You hesitate to call a member of Slipknot ‘wistful’, but that’s exactly the word you’d use to describe the mood of Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan in a recent interview with Metal Hammer.
The percussionist is now the only remaining original member of the crew and he was talking about the state of Slipknot now, compared to twenty five years ago at the time of their breakthrough debut album. “Brother, the band will never be like that again,” he lamented.
“I can’t tell you how close we were then: we’re not that close anymore,” he said. “People are gone. Craig’s out. Chris is out, Joey’s out, Paul’s out. The band is different. But, back then, there was nine guys that wanted to be in the same place, and we made it work. And we wound up here, and here is wonderful.”
Slipknot have seen a great number of comings and goings these past few years. Bassist Paul Gray died of an overdose in May 2010. In 2013 drummer Joey Jordison was fired from the band – Jordison late died in 2021.
In 2019 the band parted company with percussionist Chris Fehn and 2023 saw not only the departure of original keyboardist Craig Jones, but also Jordison’s replacement on drums, Jay Weinberg.
Elsewhere in the Metal Hammer interview Crahan talked about how much Gray and Jordison are still missed. “I’m doing these 25-year anniversary interviews, and not a lot of human beings are asking me about them,” he said. “You can’t talk about any of this without talking about them.”
“They’re greatly missed, and every day that I go through this 25-year anniversary, I miss them more, but also appreciate, love, and just acknowledge who they were to all this. It’s very important for me to say that, because these are two gentlemen that should be talking to you, and they can’t.”
He continued: “Joey and Paul… Oh my God, they wrote this shit man. Number 1 and Number 2. The path changed for us after they passed, and we had to keep going, and take a new path, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t know where we came from, or ever forget what brought us here.”
Slipknot are currently on the North American leg of their Here Comes The Pain tour, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of that self titled debut album. For the shows they have revived their original look – red boiler suits, original masks and all.
The tour arrives in the UK at the back end of 2024, with shows in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and a date at London’s 02 on December 20. Ticket information can be found here.
