Slipknot talk life withoutPaul Gray and new album

Wed 19th Oct, 2011 in Local News

In an interview with FasterLouder Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor has spoken candidly about the death of the band’s bassist Paul Gray, his excitement at headlining Soundwave Festival in 2012 and revealed that, while writing is well under way for Stone Sour’s new record, he is “not even thinking about writing another [Slipknot] album right now.”

Chatting to FL from his home town of Iowa, Taylor was on the phone to discuss his forthcoming autobiography (of sorts), Seven Deadly Sins: Settling The Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Goods. The book is a disarmingly honest account of the singer’s life and addresses everything from his teenage drug addictions to his life as the frontman of one of the world’s biggest bands.

While the full interview with Taylor will be published on FasterLouder in coming weeks, here are some excerpts from the revealing conversation.

The death of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray

“It’s been over a year now, and I’ve been slowly but surely talking a little bit more about it. Obviously it’s still with me, and it’s still hard to talk about it. But I’ve found the more I talk about it, the easier it is to deal with it.

The biggest thing it has taught me, is to not take anything for granted, you know. Paul was one of those guys who really lived it. He lived it right to the hill. He fought his demons, but he didn’t let his demons control his personality. If you had just met him, you wouldn’t have thought that he was fighting those demons. He was such a sweet-heart, and there were times that I forgot that he had issues that he was fighting against, and it really kind of made him almost indestructible in my eyes. So when he passed, it fucked me up to be honest. It was hard, and it is still hard, but it taught me that you have got to cherish every day and cherish every moment.”

Continuing Slipknot without Gray

“It’s definitely changed you know. It’s a subtle change, but it’s a subtle change that’s almost deafening. Paul’s style was so distinctive, and his sound was so distinctive, that not hearing it took me a while to get use to, and still don’t think I’m fully use to it.”

Headlining Soundwave Festival

“I know that when we did Soundwave this year with Stone Sour that I got to see my guys in Sevendust, I got to see my guys in 36 Crazyfists, I mean there were just all these bands that I hadn’t seen in a while, and it was really great. It was a good time, and that’s what it really comes down to.”

New Slipknot album

“You know, I’m not even thinking about writing another [Slipknot] album right now. I’m just not there yet you know. But I mean, we’re going to put together a really good set, but right now, it just makes more sense to trample together with the band, and not run into a studio, and do things for the wrong reasons, let’s put it that way.”

New Stone Sour album

“I’ve been writing almost non-stop. The idea that I have is very grand, and if we do it right, it will probably be the biggest thing of our careers. There are influences from stuff like Alice in Chains, old school thrash like Anthrax and Megadeth, with some really cool acoustic passages. It’s going to hit on every cylinder and packed into the biggest engine ever, let’s put it that way. It’s a pretty serious story that I’m trying to weave in and out of all these riffs and stuff, so it’s really exciting. It’s basically the story of a man who’s trying to figure it out…It’s almost like a mid-life crisis in a way.”

Stay tuned to FasterLouder for the full interview with Corey Taylor in coming weeks and the second Soundwave line-up announcement later tonight.