A Conversation with Corey Taylor of Stone Sour and Slipknot – HuffPost 9.17.10
Mike Ragogna: How are you, Corey?
Corey Taylor: I am freezing.
MR: Freezing? Why’s that?
CT: Well, it’s not cold outside, but it is on this bus. I don’t know why they have to keep it at refrigerator levels, but what do I know…
MR: Perhaps it’s for preservation?
CT: It is. I feel cryogenically better, and it’s almost like being in a Tupperware bowl.
MR: Well, you’re talking to Fairfield, Iowa, Mr. Des Moines.
CT: Oh, right on. I like it.
MR: I think everyone out there knows by now that you are an Iowa home boy.
CT: Oh, absolutely. I still live in Des Moines, my whole family is still there, and it’s just cool, you know? I like being able to come home and have it feel like a home.
MR: So, you’re on tour right now, where are you going on said tour?
CT: Kind of all over the place, man. We’re in Tulsa tonight, and we drive to Dallas after the show. It’s pretty much nationwide right now. Then, after this tour is done, we go overseas, so everything it shaping up really well right now.
MR: Now, you have a new album, Audio Secrecy. This is your third album, right?
CT: Yeah, it’s the third album, and the third time’s a charm, hopefully. It just came out, and we’re all pretty ecstatic, we’re pretty stoked.
MR: Yeah, I heard that this thing is charting pretty well.
CT: Yeah, it’s a bit of a slow burner, but I think it’s going to be great. This is just a phenomenal album, top to bottom. People are really digging it, and everything has been really good.
MR: Your last album had a number one hit on it, “Through Glass.” How did that feel?
CT: It was weird, man. Honestly, it was like, “Really?” We knew that “Through Glass” was a special tune, and that it was going to do well, but we had no idea that it was going to go to number one. So, when it did, we were all just like, “Wow, really? That’s awesome.” It’s just proof positive that you can never underestimate this band. Just when you think you’ve got us figured out, we come up with something spectacular, and this new album is no different. It’s got a lot of killer tunes on it, and it’s looking like it’s going to be even bigger than the last album.
MR: People know you from Stone Sour and Slipknot, obviously, but they also know you from your version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game.”
CT: Yeah, we did a cover of that about three years ago, and we put it on the special edition. People really, really dug it. It’s a great cover and one of my favorite songs, actually.
MR: I read that you recorded this Audio Secrecy under strange circumstances, in Nashville at the time of the flood.
CT: Yeah, we were there. The flood happened, basically, right in the middle of the recording process. We had already been there for a couple of months, and it was just one of those things that kind of came out of nowhere. Honestly, it was kind of good because we didn’t really get hit by the flood very much; our house wasn’t affected and the studio wasn’t affected. At the same time, I tried to go out of my way to make sure that we could get the word out that there were different organizations trying to help people that were affected by the flood. So, in that way, we were kind of trying to just pitch in and help out since we were sort of living there at the time. There’s still a lot to be done, but it’s looking like things are starting to get a little better down there.
MR: What’s unfortunate is that Nashville’s flooding was virtually an ignored story.
CT: Yeah, basically. You have to realize that it happened right around the same time as the Gulf oil spill happened, and it really kind of got swept under the carpet. So, it was important to me to get the word out, and make sure that people knew what was going on and that they could help.
MR: While we’re on this subject, remember Katrina and all the ineptitude and lack of initial concern there was by Cheney’s…sorry, Bush’s administration?
CT: Exactly, and if that didn’t really drive home the point that our president was an idiot, what else was going to? You’ve got this guy, Michael Brown, heading FEMA, and he has no idea what he’s doing. It took five days to get water to the Superdome. What does that tell you? Nobody was at the wheel as far as I was concerned.
MR: And speaking of that facility, remember Barbara Bush’s comment that the displaced victims who fled to the Superdome were living in better accommodations than they had been living in before?
CT: Yeah, completely surprised that there are still poor people in this country. It was like, “What? Are you insane?”
MR: And it was excessively heartless. How does anyone say something like that no matter how rich or arrogant you are in the face of such tragedy.
CT: I couldn’t believe it. Just the fact that that was even something that could happen to this day gets my blood going, you know?
MR: I know, but people better get their blood going again because come November, it’s going to be a slaughter for the Democrats. My feeling is that since people perceive things are not happening fast enough–at least as far as a solid economic recovery from the disaster Obama and the rest of us were left with–they’re going to take it out on Democrats and we’re going to lose a lot of good representatives with the bad.
CT: Yeah, I agree. The only thing that I can hope for is that people have common sense at the end of the day. The Democrats need a huge push PR-wise to kind of tell people that things are going a lot better than they think, and if they had a half-a-brain between them, they would get out there and start calling Republicans on their BS.
I’m a natural liberal for the most part, and just the fact that we have no one in that party who is really kind of a pit bull and is the guy that goes in and calls “foul” on some of these people really upsets me. It’s like they need to man up. I really wish that the president would do that, just go, “Look, I’m the leader, and you need to figure that out.” That’s one thing that you’d have to respect about George Bush. He was at least the guy that said, “You know what? It stops here, and that’s the way it is,” You may not agree with a lot of the things that he did, which I don’t, but at the same time, at least he had the cajones to just get things done, and that’s what the Democrats don’t have right now. They can say all day that they’re too good for that or that they’re better than that, but that’s bogus. They need a pit bull to lead the charge, and until we have that, this whole weird teeter-totter thing is going to keep going on, and the country is going to stay in a state of flux.
MR: Yeah, that’s my fear too. Why doesn’t the Democratic party look at poor, wimpy Harry Reid and realize that he doesn’t have an image or personality that commands any kind of authority and needs to go away. This party needs a few pugilists front and center like Tip O’Neill.
CT: The thing that really bothers me is that no one in that party has stepped up and been like, “Look, here are the facts–the Democratic party constantly has to come in and fix the things the Republican party is allowed to do over four to eight years, constantly.” It happened with Clinton, it’s happening with Obama, it’s constantly happening. The fact that the American public has the memory of a gnat really helps them, and that’s why the Democrats need to just be coming out and killing us with facts and statistics. Tell the people why you deserve to be in office, and don’t take any guff about it, you know? But they’re not doing it, and it’s almost like they deserve to fail.
MR: Yeah, but the alternative isn’t very good.
CT: No, it’s not, but at the same time, until somebody mans up and figures it out, it’s going to continue to happen. I mean, it’s just ridiculous.
MR: What do you think of when I say “Arizona?”
CT: Oh, God. Well, these days, you’ve got to think about SB 1070, you’ve got to think about Jan Brewer, and you’ve got to think about the fact that the Republicans down there have gone totally off the deep end. This is coming from somebody who gets it. I get the fact that there is an immigration problem, but when you’re legislating fascism to try and stem this… There are a good amount of American citizens there who are Latino, and who are going to get hassled by this law. So, all you’re doing is, basically, “scaring the straights,” as Bill Maher is prone to say. It’s unfortunate that we’ve gotten to this point, you know? And let’s not forget the fact that Jan Brewer was not elected, but she basically inherited the job because the original governor, being a Democrat, was nominated to the presidential cabinet. So, she comes in and starts running riot with all this gnarly, gnarly stuff. It’s unbelievable, and to me, it’s almost an insult to what we’re trying to do, politically, in the first place. We’re trying to make things better, and those people are just making it worse.
MR: Right. Well, the amazing thing is that there hasn’t been the kind of pushback you’d think there would be. You also have a faction of people that are like, “Well, what do you do about immigration?” though it should be obvious this is not the solution.
CT: Here’s the thing that I love about it–the hypocrisy. You’ve got a Republican governor criticizing the President because the he isn’t doing enough, yet the Republican party is all about smaller government and trying to put the power back into State’s hands. So, what are you complaining about? You obviously have things under control, so why are you complaining about something that, politically, you shouldn’t be complaining about. It amazes me that this still goes on, but that comes right down to the guff of the Republican party. Pound for pound, probably the most hypocrites in office, no doubt about it.
MR: Well they’ve got the lingo jingo, they’ve got people like Luntz.
CT: Oh yeah. Between (Frank) Luntz and (John) Boehner, I don’t know who is worse. They’re both too busy worrying about their tan, it’s just terrible.
MR: Well, let’s talk about something a little more pleasant. Let’s talk about Iowa since you’re an Iowa boy.
CT: Love it.
MR: What are some of your recollections about growing up here?
CT: I don’t have a lot of good ones. It’s not about Iowa itself, it’s just about the kind of stuff that I went through when I was growing up. But there’s something special, not only about Iowa, but Des Moines, in general, for me. It was the first place that really felt like home to me. Even though I was born there, we moved around a lot when I was younger, and every time we would come back to Des Moines, it just felt like home. I’ve still got the same friends that I grew up with, I still go to the same places that I used to go to when I was younger, and it’s just a very special place to me. I’m still very proud to call Iowa home.
MR: Nice. Are you a Hawkeyes fan?
CT: Yes, by family, I have to be! My grandmother is a huge Hawkeyes fan, so I, by proxy, have to be one. I’m more of a professional sports fan, and I’ve never been a huge college fan, but because of my grandmother, I’ve gotten into a lot of really good Hawkeye games. So, because I’m a good grandson, I’m a Hawkeye fan.
MR: Do you hear that, grandma? By the way, do you have any thoughts on solar power?
CT: Well, I think if people pulled their heads out of their asses, we could figure this out, but that’s just me.
MR: You’re on tour with Stone Sour promoting Audio Secrecy, but what’s the future for a solo release and other stuff?
CT: You know what? It’s really all about Stone Sour right now. People ask me when I’m going to put out a solo album, and I just don’t have the time. Honestly, a solo album is something that I can wait for, you know? That’s something that I don’t have to do now. My philosophy has always been to strike while the iron is hot, and right now, Stone Sour is really hot. We’ve got a great new album, and fans all over the world are really starting to embrace it. It just makes more sense to me to put the work in with Stone Sour than to worry about a solo album or anything like that; it’s something that I’ve got my whole life to do. You never know what’s going to happen, and to me, it just makes the most sense to go with your gut, and go with what you feel is the biggest. So, right now, everything is going great, and I’ve put everything on hold to work on this right now.
MR: What advice do you have for kids coming into music right now?
CT: Just get all the practice you can in, and I don’t mean in the basement or the garage or whatever. I mean go out and play live. Go out and cut your teeth and learn your craft. Don’t be afraid to write music that may not seem like it could be popular. You’ve got to write songs to know what you want to do, and I think too many people paint themselves into a corner musically because they think that’s the only thing they can do. To me, it makes more sense to write different songs, and to play different kinds of music, and to find your own voice. But no matter what, get out and play for people. Get out and learn, and do everything that you can, you know?
Playing live is a lost art, and you don’t see a lot of bands that go out and play the way the older bands do. It’s a celebration, and a lot of people treat it like a commercial or a distraction. For me, that’s one of the things that I look forward to the most–getting in front of an audience, stirring them up into a frenzy, and then just kicking a lot of ass with them. So, if you’re going to get into music, learn your craft and don’t half ass anything but go for it. Do everything you can at eleven, and don’t be embarrassed to do anything. If you’re going to succeed you’ve got to have the will to do it, and that’s just the way it is.
Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney