Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor is an extremely physical performer. Slipknot is one of the most animated live bands in heavy metal, and Taylor was asked by Rock Antenne how long he thinks the band can continue.
Surprisingly, Taylor’s timetable for the future of the band isn’t very long.
“As long as I can physically do it, and as long as there are people there to see it, man, I’ll continue to do it,” Taylor said.
“Now, if the quality starts to fail, then I’ll know it’s time to hand it in. And I’ve already thought about it — I’ve already thought about, maybe I’ve got another five years left of physically touring like this. I try to take care of myself. I work out when I can. The travel out here in Europe is exhausting; the food is horrible; so it makes it hard to do that. But as long as I can keep at it, that’s at least what I wanna do. So, yeah, it is what it is.”
Taylor then was asked if the rest of Slipknot feels the same way.
“If they wanted to continue and I wanted to retire, I would help them find somebody, to be honest,” Taylor said.
“This band has always been bigger than the sum of its own parts. And it was hard moving on without Paul. It was hard moving on when we had to part ways with Joe. It’s always been hard when the original nine ceases to be the original nine, but at the same time, the ones who are here are here because we love it, and we’ve always gotten something out of it.”
“I’ve said it since day one — if I didn’t want to do Slipknot, I wouldn’t do it,” he continued. “And I think I’ve proved that. The reason I stick around is because I want to do it. There’s still something in my heart and my soul that needs it. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Obviously, psychotherapy will help me out with that sh*t. But at the same time, it’s… it’s once in a lifetime, man.”
Taylor said he feels a responsibility to Slipknot fans to be there with his bandmates.
“I do. But at the same time, I don’t expect them to be there,” Taylor said. “I mean, there are songs that they love; there are songs they don’t love. There are times I love this band; there are times I don’t love this band. But I still wanna be here. And when I physically can’t do it anymore, that’s when I’ll hang it up. I might not retire from performing period; maybe that’s when I go and I do my acoustic thing. But when I can’t go out there and give it at least my one hundred percent, that’s when I’ll hang it up.”
“And me and Clown have talked about this, man. He’s older than all of us, and he’s broken just as much crap as I have. I mean, Christ, he hit the keg with a baseball bat and ripped his bicep clean off the bone, and then went, got surgery and came back.”
“We’re psychos, dude,” Taylor added. “I went out three weeks after my f*cking spinal surgery — ’cause I’m a psycho. It’s just we don’t know our limitations until they catch up with us. So that’s what I say. I mean, yes, there’s a responsibility to the fans, but there’s also a responsibility to me and my family. And I don’t wanna be the one trying to pick up my grandkids and my legs don’t work. I just don’t wanna do that — I refuse to. I want my quality of life to be better than that — at the end.”
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