Mushroomhead: We Spent a Lot of Time Complaining About Slipknot for Nothing

The feud between Slipknot and Mushroomhead was highly publicized in the early 2000s, resulting in a bizarre battle of masked bands. In a new interview, Mushroomhead drummer Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton spoke about the beef, reflecting on the absurdity of a feud that never needed to happen.

Mushroomhead predate Slipknot by two years, though Slipknot went on to become the far bigger international act. Tensions between the two fan bases famously boiled over in 1999, during a Slipknot show in Mushroomhead’s home city of Cleveland, Ohio. During and after Slipknot’s performance, members of the masked nine brawled with the audience after being pelted with batteries, padlocks and other objects.

For years, Mushroomhead would speak out against Slipknot while doing press, accusing the band of stealing their gimmick and being a Roadrunner Records-manufactured act meant to cash in on Mushroomhead’s ideas. Time has cooled tensions, however, according to Felton.

“It’s just like a silly fan-fueled and I guess media hyped thing to talk about… This is the '90s. Any sort of news was cool,” Felton tells Talk Toomey. “There wasn’t a whole lot back then. And then you get a feud between bands. It’s kind of East Coast vs. West Coast type of thing. Oh, Lord, here we go.”

“And for some of the entertainment value of it, sure. A lot of us in the band were at the time into it. And, you know, played it up and had some fun, but, you know, I look back and I think I should have did it all when I knew it all, you know? Like, how silly of us… Obviously, we didn’t have any part of it, but to even just jump on the bandwagon of talking to the media about it and going, ‘Oh, we came first, the chicken or the egg’ and that whole stupid thing.”

“We spent a lot of time complaining about them for nothing. So you know, God Bless them, they’re one a biggest bands out there. It proves that masked heavy metal and that style of entertainment is still relevant.” [via PRP]

Mushroomhead’s newest album, A Wonderful Life, will be released June 19 via Napalm Records. To pre-order a copy of the album, click here.