We have a few interesting developments on Slipknot's ongoing drama with former percussionist Chris Fehn. Fehn claimed the band was keeping money from him, setting up corporations that he was not aware of. Fehn had since been dismissed from the band, even though the statement has since been pulled from the band's website. Frontman Corey Taylor has publicly said he and his band are being wrongfully accused. Slipknot's management tried to get the case thrown out but the request was rejected.
In a new interview with HMV, guitarist Jim Root was asked if Fehn not being around for the recording process of the new album changed things at all and Root took a very diplomatic approach:
“It hasn’t, really [affected the new album]. When we were writing the record, Clown is very involved and he covered it all. It’s hard to answer that. I don’t want to say that Chris didn’t contribute anything. He was a big part of the band, visually. He had a great stage presence and he had some great ideas for percussion. But I can’t say it changed how I worked.”
It sounds like Fehn didn't have much to do with the writing anyway, more so the performance aspect of the band.
Perhaps more interesting is a new quote from an interview Corey Taylor did with Vulture, where Taylor claimed that the band splits all their revenue equally.
What kind of work goes into keeping friendships and business partnerships alive that long when there are nine people involved?
“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.”
This would seemingly go against everything the Fehn lawsuit is claiming, with the money issues and the different corporations created. Although, Taylor didn't specifically say they split music/publishing royalties equally.
As has been the case while we've been covering this legal issue, it still seems like a piece of the puzzle isn't being made available to the public. Maybe we'll find out soon enough.
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