By now you’ve likely formed your own opinion on the new mask Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor chose for himself for the band’s new album cycle. After the hype meter began to spike upon the revelation that Taylor had recruited horror FX legend Tom Savini to assist in creating the mask, expectations were at an all-time high.
However, since the reveal of the band’s new masks, Taylor‘s in particular has remained divisive amongst the band’s fans, even becoming a meme that has led to numerous copycats since.
Despite the backlash, Taylor himself indicated to fans recently on his social media that he has no plans to change it, offering the following in reply to a fan earlier this week about the divisive reaction “…That’s exactly why I’ll never change it, because it bothers SOOOOOO many people.”
Now Savini himself has spoken about how he came about working with Taylor on it and the uproar that has followed:
“…I was on a plane with my wife looking at old photographs, and there’s a picture of her with Corey in 2014. I think it was my assistant, Jason Baker, who talked to him backstage at a show and Corey mentioned needing a mask. I guess my assistant said like, “Hey, I work for Tom Savini,” and the next thing you know Corey Taylor is in my house playing with my cats, then we made a cast of him.
Then we did the mask, and the mask has gone crazy! There was a lot of negative response, initially. I just got a copy of Kerrang! with Corey talking about the man behind the mask — about me — in that magazine, but the fans were like, ‘Savini? Oh shit, my sister could have done better than that.’ Someone even fastened a milk carton to their face and posted a side-by-side and said, ‘Nailed it!’ Regardless, the mask looks excellent.”
He continued:
“You know, he puts the makeup on underneath it, the hood, everything. It’s a nice mask, but he sells it. He’s the one who makes it look the way it looks.”
When asked if he was a fan of the band himself prior to meeting Taylor, Savini replied:
“It wasn’t really the kind of music I listen to, but my wife was. She’s a music fanatic … hum three bars of anything and she can tell you what it is. So she knows everybody and my assistant, as well, but I’ve come to know folks like this from when they come through horror conventions.”
Taylor himself recently told Kerrang! of his inspiration for the mask:
“I said, ‘Okay, if you want a villain, you’ll get a fucking villain.’ My vision was about trying to create something uncomfortable – not only for me to wear, but for people to look at. I wanted it to feel like it was something that was created in someone’s basement – something that was made specifically to fuck with people.
It’s the representation of public opinion turning on a dime – they want to tear people down for the way they live, even if they don’t really know them. It’s been liberating to embrace that side and be like, ‘Fuck you. I really don’t give a shit what you think about me, so here’s this!'”
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