Oopsie! The identity of Slipknot's new mystery member may have been revealed. In a now-deleted Instagram story (screenshotted and posted on Reddit), 'Knot percussionist Michael "Tortilla Man" Pfaff posted a selfie in front of a rack of clothes backstage, in which every member of the band has a section denoted by their government names.
"Corey" for frontman Corey Taylor, "Sid" for DJ Sid Wilson, Mick for guitarist Mick Thomson and "Zac" for — wait a minute, there're no Zac's in Slipknot! Or is there?
Fans on Reddit are treating this as compelling proof that Slipknot's new keyboardist and sampler — who suddenly replaced longtime member Craig Jones last month — is in fact Zac Baird, a prolific keyboardist who has played in Korn and Ghost, has a programming credit on Evanescence's Fallen album, and once auditioned for Nine Inch Nails.
Last month, many Maggots began theorizing that Baird was the new guy in the band, despite having any tangible evidence to back up their hunch. Naturally, the Iowa Nine themselves haven't commented on their latest recruit's identity, and Baird hasn't shared any information on social media to confirm any Slipknot fan's suspicions.
While Pfaff's photo is certainly intriguing, it's also not definitive. The only two letters that are clearly legible on the clothing tag are "Za," followed by a character that looks like a "c", but also kind of blends into the corner of the tag next to it, making it impossible to read clearly.
Even so, there're no other members of Slipknot whose name begin with "Za," so that's fishy. And the fact that Pfaff deleted the photo once eagle-eyed fans started pointing out the name definitely makes it look like he's trying to cover his tracks.
But we still don't know for sure. Check out the photo below and decide for yourself what you see.
