UK festival again is undeniably tempered by a faint air of nervousness about the backdrop of grief and uncertainty that has coloured the band’s canvas over the last 12 months. One way or another, this is going to be extremely emotional, isn’t it?

“I don’t think any fan ever thought they were never gonna see Paul again,” says Shawn. “So it’s our duty to being it all together; when I walk on stage in tears, there’ll be 10,000 other people in tears with me and we’re going to celebrate in the salvation of music and what brings us together.”

“These gigs are not a job,” avows Joey. “This is more of a cleansing. All of us are going to have the most incredible shows of our career. That’s it. I’m not saying this to promote this. But this is going to be worth the wait. Of course there are gonna be teary eyes and maybe for some of us, behind the masks, but are they gonna be sad tears? No, they’ll be happy. We’re going to be there and we’re going to watch the audience explode and what better celebration could you ask for? That’s all it needs to be. Let’s just fucking rock!”

Slipknot play Sonisphere, July 8-10, 2011

“We’re gonna die for rock ‘n roll!”

Slipknot’s drummer was in Tokyo with his other band, Murderdolls, when the recent earthquake hit Japan, wreaking devastation and leading to many thousands of deaths. Here he recounts his experience for the first time…

“I was doing an interview and a photoshoot in this really rickety building when the quake started,” he recalls. “We’d already felt a smaller quake the day before, but when this one really hit it was throwing me against the walls. My tour manager Roger grabbed me saying, ‘Fuck this! We don’t need this…’ and he threw me over his shoulder and got me out of there! Everyone was trying to get out and we were the last band to leave Japan. We were like, ‘Fuck it!’ We were gonna stay and if we die, we’re gonna die for rock ‘n’ roll! That’s the Murderdolls’ mentality. We couldn’t get back to our hotel rooms because the elevators were completely fucked, so we went and stayed in the bar and got shitfaced. In the end we got evacuated. It was like, ‘If you want to make it back to the US, you need to go now otherwise you’re gonna be stuck here!’ So we finished our pints and got to the airport and, luckily, got on the airplane. Right after that is when the nuclear reactor was heating up. It was a big, intense experience. It was one for the books, I tell you…”

Shawn Crahan tells Hammer about his new band…

Black Dots Of Death

Describe your new band… “It’s a rebirth of Clown, a second coming, and it’s dangerous. It’s the next level. It’s a mix of many genres. I’m done making soft music and now I’m angry again and everything’s surrounded by death and the idea of ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ There’s a moral behind everything; it’s deep.”

What appeals to you about playing the drums? “I’ve played drums since I was eight years old, man. When you see me play drums, that’s the most personal me you’ll ever see. I don’t wear a mask. No one plays as hard as me, man.”

Do you have plans to take Black Dots Of Death out on the road? “The record is out now. Everything you need to know, you can find at www.theblackdotsofdeath.com. This is art, man, and it’s fuckin’ dangerous. But my biggest priority in 2011 is to get together with Slipknot. There will be Black Dots shows, but my biggest priority is to celebrate Paul’s life.”

Will he or won’t he?

The rumour mill has been working overtime as speculation mounts about Corey Taylor apparently becoming the new singer in Velvet Revolver. Or not. Here’s what’s been said so far…

“We recorded a bunch of songs with Corey. I think he’s fucking great – he’s the best voice of a new generation and I’d be proud to do anything with him.” [Duff McKagan, March 2011]

“He’s a guy we’ve had our eye on, but the timing wasn’t right. Weiland was available. He was out of Stone Temple Pilots. It wasn’t like we went and said, ‘Hey, dude…’ He came to us, like, ‘Hey, I’m out of my band. I’ve got time. Let’s do this.’ And it’s a similar situation with this individual.” [Sorum to billboard.com, December 2010]

“[The new singer is] a little younger, a little stronger, a little heavier rock’n’roll than we are.” [Sorum to Noisecreep, December 2010]

“A couple of people have said one thing or another, but it’s been blown out of proportion. I’ve made no comment on that one.” [Slash, February 2011]

“It’s gonna be interesting going into the third record because we’re gonna have a whole different personality as a vocalist. Chances are it’s gonna be a lot heavier than anything Velvet Revolver has done so far.” [Sorum to artistdirect.com, January 2011]

“As soon as we got off the road from the last tour and parted ways with [singer] Scott [Weiland], we got together and wrote half a dozen really great, sort of heavy metal pieces of music. It’s a lot heavier than what Velvet Revolver has put out [in the past], so I’m dying to put out the quintessential Velvet Revolver record.” [Slash to MTV News, June 2010]

“To be continued! Ha ha ha!” [Corey Taylor to billboard.com after being asked directly about whether or not he is joining Velvet Revolver, January 2011]

[hellenicdreaming]

Listen to this early at work, i dunno why but when Joey's voice came on i got really emotional and i had to try not to cry, like i literally teared up 😭

[rewcreate]

Inktober #15 featuring Joey Jordison being obsessed with apples because I came across that on kerrang interview where he wouldn't shut up about Fiona Apple and I had an epiphany.

So if you're famous, be careful what you say in interviews or art weirdos like me may incorporate into our art.

[metaladdicts]

SLIPKNOT's M. SHAWN CRAHAN Says He Still Misses PAUL GRAY And JOEY JORDISON: 'Those Are My Brothers'

In a recent interview with Vulture, SLIPKNOT co-founder and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) was asked to share a song that brings to mind his late bandmates, bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison. “I miss them,” he said. “You know, it’s too much. I feel bad even doing interviews about our 25th anniversary because most of it lives with them. Their contributions to my life are…

[daevilhorns-bye]

logging in for a second bc i was watching joey jordison interviews and levi has always been so joey coded. maybe i should make my short king even shorter.

[hellonearthmetalzine]

Interview: Murderdolls (2010)

IT HAS BEEN EIGHT YEARS SINCE MURDERDOLLS RELEASED “BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE MURDERDOLLS,” AND NOW WEDNESDAY 13 AND JOEY JORDISON ARE BACK WITH A NEW ALBUM CALLED “WOMEN AND CHILDREN LAST.” I GOT WEDNESDAY 13 ON THE PHONE TO TELL BE ALL ABOUT IT! Text: Runar Pettersen. This interview was done in 2010. Wednesday 13 and Joey Jordison, the latter better known from Slipknot, were the core of…

[death-gloss]

Slipknot’s Joey: Talent Behind The Mask

Interview by Jeff Perlah • Photos by Paul La Raia  • January 2002

It’s the final weekend of Ozzfest 2001, and the huge backstage area at PNCBank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey is heating up with heavy metal fever. At the moment, Papa Roach are whipping the crowd into a frothing frenzy with their rap-and punk-inspired approach. Later, the ferocious, nine-member Slipknot will pulverize everyone’s eardrums and eyeballs with their percussion-packed metal, hideous masks, and bad-ass behavior.

I’m shaking hands with Slipknot drummer/songwriter Joey Jordison (a.k.a. #1), whose thin, 5’4’’ frame and baby face is quite a contrast from the bloody Kabuki mask and menacing coveralls he sports on stage. After we chat for a few minutes, the customary backstage vehicle—a golf cart—arrives, and we jump in but almost fall out as the cart zooms away.

“I hate golf,” Joey blurts from the front seat. 

“It’s too civilized for Joey,” the driver clarifies, as the cart crunches overplastic forks and other scattered debris while trekking towards the plush Slipknot tour bus.

Joey might not dig golf, but he certainly could afford the whole country-club lifestyle if it appealed to him. Slipknot’s 1999 self-titled Roadrunner debut has sold almost three million copies worldwide and hit number 1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. Now this musical monstrosity—which also features the clattering percussion of Chris Fehn (#3) and Shawn Crahan (#6)—have returned with their scorching second offering, Iowa (also Roadrunner), an even harder-hitting and more intricately woven effort that pays homage to the band’s home turf. The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard top 200 album chart.

“When we first came out [with Slipknot], we kind of downplayed our home state because we had constantly gotten the middle finger thrown at us for years while we were in previous bands,” Joey says while sipping a Red Bull energy drink inside the air-conditioned bus. 

“No radio stations or newspapers would help us, and no one would be at the shows. We did this for like ten years. Those bands broke up around the same time, and Shawn, bassist Paul [Gray, #2], and I got together and said, ‘Let’s make the ultimate band, the band that we would like to see.’ This record is like a tribute, because if we didn’t have the work ethic that we got from being in Des Moines, Iowa—considering there were very few outlets for music there—we wouldn’t have created the band we have now.”

Since Slipknot tied the knot in 1995, their sound has evolved into a seething amalgamation that blends all sorts of metal styles (including speed and death metal) with hardcore punk and electronica. When you enter Iowa, you soon discover how Joey’s chops have matured since Slipknot. All his trademarks, like his speedy double bass kick, rapid hand rolls, eyebrow-raising quadruplets, and black-metal inspired blast beats, sound more powerful and confident. 

“On the first record the drums were more raw-sounding,” Joey explains. 

“On Iowa they’re punchier, and there’s more technical excellence. I had to use a lot more intricate patterns—and not just do the fast stuff. But if I played a fast part, I made it almost twice as fast and sometimes twice as long.”

Then there’s the way he interlocks with cohorts Chris and Shawn. On scathing statements like “Skin Ticket,” “Gently,” “Metabolic,” and the expansive finale, “Iowa,” it’s painfully clear that this percussion team is no overnight creation. 

“You know how hard it is to play the same beat with another drummer?” Joey asks rhetorically. 

“It often sounds like flams. But we’ve played together so long, and we’ve had such long, brutal practices for all those dates of touring in two plus years. It just sank in. Now it’s like clockwork. It just flies out of us, and we think as one brain. The thing that makes Slipknot, Slipknot, is the three drummers. People are like, ‘Man, you guys are so heavy!’ A lot of that doesn’t necessarily come from the riffs we write, but from all the drums.”

Indeed, drumming is a subject Joey loves to talk about. At this point, he pulls himself closer to the tape recorder, and the conversation rolls on

MD: How does Slipknot typically create music? And when are the drums and percussion conceived?

Joey: I handle a lot of the songwriting even before I think about putting drums to anything. Paul and I write most of the music. We usually get a good song structure going, and then we’ll show it to the guitarists. They might throw a riff in or change some chords. And once guitarists Mick [Thompson, #7] and Jim [Root, #4], Paul, and I have the basic core of a song, the band thinks about the percussion parts. A lot of times the percussionists will come in and see what I’m doing and feed off of it a little bit, or I’ll have an idea and say, “Maybe we can go here.” Sometimes they mimic what I do,sometimes they don’t. On “Metabolic,” Shawn plays all the way through to a guitar break, and I don’t even play. He wrote that part. It just depends on what the song calls for. If it’s a straightforward riff, we’ll play really straightforward and powerfully, and kind of mimic eachother.

MD: Did your playing improve while making Iowa?

Joey: Yes. With the first record, we wrote songs and I played what was needed for them. With this record, I had to practice to play the parts that I wanted to write. I had to practice hard for this record. Songs like “Disasterpiece,” “People = Shit,” and “The Heretic Anthem” have the hardest stuff I’ve ever had to do. “The Heretic Anthem” has fast 16th-note double bass through almost the whole song. Now that I’m so in the groove of doing it, it’s becoming more natural. My body’s accustomed to it and my brain can keep up with what I want to do; it’s kind of like a balancing act between my brain and my limbs. But I’ll tell ya, in the beginning it was ruthless. I had to jog like two miles everyday before I even did my tracks. That was to help me play the stuff. I used a Gretschmaple kick drum, and it had a great sound. But it was hard to get bounce-back from the head. I almost felt like I was kickin’ mud.

MD: Do you normally run?

Joey: No. Exercise sucks! There’s a reason I wasn’t in track. The jogging was just for the album.

MD: Do you ever get cramps in your legs?

Joey: Occasionally. But it’s not too bad, because I’ve been playing so long on recent tours. I’ve been playing drums for so long that I think my body has gotten accustomed to knowing when it’s gonna get cramps.

MD: Let’s hear more about the Iowa recording sessions.

Joey: I’ll tell you a funny story: Sound Citystudio in Van Nuys, California is one of the most requested drum rooms. Bands come from all over the world to use this place. So when we were setting up the drums, everyone expected me to set up in their big wooden room. I didn’t. I found the smallest, dingiest room. And my manager was all pissed off. “You’re not using the big drum room?!” And I was like, “Watch!”

We crammed all nine guys in this little room, along with my drumset, so you can imagine how tight it was. That’s how we tracked my drums. Everyone and everything was in my face, and we all had headphones on. We got three or four takes for most of the songs. And it’s cool because the sound of the drums on the new record is so good and punchy that it’s hard to imagine that they came out of that little room. But we do everything opposite of every other band, so it felt natural doing it in a small room as opposed to a big one.

The other guys in the band just played scratch tracks, and we recorded over them later. They were just trying to give me the ultimate vibe. We were sweating and spitting on each other. We record like we perform live—totally slammin’ the whole time. Meanwhile, I had pictures of my family and friends on my work box. 

Corey would explain what each song meant before we recorded it, so we’d focus on the initial purpose of the song. The first one we tracked was “People = Shit,” the first song on the CD. The last song we tracked was “Iowa,” the last song on the record.

I remember Corey explaining the whole history of playing in Des Moines, all the ridicule we faced, our rise to success, the touring, and going platinum. He reminded us of how people thought they figured us out and were ready to knock our second album before we even recorded it. He explained a lot of that before we tracked,and it was probably the most pissed off we’ve been before tracking a song.

MD: What was it like recording the title track?

Joey: We did the drumming and percussion in one take. And we sat in silence for probably thirty minutes beforehand and decided not to do any overdubs. At the end I get so out of control and off-time while the percussionists keep the same time with the guitarists. I spaz out so much. Wam wack,woom, voom! [Joey swings his arms wildly] But they keep the same beat. It was totally tribal. It’s such a mental song

MD: Was that the only song you nailed in one take?

Joey: Yep, and it’s the longest song on the album. It’s about fifteen minutes. We were using analog tape. Well, we went analog and then to digital. The only thing that’s analog on the album is my drums because I wanted a ’70s vintage sound. The thing is, 2" analogtape is about fifteen minutes long. Right at the end, [co-producer] Ross Robinson is like,“This is totally kickin’ ass but the tape is gonna run out!” As the last vibration of the guitar faded, the tape ran out.

MD: Did you take any new approaches while recording your drums on Iowa?

Joey: We recorded “Skin Ticket,” but it seemed so light on the drums. It sounded too empty. I was like, “Get me the biggest marching kick drum and snare you can find.” I used those and also cranked up the limiter on the board to make it sound totally static-y, like an AM radio. On the verse of “Skin Ticket,” when Corey’s singing, there are two drum patterns at once, and it’s really trippy. There’s this snare going really light,and the kick is a big, warm timpani.

MD: Does producer Ross Robinson ever influence or inspire your drumming?

Joey: I’m a very busy drummer, and he doesn’t like to take that away from me. But sometimes I need to lay back a little and let the riffs breathe more, rather than play over-the-top. Ross helps me a lot with that. And he helps me to make sure every cymbal hit is like total power. He’s an awesome coach in the studio.

MD: Former Police drummer Stewart Copeland recently told Modern Drummer that he saw you perform in San Bernardino,California during the Tattoo The Earth tour. He said he was impressed.

Joey: I heard that. That blew me away because I’m a big Police fan. “The Other Way Of Stopping” [from 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta] has really amazing drumming. He’s an amazing drummer regardless, but that song really shows his talent.

MD: Copeland also said that he started practicing with a double pedal because he was inspired by your double bass drumming.

Joey: Really?! That’s like the ultimate honor, because he’s not a metal player. I’ve been inspired by that guy for so long as a drummer and as a composer, even though I play totally opposite of the way he does.

MD: How did you get started drumming?

Joey: I started out playing guitar at my grandpa’s house when I was really young. I got used to it and really liked it. I was playing guitar in a band when I was ten, and my bandmates were older. But the drummer couldn’t keep up and was sloppy. It just got frustrating. So one day I said, “I’ll do it until we find another drummer.” I started working on my drumming, but I never stopped playing the guitar either. I just kept getting better at the drums, and it became my first love.

MD: Were you in many bands before joining Slipknot?

Joey: I was probably in a dozen bands, but I don’t want to name any.

MD: Did you have a day job before Slipknot formed?

Joey: Yeah. I worked in a gas station on the graveyard shift for ten hours a night. Shawn and Paul would come down and we would come up with all these ideas. We scared everyone away because we’d blast Obituary and Deicide all night while coming up withour own ideas. It was like cramming for a test that took place four years later, when we recorded our first album.

MD: How does it all work on stage with you, two percussionists, and six other guys?

Joey: It’s pandemonium. But we thrive on it. And we thrive on pain. Once this band is comfortable, it will cease to exist.

MD: Slipknot performances have been known to be very physical and sometimes out-of-control.

Joey: One time Shawn broke a pipe over a keg. The pipe broke in half, flew in the air, spun around, and cracked me on the head and cut me open—a huge cut. And I’ve pulled my drums down on top of me a hundred times. I have scars all over my body to prove it. There have been broken ribs and fingers, and lots of stitches on all of us. Shawn’s whole knee is bandaged up right now, and he can barely walk. When we get on stage, something just comes out of us, dude. It’s like a war zone. I can’t even put it into words.

MD: How difficult is it to perform with your mask on?

Joey: It ain’t easy. There’s no mouth on my mask really, just a little slit, and the mask is molded to my face. But I built up a tolerance to it. I remember the first show we wore the masks, on April 4th, 1996, and being like, “I can’t believe we came up with this damn idea. What the hell were we thinking?” This was in Des Moines at the Safari Club. It was the same mask back then that I wear now, it just didn’t have the scarlines and blood. Through time, it’s gathered up a bunch of scars.

MD: A couple of years ago, guitarist Mick told me he played a Slipknot show in a Little Bo Peep costume.

Joey: Oh yeah! [laughs] That only happened once. We did it as a joke at a New Year’s Eve show several years ago in down-town Des Moines. Paul wore a wedding gown, Mick got a Little Bo Peep costume and a big staff. We used to wear different costumes, but then we felt we needed to look more like an army, a solid unit. Let everybody be different as far as the character and face, but still be an army. Now we’re like a gang

MD: Is the band trying to look like monsters with these masks?

Joey: Not at all. We’re trying to look like ourselves from the inside. The mask I wear represents what this music makes me feel like inside. And no one picked anyone’s mask for them. When we put the masks on, we go into a deeper, darker place.

MD: How do the members cue each other on stage? It must be challenging because you’re wearing masks.

Joey: We do it by eye contact, by giving “the big eye.” And we’ve known each other for so long that we know our mannerisms, certain arm movements, finger gestures, or whatever. Sometimes I’ll cue them by the way I play. Maybe I’ll take a deep breath and lean back on my seat and smash the cymbals really hard, like for a downbeat, and they’ll know when to come in.

MD: Does the band separate their on-stage personas from their everyday lives?

Joey: We get that poison out every day for about an hour on stage. People ask, “Why are you guys so pissed off?” Well, you keep a baboon locked up for years and then let him out—he’ll have a lot to say. The other twenty-three hours we can rest. We get off so hard for that hour that we get it all out so we can live normal lives on the outside.

MD: What main messages and sentiments does Slipknot convey to their fans?

Joey: We don’t write about stuff we don’t know about. A lot of kids can relate to the things we write about, because they’ve gone through the same things day in and day out.

MD: Like what?

Joey: It depends on who you talk to. And even if we’re talking about a different subject, a kid might relate it to him breaking up with his girlfriend or losing his job. But we’re not talking about politics. We’re not politicians. We’re musicians who grew up in a scene where we were totally rejected. I’m just like those kids. I don’t want to distance myself from their realities. And I want those kids to get their tensions out. We’re the punching bag for them, and they’re the punching bag for us. That’s why the liveshow is so important.

MD: Let’s talk about your kit.

Joey: They’re from Orange County Drum And Percussion. The kit I’m using right now is acrylic. It’s deep purple and see-through, so I can put black lights on it. But I mostly play a maple kit from Orange County. It has a black “serpentine” finish. And my drumsare set up really close together. I can’t be reaching, especially since I’m only 5'4"

MD: Some associate heavy hitters, like metal players, are big brawny guys.

Joey: I find that the big muscle-bound guys tend to be light hitters.

MD: Obviously Slipknot is a very loud band, but anybody who has seen you play knows that you don’t pound the drums into submission. You have a surprisingly light touch.

Joey: The power you get has more to do with how you hit a drum. There’s a certain snap of the wrist that makes the drum resonate right. It comes from years of practice. And you can’t just pound a drum and expect it to sound good.

MD: At what height do you set your seat? Does the height benefit your kick drumming?

Joey: I sit pretty low. I like my knees and heels to be up. That way I get more foot action and get my lower calf muscles involved, as opposed to my legs working. When I use too much leg, I get tired really quickly and it’s too clumsy.

MD: What kind of bass drum pedals do you use to play so fast?

Joey: My pedals are Tama Iron Cobras,double-chained. I have them tensioned very tight. They’re really hard to push down.

MD: Why keep them that way?

Joey: If they’re not tight, I can’t get the right bounce back from the head to be able to play fast. And that spring tension also helps to keep my feet and legs in shape.

MD: On some songs you boast a splashy hi-hat tone. Is one of your hi-hats permanently open?

Joey: My right hi-hat is always open about a half inch, which works perfectly for that sloshy effect. I can open and close my regular left-side hi-hat, so I keep the right one open.

MD: Do you use any unconventional equipment in your kit?

Joey: No, but the percussionists use oilcans, big propane tanks, and old sheet metal. They come up with that weird stuff. It’s their forte.

MD: Some drummers don’t appreciate performing with other percussionists. Yet Slipknot has created an outrageous art form out of three-way percussion.

Joey: Some drummer might say, “I don’t want people stepping on my toes and getting in my face!” I’m not like that. That percussion drives me. It makes me want to be a better player. It makes them want to be better players. We all keep on our toes—no one slacks—because you have two other drummers lookin’ at you at all times! [laughs] I love having it this way. The more drums the better.

MD: And what about your influences? Who has inspired you the most?

Joey: Keith Moon, for sure. And to tell you the honest-to-God truth, it’s because he was a nut. I can relate to his personality. I have a lot of personality on stage too; I’m flippin’ sticks behind my back. Whatever it takes to get the audience off, I’ll do. I like being animated.

MD: That’s not surprising, considering Slipknot’s wildly visual stage show.

Joey: Exactly. Plus the music makes me so nuts that I can’t sit still anyway. That’s why I like Keith Moon.

MD: Who else?

Joey: John Bonham, of course. How can you not give that guy props? And of course, when I was younger, there was Peter Criss of KISS. I love that band so much. I remember practicing Peter’s solo on “100,000 Years” off Alive! I had it down to a tee at nine years old. Then I learned the solo from Alive II. Another drummer I have to give props to is Dave Lombardo, formerly of Slayer. On “Angel Of Death,” one of the most famous Slayer songs, he does a really long double bass roll and then three tom hits. I do that exact fill in the middle of “The Heretic Anthem” as a tribute to Dave. He’s definitely one of my main influences. I’m into death metal and black metal too, and all their drummers, like Trym from Emperor, Nick Barker from Dimmu Borgir, Hellhammer from Mayhem. A lot of these kids at Ozzfest have never heard the blastbeats prevalent in black metal. But we’re not a death or black metal band. We don’t want to be, yet we still have our influences.

MD: KISS must have been a big influence on Slipknot, considering their use of costumes and other visual elements.

Joey: We drew a lot from KISS, no question. We’re like a hellish version of them. Every musician’s a thief, everyone steals, but it’s what you do with it—how you make it your own and piece it together—that makes you original. You get the influence, punch it in the face, and see what you come up with.

MD: What advice would you give to up-and-coming drummers?

Joey: Have ingenuity and perseverance—and practice a lot. That’s the only way you’re going to make it. And don’t just be a follower, be a leader. A lot of players don’t realize what they have. To me, the most important band out right now is the one in a garage somewhere obsessing over their music, just like we did ten years ago. We were those kids. We haven’t heard of them yet, but they’re the ones with the vision. As far as I’m concerned, those are the most important musicians right now and the ones who are gonna shape the future.

[in-death-we-fall]

Out Of The Shadows

Since his shock exit from Slipknot, Joey Jordison has remained silent. For the first time, he opens up about the split, the debilitating condition that left him unable to walk, and how he's been reborn anew

Words: Dom Lawson • Pics: Travis Shinn

Metal Hammer 285 - August 2016 (google drive link) Full disclosure I pasted the main article from Metal Hammer's awful awful website because my hands are sad (from doing things like this, yes. Don't keep doing things if they hurt, yes even if you're super super excited about a guy.)

There is life after death. First, there’s Hell.

When the news first broke that Joey Jordison was no longer in Slipknot, it sent shockwaves around the world. Here was this icon of our world and one of the founding members of one of the greatest bands to emerge in all of 30 years suddenly, inexplicably gone. In the heavy wake of Paul Gray’s passing it seemed almost too great a blow for any band, even one with nine members. Anyone who knows their travails understands that they’re less a band and more like a dysfunctional family – had their problems caught up with them? But reappear they did, to the sound of a rapturously received album, and the three-ring circus of Knotfest, and yet still questions remained about the circumstances of Joey’s departure. Slipknot were tightlipped, and Joey? It was anyone’s guess.

I’m humbled to say that we now have Joey’s side of the story, and this month’s world-exclusive journey to Des Moines is one of the most powerful, saddening and inspirational stories you’ll read in these pages. Sure, there are the new records – Vimic and Sinsaeneum (sic) herald one of our world’s greatest musicians returning to the fold and from the sound of things we’ve some tremendous records ahead of us.

More importantly though, we have one of metal’s greatest figures back, and we couldn’t be more delighted to see him back on his feet – literally. To read Dom Lawson’s tale of a man who’s truly been there and back again, see p.38. Make sure you’re sitting down, because Travis Shinn’s remarkable photography is as stark as it it worth not one, but over 3,000 words.

Thank you for reading, and… Stay metal! Alex, Editör-In-Chief

Out Of The Shadows

Since his shock exit from Slipknot, Joey Jordison has remained silent. For the first time, he opens up about the split, the debilitating condition that left him unable to walk, and how he's been reborn anew

Words: Dom Lawson • Pics: Travis Shinn

Joey Jordison unmasked: the ultimate interview

Part One - Revelation

“This is very important to me. You’re getting something that I have not told anyone. It’s very emotional. It’s fucking hardcore, man.”

Joey Jordison has got a few things to get off his chest. More importantly, the world has got a few questions for the erstwhile Slipknot alumnus and the 21st century’s most celebrated percussive polymath, not least because he has been resolutely off the radar for the last few years.

The last time Metal Hammer spoke directly to Joey, he was promoting his then-newly-formed band Scar The Martyr, who released their self-titled debut album in September 2013. Three months later, he was seemingly dismissed from Slipknot, the band he had enjoyed huge global success with ever since they exploded into our world back in 1999.

Since that startling news broke in December 2013, Joey has been conspicuous by his absence from our ears, eyes and screens. This being the age of endless social media speculation, his disappearance and departure from Slipknot have been widely discussed online, one commonly espoused theory being that the diminutive drummer had gone spectacularly off the rails and was simply unable to fulfill his usual duties, thus prompting his bandmates’ decision to effect an unexpected lineup change.

In truth, only Joey’s closest friends and business associates know what he’s been up to for the last couple of years, but as he warmly greets Hammer at the door of the house he shares with girlfriend Amanda in Des Moines, it’s immediately apparent that today’s interview is much more than just an opportunity to herald the arrival of not one, but two new bands and Joey’s wholesale return to action. Instead, this is what he describes as “an opportunity to tell everyone what the fuck has been going on”. And it’s almost certainly not what anyone is expecting.

“It was at the end of the memorial shows we did for Paul,” Joey begins, referencing the death of bandmate Paul Gray and the subsequent world tour that began in the summer of 2011 and continued until August 2012. “We were in Canada, at the end of my last run of shows with Slipknot, and something happened to me but I didn’t know what it was. I was super ill. You can be sick and still play, but this was something I’d never felt in my life before.

“We found out that what I have is acute transverse myelitis. It’s a neurological condition that hits your spinal cord and it wiped my legs out completely. It’s like having your legs cut off, basically. I played those last couple of shows and it scared the living shit out of me. I didn’t know what it was. Everyone thought I was fucked up, but it wasn’t the case. I wasn’t even drinking. Everything was straight-laced and fucking perfect. Everything was on point. But I had to be carried to the stage…”

Joey pauses, wincing at the memory. “The pain was something I’d never experienced in my life before, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

When he arrived home from the Slipknot tour, Joey could barely walk. On August 21, 2012, he was admitted to Mercy West hospital in Des Moines, diagnosed with some form of leg paralysis but unaware of exactly how or why this was happening to him. Ten days later, he was transferred to the neurological unit at University Of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City, understandably terrified and extremely confused about his physical deterioration.

“It was fucking bad, dude,” he recalls. “My lady has everything documented. I got struck with this fucking thing that I couldn’t control. The doctors said I might not be able to walk again. Today, I can almost run, but back then I couldn’t even stand up. I was bed-ridden. If I wanted to turn over in bed, I had to move my legs with my hands. I was in and out of the hospital for months.

“Some beautiful people have helped me out and got me back stronger and taught me how to walk again, but at that moment my whole life was screwed, man. Acute transverse myelitis is a fucked-up disease and a lot of people don’t recover from it and they’re paralysed forever.”

After having braces fitted to prevent his weakened legs from buckling, Joey was finally discharged from hospital in October 2012. Thus began an extremely lengthy, challenging and physically exhausting regime of physical and occupational therapy, as Joey tried to summon the energy and determination to beat the bizarre neurological condition that had wrenched the carpet from under his feet and left him both horribly vulnerable and understandably bewildered.

Early in 2013, work began on Scar The Martyr’s debut album, as a further batch of Slipknot shows in Japan and Europe – including a headline slot at Download – loomed over the horizon. Still recovering from the worst of his illness, Joey somehow managed to recover to the point where he was able to perform at those gigs, after which he threw himself wholeheartedly into launching Scar The Martyr by hitting the road as main support to Danzig in the US.

All the while, of course, his global army of admirers remained entirely in the dark about the turmoil and trials going on behind the scenes. It was widely noted that Joey was looking overweight and far from healthy during Scar The Martyr’s debut UK tour, but the conclusions that most people were jumping to – in essence, that he had a problem with drugs and/or drink – were completely off target. Unfortunately, when Slipknot announced on December 12, 2013, that they were to forge ahead without their talismanic drummer, those rumours seemed to gain a little extra momentum.

“Yeah, and that’s why I love being able to do this interview, because finally I get to tell the fucking truth!” Joey declares. “It’s been really frustrating, but I can only bless the people that have been around me and helped me to get back to this point. And this is what I want to clarify for my fans…” – he punches his hand to emphasise the importance of this statement – “…it had nothing to do with fucking drugs or fucking alcohol!”

Several times during our interview, Joey’s eyes fill with tears. It’s abundantly clear that the extraordinary effort required to confront acute transverse myelitis and doggedly chase a light at the end of a seriously dark and bleak tunnel has taken a lot out of him, particularly on an emotional level. But now that he is about to click into top gear once again, via new bands Vimic and Sinsaenum, Joey is channeling his energies towards a cathartic clearing of the decks, and setting people straight about his life over the last five years is top of the agenda.

“Life takes you on weird trips and you just have to hold on, ride the wave and be as strong as you fucking can,” he shrugs. “I’ve been through so much fucking shit over the last few years and people just don’t know.”

Part Two - Struggle

The news that Joey had seemingly been sacked from Slipknot came as a huge shock to everyone, even without the additional knowledge of his devastating health problems. From the band’s enormous fanbase, through to many of us in the metal world that have always known him to be, at the very least, a wholly dedicated and passionate member of that 18-legged, arena-smashing entity, it was a wildly unexpected turn of events.

The band’s own public statements at the time took a predictably passive course, the relatively benign implication being that Joey and his former comrades were simply heading in different creative directions and could no longer work together effectively.

On January 2, 2014, he made his own statement on Facebook, making it plain that as far as he was concerned, there was no mutual agreement and he had been fired from Slipknot for reasons unknown.

“I was laying in bed with my lady, I’d been in rehabilitation for my health issues but everything was good, and the next thing I know…” he pauses, visibly upset. “No band meeting? None. Anything from management? No, nothing. All I got was a stupid fucking email saying that I was out of the band that I busted my ass my whole life to fucking create, you know?

“It was the weirdest fucking thing. I can’t imagine just sending Corey or Shawn or Mick a fucking letter, without a band meeting. We’re friends and we’ve been through so much shit together, but that was all it was, a fucking letter. That’s exactly what happened and it was hurtful, man. I didn’t deserve that shit after what I’d done and everything I’d been through.”

In light of revelations about his state of health at the time, it does seem an unusually abrupt way to bring such a longstanding partnership to an end. Joey even claims to have written and demoed a batch of new material, aided by Slipknot’s then-touring bassist Donnie Steele, and circulated it among his bandmates in an attempt to get the compositional ball rolling. But, according to the drummer, no one got back to him to discuss the new songs: subtle evidence, perhaps, that wires were distinctly crossed.

“They got confused about my health issues, and obviously even I didn’t know what it was at first,” Joey sighs. “They thought I was fucked-up on drugs, which I wasn’t at all. I don’t blame them for being concerned, but when you’re friends and you’ve been through so much stuff, you fucking talk to each other. But I harbour no bad feelings toward them at all, because I’ve moved on with my life. I’m happier than I’ve been in years. You need to move on, close the fucking chapter and, in the end, it is what it is.”

It is a testament to the positive way Joey has endeavoured to overcome his severe health problems that today, even after having been unceremoniously ejected from one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, he is hearteningly sanguine about the way things have turned out.

During our conversation, he repeatedly declares how grateful he is for the friends, family and life that he has, and even when discussing the end of his tenure as Slipknot’s drummer, he is eager to state how much he still loves and admires his former bandmates. What is perhaps more surprising is that Joey not only made a point of checking out .5: The Gray Chapter, the album Slipknot made without him and released in 2014, but is also effusive in his praise for it.

“Honestly, I have a long history with those guys, so I give them the respect they deserve and I listened to the whole record multiple times,” he smiles. “And I think it’s great! It’s fucking cool and I’m glad they moved on. I’m not like, ‘I’m not gonna give them respect!’ – I’m not a coward like that. I’m glad they’re carrying on the name, because what’s important is the fans. There’s no stupid battle going on. There’s no point in saying, ‘Fuck them!’

“No, I’ve been through so many things with those guys and I love them very much. What’s hurtful is that the way it [being fired] went down was not fucking right. That’s all I want to say. The way they did it was fucking cowardly. It was fucked up. But the love in my heart for those guys, that stays the same.”

It is at this point that Metal Hammer asks the inevitable and unavoidable question: despite everything that has happened, would Joey be willing to rejoin Slipknot further down the line? As much as his successor, Jay Weinberg, has acquitted himself brilliantly while filling the shoes of a contemporary drumming legend, it’s hard to deny that most Slipknot fans would be beside themselves with joy if Joey were to return to the fold. He takes a deep, measured inward breath and fixes us with a stern stare…

“Let me think about how to answer that, because it’s a big one,” he nods. “Honestly, I’m not trying to be dramatic, but if that was brought up, what I’d want to do would be to get together. Not just have a phone call or some stupid email. I’d want to see them, just hug it out and feel that energy that we had when we were fucking young and hungry and all that shit. They’re my brothers. We’d hug and talk and do shit like we used to do. We used to sit up all night long planning this shit and what we wanted to do. So that’s how I’d wanna do it. It’d have to be in person. If it happened, that would be fucking awesome, but only time will tell.”

Part Three - Rebirth

Back in the here and now, Joey Jordison is well on his way to being fighting fit once again. His recovery is still ongoing, of course, and daily trips to see his trainer at the local gym have now become an essential part of his day-to-day schedule, but as he speaks, he radiates sincere positivity. That said, the effort it has taken Joey to get from suddenly and horrifyingly being robbed of the use of his legs to a point where he is able to unveil two brand new albums with different bands is etched into his subtly expressive face.

He and better half Amanda have kept a detailed scrapbook of photos and other memorabilia from the long, hard road back from the onset of transverse myelitis. They allow us to leaf through it, and it brings the jarring reality of Joey’s last few years vividly to life. It’s a litany of woes, pain and frustration that many of us would regard as insurmountable, but even when faced with yet another grim obstacle, when he fell and broke his leg while in the studio recording Vimic’s debut album in the autumn of 2014, leading to his leg being cut in half and the insertion of steel rods and bolts, Joey’s determination to prevail and come back stronger than ever has been unwavering.

“I did question everything, like, ‘What am I going to do?’, not knowing if I was going to recover,” he admits. “It hurt a lot. It was a big question. But there was a definite point where I thought about all the blessings I’ve been given in life, being part of Slipknot and playing with Korn and Ministry and Rob Zombie and doing Roadrunner United and all those things, and you look at that and you’re grateful, and so you bust your ass to get back. I didn’t feel sorry for myself. I do not quit. I’ve got fans I’ve got to take care of, you know? So there’s no hiding right now.”

If you want to know what the opposite of hiding sounds like, you need only lend an ear to either or both of the new records that Joey is releasing this summer. The first is Echoes Of The Tortured, the debut album from Sinsaenum, Joey’s collaboration with Dragonforce’s Frédéric Leclercq and a host of underground luminaries. A monstrous but eminently accessible death metal record, its jaw-shattering eruptions of blastbeats and epic fury showcase the full extent of Joey’s physical recovery in no uncertain terms.

The second is Open Your Omen, the first album from Vimic, which is essentially Scar The Martyr with a new vocalist, former Korn percussionist and back-up singer Kalen Chase. It’s a sharper, more focused record than its (sort of) predecessor, planting Joey firmly back in belligerent mainstream metal territory, with plenty of the huge hooks and irresistible riffs that his loyal fans will be feverishly anticipating. But beyond the new music itself, Joey’s true focus is on the unparalleled joy he is currently experiencing as he escapes the nightmare of the last few years and returns to what he does best.

“This is a rebirth, and reaching this point is the ultimate reward,” he states. “It’s like having the ultimate trophies, having these two bands. These opportunities are coming back to me and it feels like a complete renewal. These are real bands, not side-projects. Everything I do goes at 100%… maybe even 666%, ha ha!

“At a certain age, a lot of people] become vegetarians or they find religion, but I’m never gonna stop being a fucking weirdo and a fucking metalhead! You wake up one day and you realise that nothing’s ever gonna change and you’re fucking committed. I’ve been like that since I was five years old, man.

“Right now, I just want to keep creating. These bands are two huge fucking journeys for me. It’s like when you see a rollercoaster that you’ve never ridden before, and you’re fucking scared, but you’re in line and waiting, like I am now, and then once you step on? You’re in!”

There are a few lessons to be learned from the story of Joey Jordison’s last few traumatic years. Firstly, maybe we should all be slightly less eager to jump to hasty conclusions when faced with only one side of a story (or, indeed, no verified information whatsoever). Secondly, never underestimate the strength, persistence, passion and potential of the human spirit.

“The most pertinent lesson of all, however, is one we all should have learned a long time ago: Joey Jordison is an unstoppable force of nature and, after fighting the toughest battle of his entire life, he’s primed and ready to make up for lost time and to remind the world that loud, angry, fucked up and furious music remains the best medicine of all.

“I have this weird-ass condition, but it doesn’t limit me and I’m getting better all the time,” he concludes with a confident grin. “I can play just as fast, or faster, than I ever have. Everything is fucking cool and I’m at the gym every day and it’s all going well. That helps me out so much.

“I went through some serious fucking shit. People didn’t know and I can’t blame them for that. But the thing is, you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, and then you go off and fucking do it. You live your life the way you want to, and get the work done! What else can I say, dude? It’s good to tell my story. I’m fucking back and I’m ready to go full force. This is the best fucking job in the world. I’m never gonna stop.”

What Is Transverse Myelitis?

We spoke to Lew Gray, secretary of UK charity the Transverse Myelitis Society, to understand what Joey’s batling…

Can you explain what the condition means? Lew: “Transverse myelitis is an inflammation of the spinal cord. You have a lot of nerves doing different things in your spinal cord, so the facts of each case depend on which part of the spinal cord is affected. It can be high in the spinal cord affecting the arms, or you may struggle to breathe because the muscles in your lungs don’t work. It could be lower, affecting different sensory nerves. Some people with transverse myelitis can walk but can’t feel the floor beneath their feet, or they can’t feel hot and cold or pain. We think there are about 250 cases a year in the UK.”

Does it typically come on quickly or is it more of a gradual process? “It can be either. A lot of people are paralysed within an hour or two. But then for other people it can be very gradual and come and go over a period of months. It takes some people years to get a diagnosis.”

What treatment is available? “Really, the only treatment is to dose you with steroids. They will reduce the inflammation, and therefore you’re not curing it, you’re minimising the damage until it goes away by itself. Physiotherapy is very important. Almost everyone gets some spontaneous recovery over time after transverse myelitis, but the body and mind ‘forget’ how to use muscles and nerves that are not working, so the purpose of neurophysiotherapy is to ‘guide’ the recovery.”

What is the long-term prognosis for someone with transverse myelitis? “The nerves are capable of regenerating themselves. Nobody can predict though how well they will regenerate, how long it will take, or if they will at all. The majority of people get improvement, but there is no cast-iron guarantee.”

How common are relapses? “We do know people who have had recurrences, however that is rare. Sometimes a reoccurrence of transverse myelitis leads to a diagnosis of MS [multiple sclerosis].”

For more on the Transverse Myelitis Society, visit www.myelitis.org.uk

Beating The Odds

How Joey Jordison fought his way back from paralysis to prosperity

The full extent of Joey’s arduous battle with acute transverse myelitis is brought into sharp focus when we visit Absolute Performance Therapy in Waukee, Des Moines. Joey spent months here, working on his recovery, and the mere fact that today he is able to walk through the front door without assistance speaks volumes about what he has achieved. His therapist, Alyssa Subbert, has nothing but praise for his determined approach.

“Being stubborn helped the most!” she laughs. “To go from being someone who could do anything to not being able to get out of a chair, then to get back to being able to do everything again, it was a huge process. He wanted to drum again so bad, and as long as we made every exercise about drumming, he’d do it. He was very stubborn and very ornery, but he’d work and work until his body was too sore.”

Gruelling physical work aside, it is obvious that Joey’s time at APT was also hugely emotional. He hasn’t been back since finishing his treatment, and there are tears as he and Alyssa recall the intense therapy sessions and ferocious perseverance and teamwork that were needed to make each successive triumph a reality along the way.

“This was a huge wake-up call to Joey’s health and lifestyle, and how physical his job is,” Alyssa states. “When you’ve done something like that forever, you have no concept of it. He has to play in a drum set that rotates and goes upside down?! It’s not a regular job, sitting at a computer. We even practised mobbing him! Does he have balance when a whole bunch of people mob him, you know? It’s a whole different life, and very physical. So this was a completely unique process we went through.”

Joey’s physical therapy may be over, but his daily trips to local gym Life Time Athletic are an essential part of his recovery, not to mention his ability to play drums with the power and skill that fans have come to expect. His personal trainer, Caleb Herman, is a Slipknot fan who’s full of admiration for his client’s dedication.

“When Joey came in, he could hardly walk,” Caleb recalls. “Now he’s pressing 700lbs and he can do a step above what most people can do. He’s got one of the strongest back muscle groups I’ve ever seen. He couldn’t stand without help, but now he can stand up by himself, so his progress has been awesome. When he sees progress, he becomes motivated, and he tells me he gets the chills, and that gives me the chills. It’s really exciting to see him get to this point.”

Battle Of The Bands

After a long absence from our world, Joey’s returning with two new projects. But how do Vimic and Sinsaenum stack up against each other?

Vimic

Members: Joey Jordison (drums), Kalen Chase (vocals), Matt Tarach (keyboards), Jed Simon (guitar), Kyle Konkiel (bass). Sound: Crunchy, state-of-the-art modern metal with big, anthemic melodies and plenty of snotty aggression. Image: Lots of black leather, long hair, beards and menacing scowls. Sample lyric: ‘Simple skeletons, playing God again/We’re getting higher, we’re getting higher, and the truth will set us free’ (Simple Skeletons). Drumming: Lashings of classic Joey, from that Slipknot stomp and big, muscular grooves to bursts of high-velocity blasting. Joey says: “Scar The Martyr was the blueprint, but we wiped the slate clean. This is heavy shit. Kalen killed it on this record.” For fans of: Slipknot, Disturbed, Fear Factory. Check out: Earth Stood Still. Lurching, syncopated grooves and soaring, post-grunge melodies collide in a brutish, multi-tempo anthem that deftly showcases singer Kalen’s versatility.

Sinsaenum

Members: Joey Jordison (drums), Frédéric Leclercq (guitar), Heimoth (bass), Attila Csihar (vocals), Sean Zatorsky (vocals), Stéphane Buriez (guitar). Sound: Epic, imperious, blackened death metal with tons of eerie atmosphere. Image: Classic, dark, extreme metal attitude with a dash of theatrical corpse paint and a blood-splattered logo. Sample lyric: ‘We are the pain inside your head/We are the sorrow in your soul/We are the fire/We are the rusty nails’ (Army Of Chaos). Drumming: A masterclass in death metal precision and power. Proof that Joey is back and blazing. Joey says: “Sinsaenum is probably one of the most extreme and proficient bands I have ever been in. These guys are fucking on point at all times. We’re a fucking army!” For fans of: Morbid Angel, Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth. Check out: Inverted Cross. It’s blistering, heads-down death metal grandeur with anti-Christian lyrics, fret-melting solos and countless warped twists and turns.

Sin City

As well as making his comeback with Vimic, Joey Jordison’s taken up the drum stool for death metal project Sinsaenum. Mastermind and Dragonforce bassist Frédéric Leclercq explains how it came thundering to life

Words: Dayal Patterson

While Vimic represents a beefed-up reboot of Scar The Martyr, Joey’s also been behind the kit for a second, brand new band - Sinsaenum. The brainchild of Dragonforce bassist Frédéric Leclercq, it’s a more murky blend of death and black metal, featuring the twosome alongside some of the leading lights of the extreme scene, including dual vocals from Mayhem’s Attila Csihar and Dååth’s Sean Zatorsky. We asked Frédéric what the supergroup have planned for their dark future.

How did Sinsaenum first come about? Frédéric: “Oh Christ, even I have trouble remembering when it started! I always wrote death metal songs. I started to write in 1998, then I was doing something else [he played in the French bands Memoria and Heavenly], and I’m still doing something else, with Dragonforce. The first person I spoke to was Stéphane [Buriez, guitar] from Loudblast. It must’ve been in 2010 that we said, ‘Let’s really do something about it.’”

How did Joey get involved? “I kept writing more songs, and one day in 2013 I got a text from Joey. We call each other ‘Morbid Angel” – don’t ask why – so the text said, ‘Morbid Angel, what you up to?’ I was like, ‘Well, I just got back from tour… talking about Morbid Angel, I have these death metal songs.’ He was like, ‘You should send them to me!’ Two days later, he came back like, ‘Fuck yeah, that’s really cool. Who’s playing drums? I want to do it.’ So I started to ask more people that I had in mind.”

How did you guys meet? “We did the Mayhem tour together in the US, in 2008. One day drinking we were talking about death metal, and then we got to talking about it more and more. That’s how you get to know people – you find what you have in common. We had drinking and Morbid Angel.”

What about the other guys? “Stéphane I’ve known for 20 years. I played in a band in my hometown, Charleville-Mézières, and we supported his band, Loudblast. They were a big influence, and the first death metal band I heard. We kept in touch because France is a small country when it comes to metal. With [bassist] Heimoth from [French black metal band] Seth, it’s the same – there’s a small metal community. Dragonforce and Mayhem did a festival together, and Attila came onto the bus and said: ‘My son is a fan and would love an autograph – by the way, I’m the vocalist of Mayhem.’ He’s such a nice person – maybe you shouldn’t write that, keep the mystery! Sean and I met when Dååth was opening for Dragonforce in 2009. I really liked his voice and his attitude.”

How much music was written before you started working with them? “When Joey sent that text, all the songs were half-written, because I’ve a tendency to write a song with just a verse and a chorus, maybe a mid-section, because I know the rest is in my head. So when he said, ‘I’m interested,’ I was like, ‘Oh shit, I have to finish the songs!’ I sent out files, because it was clear that people trusted my ‘vision’. They didn’t want to change too much. I had to finalise lyrics with Sean and Attila, and Stéphane contributed to the structure. Joey added some fills. I decided to make it a concept album using interludes like Tiamat, or Pestilence, or even Type O Negative did to create atmosphere, so I had to write those.”

What was it like working with your heroes? “I felt like a kid in a toy store! Being in a studio with Attila singing songs that I wrote, and saying, ‘Oh, you should do this song like [Mayhem’s] De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, and him being like, [adopts a Hungarian accent] ‘OK bro’, it’s like ‘Fuck, this is happening!’ I shouldn’t sound so excited, ‘cause this is black and death metal, but I had a big smile during the whole process – we all did. On Army Of Chaos we have Schmier from Destruction and Mika and Mirai from Sigh. Mika and Mirai are good friends of mine and are doing the big choirs, the choruses… like Sepultura’s Stronger Than Hate [from 1989’s Beneath The Remains]. I remember reading the booklet as a kid… they had the guys from Obituary and Atheist on it, and I was like, ‘Fuck, that’s cool.’ And it’s Schmier who’s singing on the last pre-chorus.

Did Joey’s health battles affect Sinsaenum? “Not at all. He speaks about it way better than I, so I won’t comment on that. I’ve kept away from all the troubles. I was like, ‘I’m a friend. If you want to talk, I’ll listen, but I just want to make sure you’re happy.’ As far as health problems, he was fine – he killed the drums. I don’t know how he did it, but he said, ‘Dude, I’m on fire.’ He was angry, I guess.”

Will Sinsaenum tour? “It’s definitely something we want to do, but there’s no rush. I want to do everything the same way I lived it as a kid. These bands I loved, I loved their albums, but I didn’t see them live for a long time and it didn’t bother me. I want people to digest the album – there’s a lot of information on there. Plus, we’re all busy; it’s difficult to get us all in a room. We rehearsed before doing the videos, and being in the same room, it was like, ‘Fucking hell.’”

What’s happening with Dragonforce right now? “We’re doing summer festivals and writing the new album that will come out next year, so I have to juggle between doing Sinsaenum stuff and writing and recording with Dragonforce. So my head is about to explode, but that’s fine!”

What do you get from Sinsaenum that you don’t get with Dragonforce? “This is really the music I love. I like Dragonforce stuff, and I write more of it now, but sometimes I don’t agree with all the decisions. With Sinsaenum, from A to Z it is exactly what I want. I guess it’s my baby. It gives me a way to express the dark side of myself and show it to people – if they care or not, that’s another issue!”

Sinsaenum release Echoes Of The Tortured on July 29 via Earmusic 

[fuckyeswednesday13]

Interview with Wednesday about Joey and Murderdolls

[trashcanalienist]

More Psychosocial video premiere. Me too, Clown.

[kabukimetal]

“I live in an area that you can’t really find. It’s very desolate, pretty much isolated, so nobody can find me,” he said. “Even the Slipknot guys, every time they come to my house, they still can’t find it, it’s that hard to find. I prefer it like that. I’m really peaceful. I just like going to my house, working in my garden, taking long walks. I wanted to take you on a walk today to do this [interview] but it’s pissing with fucking rain. I like going home and chilling out. It’s almost like I go home and try and re-adjust.”

Joey being an absolute sweetheart.

[metaladdicts]

SLIPKNOT's CLOWN Explains Why The Band Rarely Talks About Their Late Former Bandmate, JOEY JORDISON

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan opened up about his relationship with former bandmate Joey Jordison, who passed away in 2021. Jordison, who parted ways with the band in 2013, appeared to have had a tense relationship with SLIPKNOT after his departure. However, Clown hinted that under different circumstances, Jordison might have been able to rejoin the band. In a new interview with…

[zimzumlove]

[moonbunnie7]

Da beebee :> ❤️🖤