Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan was a participant in the "Underground to Mainstream: What Are Metal and Hip-Hop Doing Right (And Where Does It Go From Here?)" panel at the last week's Pollstar Live! industry conference in Los Angeles. The panel — which also featured Live Nation exec Rich Best, events producer Danny Wimmer and rapper Coolio, among others — tackled festival production, audience engagement ... and at one point, the possibility of booking Slipknot and Foo Fighters for the same event, Blabbermouth points out.
When Wimmer — who's put on over a dozen North American rock festivals with his company Danny Wimmer Presents, including Rock on the Range and Chicago Open Air — expressed a desire to see Slipknot and Foo Fighters occupy the same bill, Crahan shot down the suggestion: "I ask myself, does Slipknot want to play next to the Foo Fighters? The answer is no, because my kids don't want me to do that," he said.
Lest anyone jump to conclusions about a possible Clown/Dave Grohl beef, the percussionist's reasoning stems from his desire to do right by the Maggots, rather than an urge to stick it to the Foos. "If we play alongside the Foo Fighters, we are going to get new fans. I agree with that. I love that," he explained. "But I'm worried about the kid that won't come to the show, because we're playing with the Foo Fighters. He wants to know why we're not playing with Nine Inch Nails."
"Those kids tell all of us what they want, so don't try to figure out ways to combine things for the new fan," he added. "I don't need the new fan, I need the fan that has anxiety — parents are getting divorced, social problems, gender problems — I need them to come to the ultimate show, and they're going to get that at Knotfest," he concluded, referring to Slipknot's annual, self-curated festival.
