The financial split between Slipknot‘s nine members became a hot topic earlier this year when the band’s percussionist Chris Fehn was ousted after filing a lawsuit against the group’s frontman Corey Taylor and M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan over a financial dispute. Fehn claimed in his suit that the aforementioned pair were enriching themselves at the expense of the other members, sidestepping an alleged general partnership for the band that exists to pay out each member equally.
Fehn named several companies affiliated with the band’s business needs as well as their business manager as co-defendants in the ongoing suit. Fehn, who through further statements made via his attorney, has painted himself as being treated like a “second-class citizen” by his now former bandmates, alleged that Taylor, Crahan and the band’s business manager had been skirting the partnership via their various band affiliated businesses and pocketing the money.
He claimed to have discovered the various band-related business after being presented with an unsavory proposal during the early negotiations for the “We Are Not Your Kind” album cycle.
For his part, Fehn‘s suit finds him seeking to uncover the band’s finances during his time in the group and also establish a trust on the band’s trademarks for earnings going forward, presumably to ensure that he is transparently paid for future royalties for works he was involved in.
Thus far Taylor and Crahan have denied the allegations briefly in the press, with Taylor urging fans to “wait till the truth comes out.” According to Fehn‘s claims, Crahan and Taylor are seen as the leaders of the band behind the scenes with Fehn alleging the pair call the shots on most of the group’s business and creative related decisions.
While it would seem that the extra work entailed in such duties would entitle them to a bigger cut, Taylor recently stated that most facets of the band’s revenue are split equally. Speaking of that recently with Vulture, Taylor offered:
“The great thing about the business part of it is that because we’re from Iowa, it all makes sense. You do the work, you get paid. That’s straight-up it. We split merch equally. We split live equally. We do everything equally. And if we’re all working toward the same thing, then it just all makes sense. We’re always taking care of each other.
Even though we’re older now, our reasons for making music and continuing to do this are still the same. It’s one of those things that, if our reasoning for doing this had changed, the band probably wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did. But — and obviously I can’t speak for everybody in the band — I know the OGs that are here are all still trying to just make the best music that we can. So we take care of each other.”
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