INTERVIEW: Slipknot - Lest We Forget

Monday , 11 Oct 2010

On the eve of the release of one hell of a live DVD, the members of Slipknot are in turmoil. At a time of huge successes in their career the highs have been tempered by one hell of a low, and, talking to Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan at home in Des Moines, Iowa, it’s clear it will take them a long time to recover.

For those unfamiliar with recent events for the band, on May 24 this year, their incredibly talented bassist Paul Gray was found dead in a hotel room in Urbandale, Iowa. The circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately made known, though an autopsy indicated no foul play or trauma was involved. Gray is survived by his wife, Brenna Gray, who was expecting their first child at the time of his death.

The day after his passing, the band held a live press conference in commemoration of Gray, expressing their feelings about the incident, and were clearly torn apart by their loss. On June 21, the cause of death was confirmed as an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl, the latter being a synthetic morphine substitute. At the 2010 Kerrang! Awards, which were held not long after, Gray was posthumously given the Kerrang! award for his services to metal. Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor accepted the honour on his behalf, then the band appeared to go to ground, leaving their millions of fans - who are affectionately known as ‘maggots’ - in a state of limbo about the future of their heroes.

At home in Des Moines, Clown is taking time out with his wife and children, who have often gone months without seeing him due to Slipknot’s intense touring schedule. He’s certainly putting it mildly when he says, “[there’s] a lot going on in my life, it really is insanity inside my brain.” Though the impact of Gray’s death obviously continues to affect the band in a huge way, the major reason for my conversation with Crahan is the release of a DVD called (sic)nesses, which chronicles a very special moment in time for the band.

On June 13 last year, the band headlined the annual Download Festival in the UK, performing in front of an estimated 85,000 plus of their most rabid fans. The performance was absolutely electric, in typical Slipknot fashion, especially since it came hot on the heels of one of the strongest years in their illustrious career. They were a band at the peak of their success, with all of the craziness that surrounds it.

It was indeed a year of firsts for a band that was at that point over a decade deep into their career. Their most recent album, 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, debuted at number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart - the first of their albums to do so. The two-year touring trek that followed saw them play to packed houses across continents, including a stint headlining at New York City’s legendary Madison Square Garden; the show was stacked to the rafters with frenzied maggots and chronicled by Rolling Stone.

The Download show was to be one of their finest outings ever, and, as one of Gray’s final major shows with the band, will always be one of their most memorable. While it wasn’t initially intended as such, the DVD of the concert is a testament to the legacy of Gray, and the place where fans can enjoy a lasting glimpse of the bassist doing what he loved most. It also includes a 45-minute behind the scenes documentary created by his best friend and bandmate Clown, as well as all four music videos from the All Hope Is Gone cycle and the making of ‘Snuff’.

When asked if playing to a crowd of 80,000 people going gradually more and more nuts is a surreal experience for the band, Clown says, “We’ve been working for over 10 years to get to that point, so it’s a beautiful thing. We’ve worked so, so hard to prove that we’re not a band, we’re a culture, and having that 85,000 or so people there believing in us doesn’t come without hard work.” He says that when he looks out over a crowd of that size he sees it as the result of years of doing things the way they alone want to do them, and going hard every minute they are on that stage. “We don’t just rely on album sales and sit back and pretend that we’re rock stars,” he adds, “because we’re not. Slipknot is a culture, and those people are part of that culture.”

When the troop of friends from Des Moines first started playing together all those years ago, did he ever envisage that kind of madness unfolding in front of him? Over 85,000 people screaming his name? “I can honestly say that I never could have ever imagined that one day I would be able to tell you that number of people would be watching a band I was in, that would be just too surreal to think,” says the drummer. “Although, if you’d asked me about the band when I was younger, I would have told you that one day I would be in the biggest band in the world. All of my relatives have been hearing that for years, even when I was playing to 10 people.”

When they travel to countries like New Zealand, the band inevitably play to a much smaller crowd. Does performing for a smaller audience necessitate a smaller set up, a re-jig of their usual onstage schtick? “Unfortunately, due to distance we can’t always bring our full show,” says Clown with a hint of genuine regret in his voice. “Mainly because of money or sheer logistics, but you’re always going to get us playing at 190 percent. You’ll always be guaranteed to get a full Slipknot show, which isn’t reliant on all of that other stuff. It’s the music that drives the band, and we’d rather come to New Zealand than not come because we can’t bring our ‘A’ rig.”

The (sic)nesses DVD is out now.