I think I can say with great confidence thatSlipknot'snew album is probably the most highly anticipated album of this year, and if not then the last few years!Corey Taylortook some time to talk with Ultimate Guitarto chat aboutRonnie James Dio,which bands to watch and a few very, very vague details about the new record.
Check out a snippet below, or head to the Ultimate Guitar websiteto read the whole thing (timely, but worth it).
UG: What are your memories of first meeting Ronnie James Dio?
CT: We met a couple times in passing but it wasn’t anything major. The real time I really got to officially meet him and hang out with was honestly right before he passed. We were both at the Revolver Golden God awards in LA. And we were both up for Best Vocalist. It’s probably the one time I was rooting for somebody else to win because I’d just been such a fan of Ronnie forever. So I’m like, “Oh dude, he’s gonna blow me out of the water. What? Are you crazy?”
Did Ronnie know about Slipknot and the kind of music you played?
Yeah, man. He was very aware. He came into the interview and obviously I’m like a huge fan and I’m trying not to fan boy on him and I was totally fan boying on him, which I am wont to do half the time. He was like, “Likewise” and it blew me away. To have that kind of respect reciprocated, I wasn’t expecting it. Let’s put it that way. He really was very magnanimous about it and he was very, very cool. He knew my work and knew what I’d done and not only liked it but appreciated it.
Are there contemporary metal singers who will leave their stamp like Dio did?
I think there’s a handful. It’s a different age and a different generation and people get into music for different reasons now. Without me talking a bunch of sh-t on people, you can usually tell the people who are kinda punching the timecard as opposed to the people who are genuinely invested in it. It’s something in your soul that needs to do this. I mean there’s a handful of ‘em out there.
Who would you name check as singers who are bringing it?
Just off the top of my head, Lzzy Hale is definitely one who I think people really need to keep an eye on. Because as modern rock as they are, her voice is so gnarly and they are by far one of the best live bands I’ve seen. They do it for real and every note of it is for real. It’s just something I think has never been captured in any of their recordings. I think they’re really gona nail it with this next album. I think people are really gonna go like, “Holy god.”There’s a great blend between like AC/DC and Dio with that band and I mean that. That’s just from an outside standpoint. That band is gonna change a lot of attitudes about things and she’s an incredible singer. The more she gets out there and the more she does, the more it becomes painfully obvious she’s not just a woman singer. She is just a badass singer. I’d put her up against any of these chumps that are in the bigger bands to be honest.
When you look back to the first Slipknot record, what that a cathartic time for you?
Oh dude, yeah, hah. Trust me, I’m night and day from who that guy was because that little 25-year old kid was a f–king nightmare to be around a lot of times. I was moody; I was cross. I was a drunk and it was brutal being that guy. But I think I had to be that guy to get started. I let all that sh-t build up inside of me and I just f–kin’ threw it up onto the tape basically. I mean you can hear me throwing up in a lot of that sh-t.
Where were you mentally on the “Iowa” album?
By the second album, I was pretty wrapped up in myself. It was a pretty dark time. I was pretty deep in a drinking problem and all of a sudden we were one of the biggest bands in the world and we didn’t know how to handle it. It was gnarly. It was very, very close to that clich of kind of falling off the edge. And that honestly lasted all the way up until right in the middle of recording “Vol. 3."
Obviously this new album will be the first one without Paul Gray. Does it feel entirely different without Paul there?
Yeah, yeah. I mean it’s always gonna be different and nothing’s ever gonna be the same. It’s a better way to say it to be honest. But all we can do is what we do. The way I’ve had to look at it is that not every great football team stays together and not every great band can keep doing it with the same people. It’s the nice way of me saying that I can’t just look at him as dead, which breaks my heart. I have to look at as, "One of our most important pieces is gone - how do we make up for that?” So it’s basically us pooling our talents to fill in this vacuum that has been left.
How is that going?
We’re in the midst of it and we’ll just have to see what happens.
Jim Root told me a couple months ago that he felt he had sort of channeled Paul Gray’s energy in helping him write this new album.
Let me tell you something about Jim Root - he is one of the best writers I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. The stuff that he comes up with? He’s insane.
Tell us one thing about the album.
I will give you this on the new album - none of you are gonna see this comin’. And that’s all I can say about it, hah hah hah. You have no idea.
