Slipknot's Corey Taylor Talks "Birth of the Cruel," New Band Member, Wedding | Revolver

Slipknot's Corey Taylor Talks "Birth of the Cruel," New Band Member, Wedding

Singer guests on Apple Music's Beats 1 ahead of 'We Are Not Your Kind'
CoreyTaylor_2019_mask.jpg
Corey Taylor

Today, August 5th, as Slipknot rolled out their latest We Are Not Your Kind single "Birth of the Cruel," singer Corey Taylor FaceTimed with Zane Lowe of Apple Music's Beats 1 to chat about the song and the LP. The frontman also discussed the band's mystery new member, a.k.a. "Tortilla Man," family life and his upcoming wedding, and how "the OGs" in 'Knot are closer than they've ever been on the 20th anniversary of their self-titled debut album. Listen to the interview and check out standout quotes below.

ON "BIRTH OF THE CRUEL"
COREY TAYLOR
 The thing I love about this song is the groove on it. It slides in. It's got hints of old school stuff.
ZANE LOWE Alice in Chains in there, man, there's a little bit of Layne in there.
TAYLOR Absolutely. It's dark, man. It's real, but it still pulls you in and just, it's that lurch. It's really, really good.

ON WE ARE NOT YOUR KIND
It's one of those things where I was really, really proud of what we'd done. It'd been a long time since I'd felt that way. You know, like, probably Vol. 3, you know? I mean, All Hope Is Gone, we were just glad that we got the thing done, just because of all the turmoil that was going on with the band and stuff. .5 it was like ... it was kind of soul-searching. It was bittersweet. It was like, OK, I guess this is ... We can do it. Now let's see if that love and passion is still there. You know? With this album, we checked all the boxes. We were all hitting. I had a lot to say, and obviously you and I know. You were one of the first people I talked to when I was kind of going through the issues that were going on in my life. It was so good to let that out and just to stop holding it back and really unleash. That's why it sounds so alive, basically. When we listened to it top to bottom, I was blown away. I was like, oh god. People aren't ready for this, man. It's really, really good. I mean, don't get me wrong. Those [last few] albums have great songs on them. But as far as a whole, it just didn't have that same vitality that the earlier stuff did. I feel like this one really captures what we've tried to do. This album musically, I could put between Vol. 3 and Iowa easily. But yet it can stand on its own. You know? It's another step in the chapter that we're trying to create, basically.

ON HAVING A NEW MEMBER AND WHAT SOMEBODY HAS TO DO TO BE OFFICIAL
You've got to wear the Tortilla on your face first of all, and the audience has to figure out who you are. Tortilla face. He's doing great. He's a great dude and is killing it, man. It's kind of cool. It's brought this whole new energy to everybody as well. So it's a lot of fun to watch him.

ON REFLECTING ON 20 YEARS SINCE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM
As far as the OGs in the band, we're all closer than we've ever been, to be honest. Especially dealing in the wake of, unfortunately what happened with Shawn. We all rallied around him hard, because people were coming at him. Just another symptom of the dark side of social media. People were coming at him and we just basically ... I won't even get into it because people are gutters, some people are garbage eaters. And the fact that they were coming at my man was wrong. So we all circled around him basically, we circled the wagons. We said, no, you're not going to do that. And that kind of showed us all that we were still really close. We were still brothers, you know. And that's been reflected in being on tour man. Like we have all really just kind of bonded again, like seeing that. And it's weird too because, it's like we all kind of feel like we can enjoy it again, in a weird way. You know, like there's nothing kind of, picking at the seams or trying to pull us apart, or trying start some weird shit. It's just us getting ready to go and, and we're going harder than we ever have. Or at least as much as our bodies will let us.

ON IF HE HAS THE ORIGINAL MASK AND EVERY MASK
I've got the ones that have that I haven't melted. Look, there's something that comes out of my face that destroys my masks and I don't know what is. My original turned into goop. My Iowa one, started growing some sort of mold that we had to keep in a box, dude. And then finally we just, we gave it to an exterminator and just let him kill it out in the backyard or something. But I've got most of them, yeah.

ON LIFE AND FAMILY ON THE ROAD
I've tried to be as present as possible. It's hard because, the longer you stay out here, the more you long for home. And you know, I've got kids, I've got my fiancé. It's weird. So instead of pining for what I know will be there when I get home, I've kind of tried to turn it around and say, you know what, it could be worse. So let's take advantage of the time that we have. My son is out with me right now. So he and I have been, going around and doing touristy stuff and checking stuff out. When we were in Europe, we would just hit all the museums we could and we just, you know, we went and ate street meat, eat weird stuff. Now we're out here and we're just wandering around, and checking out cities and having fun. So that's basically what I've learned. You can't worry about what you know is at the end. Because it's gonna be there. You've got to take advantage of the time you have now, and make sure that you don't miss opportunities like this, especially if you have family with you. He and I are studying for his driver's test right now, which is insane. And it's good, it's a great bonding experience, man. And doing that has made me the happiest I've been in a long, long time.

ON HIS WEDDING
Nobody's invited. We're going to do it in the desert, and then we're going to have people come over for the post party. That's the way it's happening.