Up until recently, former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison kept his struggles with Transverse Myelitis a secret. Having since revealed the diagnosis earlier this and largely overcome the debilitating neurological disorder, he recently told Loudwire of his current health:
“…When I got diagnosed with that, you know, all I had to do was pick myself up and get into the gym and find the right trainers and everything and just get myself healthy. That’s all I did, it was just right in my heart. All I do is I’m in the gym all the time. That’s all I do; I’m in the gym and I play. That’s all I fucking do. And write music. And I’m stronger than I’ve fucking ever been in my life, like seriously. I’m not just saying that. I’m the strongest I have ever been. Ever.
There was a time when I was beat down and I lost my way. All this weird fucking shit happened but I came back from it, man. I was fucked. I was completely fucked for a long time, but I came back.”
When asked about why he kept his illness secret, he responded:
“One thing was, I didn’t want to be the person that, like, ‘Oh, I got sick, so everyone feel sorry for me.’ I got stuck with something that was very fucing very traumatic and I was focused on getting myself back and I didn’t need to fucking cry to the fucking media to get a bunch of sympathy to fucking make myself look like, ‘Oh, I’m so fucking hurt,’ and all that shit. I kept it quiet. And all I did was get myself back focused on my fucking self and my life and what I wanted to do in my career. You know, it’s a fucking horrible, horrible affliction, man. It cripples people; I was. Sometimes people don’t come back from that. I got back from it.”
Jordison, who now splits his time between VIMIC and the supergroup Sinsaenum, later revealed he has a book in the works:
“Well, I am going to write a book some day and I’ve worked on it. It will come out. I need to do these tours and these records and get those released before the final chapter when the first book comes out. I started working on it. It will come out in the future, but right now it’s not in the cards. Right now the focus is touring and supporting these records I’ve been doing. Right now it’s all about getting on the road.”
