Many Slipknot and/or Stone Sour fans likely think of Stone Sour as a “side project” for Corey Taylor, and indeed, that’s effectively what it’s become, with Taylor bringing Stone Sour to life whenever Slipknot lay dormant. But the history of both acts is just the opposite: Corey was in Stone Sour years before he was asked to join Slipknot, and it was Slipknot’s success that eventually enabled him to go back and get a label deal for Stone Sour.
Taylor spoke at length on his history with both acts and their relationship to one another in a recent appearance on Steve-O’s Wild Ride, saying that while Stone Sour will “always be in the shadow of Slipknot,” that relationship allows both projects to be creatively fruitful. Here’s how the chat unfolded:
When you were in Stone Sour before Slipknot, the band hadn’t really reached a certain sort of stardom?
“No. We were just kind of a – I don’t want to say a basic rock band, we were a lot of fun, a lot of people loved coming and seeing us – but it was weird because Stone Sour and Slipknot were the two biggest bands in town.
“And at the time, I was the best singer in Des Moines, and they were the bigger band in Des Moines, and they wanted that extra tool, that extra bullet, and the gun, I’m not really sure.”
“Yeah, and I’ve never had that feeling before. If they hadn’t asked me to join, I would have done Stone Sour ’til the cows come home. I would have eventually done something that would have gotten the attention of whatever because we were shopping just like everybody else in Des Moines.
I saw that you were at Slipknot’s very first show in the audience, and you were like, ‘Fuck, I’m gonna be the singer of this band.’
“When I watched that first show, I was right in front, they came through the audience, scared the hell out of it, everybody! Because they’re in full masks, they weren’t wearing the coveralls yet, but they were just in these crazy outfits.
“And they opened with – I want to say it was like three minutes of just noise and blast beats. It was like being in a fucking Melvins concert! I can’t believe it, it was so gnarly. And for some reason, I was so attracted to it and drawn in by it.
“I just was like, ‘I’m gonna be the singer in this band someday.’ And I’ve never had that thought in a million years for anybody else. And a year later, they asked me. It’s crazy.”
Did Stone Sour have a record deal before you got into Slipknot?
“No. That definitely helped, being in Slipknot. At the same time, we sounded different enough that we were able to… and we wanted to differentiate ourselves right away, which is one of the reasons why we never did any Slipknot music on stage, we never did anything except our own stuff.
“And I think as time went by that helped us become our own band. We were always going to be in the shadow of Slipknot, anything I do is going to be in the shadow of that. All I can do is try to get a couple of rays of light to kind of pop here and there. It’s a good problem to have, it could be way worse.”
Right, like Sixx:A.M.
“Exactly, those guys can go and do their thing and it rules but it’s always going to be in the shadow of Motley Crue. And it’s a good problem to have.
“It means that you made your mark in musical history, and so many people love you for that, that no matter what they’re gonna give you a chance on this other thing. It’s really good.”
Later in the chat, Taylor reveals that he spent $10,000 of his first record deal advance on shopping carts full of DVDs. You can read that part of the transcription at Ultimate Guitar or listen to the whole episode below.
Taylor recently revealed Stone Sour are on hiatus while Slipknot work on a mysterious new project.