Corey Taylor Envisioned Fronting Slipknot at First Show Before Joining the Group
Though Corey Taylor has fronted Slipknot through their years in the spotlight, he’s actually the second frontman the group has known during their history. But he was actually there at the very beginning, attending their first show as an audience member and he recently recalled to Steve-O on the Jackass star’s podcast that at the very first gig he envisioned eventually fronting the band.
Speaking on the Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast, Taylor remembered, “When I watched that first show, I was right in front, they came through the audience, scared the hell out of it, everybody! Because they’re in full masks, they weren’t wearing the coveralls yet, but they were just in these crazy outfits. And they opened with – I want to say it was like three minutes of just noise and blast beats. It was like being in a fucking Melvins concert! I can’t believe it, it was so gnarly. And for some reason, I was so attracted to it and drawn in by it.”
The singer adds, “I just was like, ‘I’m gonna be the singer in this band someday.’ And I’ve never had that thought in a million years for anybody else. And a year later, they asked me. It’s crazy.”
At that stage in his life, Taylor was fronting Stone Sour, who would later find their own fame after Slipknot’s original breakout. Taylor recalls, “At the time, I was the best singer in Des Moines, and they were the bigger band in Des Moines, and they wanted that extra tool, that extra bullet in the gun, I’m not really sure.”
“If they hadn’t asked me to join, I would have done Stone Sour ’til the cows come home,” says Taylor. “I would have eventually done something that would have gotten the attention of whatever because we were shopping just like everybody else in Des Moines.”
Slipknot enjoyed their breakout on their 1999 self-titled Roadrunner Records debut though they did independently release Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat in 1996 prior to Taylor’s addition to the band. Stone Sour would get their shot a few years later, with Roadrunner releasing their self-titled debut album in 2002.