Press
Slipknot's sober returnBy Rebecca Louie, Daily News Feature writer Someone pour Corey Taylor a frosty mug of sparkling cider. As of yesterday, the frontman of masked nu-metal act Slipknot has been sober for 10 months. "I quit drinking in the middle of recording because I had a real problem," says Taylor, whose group headlines the second stage at Ozzfest tonight at Jones Beach and on Friday at the PNC Bank Arts Center in New Jersey. "I was drinking a bottle-and-a-half of whisky every night, sometimes more, waking up the next day and regretting it, and then doing it all over again. "My wife grabbed me and said, 'Either you stop drinking or I take the kids and I leave.' It was a pretty easy choice." Booze wasn't the only problem plaguing the birth of Slipknot's new album "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses." As the group toured with their 2001 album "Iowa" (named after their home state), tension grew and fights ensued. Slipknot split up and several members pursued new projects, perhaps never to don their scary masks again. HEAVY METAL THERAPY "It all came to a head," says Taylor. "We just looked at each other like, 'I don't want to see you guys for a really long time.' It was killing us." But last year, producer Rick Rubin invited the group to stay at his Los Angeles digs - and they did, for six months. The closeness, some informal group therapy and intense jam sessions resulted in a reunion. "We were all kind of wary at first about what was going to happen, but as soon as we got into the studio, man, we started talking again, hanging out again, and writing great music," he says. The result is an album that manages to be more melodic than their earlier frenzied scores but doesn't skimp on the rage. "All I gotta do is wake up in the morning and something [sets] me off," Taylor admits, noting that on "Vol. 3" he explores more than "just worrying about me when I was 10." Also returning are the band's signature masks, which carry a legacy of their own. "We don't wash them and they get really nasty," says Taylor, who has encased himself in his particular sweat-stained guise since March. "It's just goofy guy [stuff], like a baseball player not washing his jock. You try to understand it but you never will." |