Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan had many a colorful thought to throw at Rollingstone.com in regards to the bands current activities and their headlining summer tour with Lamb Of God, Bullet For My Valentine and more. Here’s some excerpts with the full read available at the aforementioned link:
On returning to the road with their latest album:
“This business is pretty boring without us. You can look for something that’s equivalent to Slipknot and you’re going to fail miserably. It’s emotional for us because we are still something that people require and still something that people love. When you reconnect with your fans, it helps you recall the first mission, and that is to conquer the fucking world with our disease and our art and leave everything behind.”
On their plans to ‘blow stuff up’ on their summer tour:
“We blow a lot of stuff up. I wouldn’t know where to begin. We’re reinventing ourselves a little bit. The world of rock & roll is real safe. You watch all these bands at these festivals and the decadence and the bullshit that goes on, the belief that you’re superhuman, and we’re just not that way. We’re just a force. We’re just bored with the way things have been and how safe the industry has gotten. We’ve been trying to get a little bit more dangerous lately and bring some of our stuff out from the past a little more.”
When asked to elaborate on being dangerous:
“The danger stems from the everyday, monotonous fucking bullshit in this industry. You pull up to these sheds and it’s “left-brainer” business as usual. I want all the left-brainers to know that I exist and that my right brain will eat their left brain.
Everybody wants to make money off of Slipknot, including your magazine. So I think our danger is to remind you while you’re trying to get paid that there’s someone like me standing to your right or left who wants to systematically destroy you to the core and have you be a believer. I understand you can’t have left without right, up without down, so on and so forth.
However, even the left-brainers – I call them “fancy shoes,” “smart shoes,” because you can always tell a corporate fucking tool by his shoes – you’re just a fucking target. So our danger arrives from being bigger, better, becoming huge. We like to keep everybody on their toes. A little fire, a little danger. That’s just what we are.”
On if he will try to craft any new smells for the tour, referencing his cancelled camel shit & oil burning plans:
“Think about where the world is at, and all the crazy shit in the world. Then I say I want to light camel shit on fire, it’s like, boohoo, the whole world gets their panties up in their ass. Everybody just goes and cries and all the authority figures freak out.
I’m always trying to reinvent smells. Who doesn’t like smells? From pussy to fresh cut grass. What do you want from me, man? I’m a fucking human. I like it all. The world can suck it.”
On Slipknot continuing on without the current lineup:
“What I’ve been saying is that only my mind – this is all from me, this isn’t from anybody else – I look at it as I’m not going to be able to do this forever. I’m 45 years old. Hopefully I can do it until I can’t walk. Sometimes I think to myself, because I have new guys and they’re so young, the drummer, I could be his dad. He’s 24 years old and my daughter is 24 years old. So I look at him and think, “Fuck, man, I could pound him into shape for the next 20 years and he’d still be fucking young.”
And if I wanted to continue to do other things, I could step aside. And what better way to have the young’uns come in and learn the way? And what if Slipknot could be this recycled thought process that is completely on point and just keeps going for life? That would have to be up to all of us, of course, but if people had to step aside and could bust in someone new and it was all there, that would be this band. This band could be something that’s never been in this life before.
I watch some of these fucked-up big bands that have so much decadent diva problems with each other and I laugh. Like, “You’re a grown man and you can’t figure out how to work your fucking art out with another person because of money or fucking ego? I hope you fail.” So wouldn’t it be cool if this shit I’m involved in could just continue through life, like an actual culture, like an emperor, like a president or a king or a queen. The lineage keeps going on and on. And the thought process is intact and it’s fabulous. I’m not gonna authorize anything that’s fake or full of shit. I’m talking about real stuff. That’s just a dream.”
On being in Slipknot”
“We’re still well beyond everybody else. Because I know every other band and fuck them all, man. I’m in the greatest band in the world, period. End of story. We’re the best.”
There’s a lot more to be read from Crahan over at Rollingstone.com.
