One of the biggest metal stories to break last year was that Slipknot has parted ways with longtime drummer Joey Jordison. It left everyone dazed and confused as no real reasoning was given to why, but Jordison announced that he did not leave the band by mutual consent…
Jordison was fired from the band in December 2013 after 18 years in the band, and neither party gave any reasoning to the action taken. Given Slipknot were in a relative period of inactivity it is hard to pinpoint what could have happened. In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, vocalist Corey Taylor touches on why the band parted ways with Jordison.
“I can’t talk too much about it because we’re going through the legalities of everything right now and settling everything, but it’s when a relationship hits that T-section and one person’s going one way and you’re going the other. And try as you might to either get them to go your way or try and go their way, at some point you’ve got to go in the direction that works for you. This is me speaking in the broadest terms, with respect to Joey. I guess to sum it up, it was one of the hardest decisions we ever made.”
“We’re all happy right now and we hope that he is. I’ve known him since ’91, and that was before we were in bands together, and he’s incredibly talented; he’s just in a place in his life, right now, that’s not where we are… in the nicest terms.”
Metal Hammer asked Taylor to touch on the fan rumours of the band, seeing if the reasoning for the dismissal was drug related:
“There’s only so far that I can give an explanation. For me, that has to be a sign of growing up, because before I would’ve just railed at whatever I thought the supposed evil was, but now it’s like, how do you explain to the fans? And that’s the hardest part, because no matter what explanation you give, it’s not gonna make them happy. I’m sure there are fans out there who have their own theories about it…”
“I haven’t talked to Joey in a while, to be honest, that’s how different we are. It’s not because I don’t love him and I don’t miss him. And it is painful; we talk about him all the time, but at the same time, do we miss him or do we miss the old him? That’s what it really comes down to. It’s just a fucking shame.”
It’s very disappointing to hear that Jordison and Slipknot parted ways on such unamicable terms. Surely the truth will come out eventually about the split, but given the nature of Taylor’s interview it seems that a fierce legal battle about the split is imminent, which is always terribly sad in the metal world.
The silver lining is that Slipknot is back, and they have not slowed down with the release of the brilliant new video ‘The Devil In I‘.
