Who is SLIPKNOT's new mystery member? Read fan theories

Slipknot have a new member, and the internet is buzzing with fan theories about who it might be. In case you're a Maggot who's been living under a rock, last week the Iowa Nine suddenly announced that they'd parted ways with longtime sampler and keyboardist Craig Jones, who had been with the band for 27 years.

Slipknot dropped that bombshell roughly an hour before they took the stage at Nova Rock festival in Nickelsdorf, Austria, during which a new mystery member stood in Jones' place behind the decks. Later that night (June 7th), the 'Knot posted a close-up portrait of what appears to be Jones' masked replacement, and since then, the unidentified musician has been playing with Slipknot every night of their ongoing European tour.

In some ways, the whole situation mirrors what happened when Tortilla Man replaced longtime percussionist Chris Fehn back in 2019. At first, Slipknot just had a unidentified new dude onstage with them — who fans quickly dubbed "Tortilla Man" due his crater-covered mask — but the band didn't officially reveal who he was until three years later in 2022, long after eagle-eyed sleuths had credibly surmised that Tortilla Man was indeed a frequent Shawn "Clown" Crahan collaborator named Michael Pfaff.

This latest new member has only been around for one week, and Slipknot fans already have ideas about who they might be. One of the most common online theories is that the new member isn't actually new at all.

Because of the odd way Jones' departure was handled on social media — a terse post that was deleted within an hour — some fans are suspicious that the new character is actually just Jones with a totally different getup. That would be unprecedented for Slipknot, but given how little we know about Jones, even after all these years playing in one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, it doesn't feel entirely ludicrous to think that he might be pulling a fast one on us.

Another running theory is that the mystery member is 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. One Maggot on Twitter noted that Baird allegedly posted that he was going on tour the same time Slipknot did, and clearly he runs in the same circles as Slipknot. Several other fans are convinced that Baird is the guy, despite providing any substantial evidence to back up their hunches.

Other fans think it's a different nu-metal vet named Nathan Church, who used to play keyboards and sampler in a band called Downthesun. Church's group was the only act who ever signed to Crahan's short-lived label Maggot Recordings, and he executive-produced their 2002 self-titled album.

Downthesun have been mostly inactive since 2004, and one compelling Redditor laid out their theory for why Church has now been drafted by the 'Knot. It's an interesting guess, but again, there isn't any evidence of Church's present-day involvement with Slipknot, just an association with the band from over 20 years ago.

Some of the other theories are little more outlandish. For instance, a couple people have posited that Vessel, frontman of the masked, anonymous U.K. band Sleep Token, is the new guy. A few of these theorists are probably trolling, but there is an iota of logic there. Sleep Token are about to play a couple shows with Slipknot in Germany, and Corey Taylor recently big-upped Sleep Token, saying that they remind him of his band in their early days.

It seems very unlikely that Slipknot drafted the frontman of a wildly successful young group to be their new keyboardist, but maybe Vessel is just filling in with Slipknot for a few dates? Even that sounds pretty preposterous, but it would absolutely be the funniest troll move on the part of Slipknot and Sleep Token if they actually pulled that off.

While all of these hunches are intriguing in their own ways, none of them have enough credible evidence to feel like shoe-ins. And as we would expect, Slipknot aren't currently offering any helpful hints on the matter, steering clear from acknowledging the new member outside of the cryptic post with their creepy mask.

Will we have to wait another three years to earn who Jones' replacement is? Unclear. For now, keep digging.