Slipknot percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan recently clarified that he, bassist Paul Gray, and vocalist Anders Colsefni are the original three founding members of the band. Now in an interview with Fishman Music, Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson breaks down how the band actually came to be.
Thomson said he, Gray, and Colsefni were in a death metal band called Body Pit. That band eventually recruited Crahan, who started jamming early Slipknot stuff with Gray and Colsefni., That trio eventually recruited the late and great Joey Jordison, who brought along guitarist Josh Brainard and sampler Craig Jones. The rest is history, and here we are decades later still listening to and talking about the band!
"Before Slipknot, Paul, and Andy and I — Andy was our original singer of Slipknot — were in a band called Body Pit, a death metal band. And they just lost their drummer. They got me in the band, and the drummer and other guitar player left, so we were looking for a drummer. So we were writing songs — me, Paul and Donnie [Steele, former Slipknot guitarist and bassist], we were working on stuff, and I actually got some things on a four-track that never really ended up going anywhere. But we'd written them.
"So we were doing that stuff, and we were looking for a drummer. Well, at the same time, our gear is there where we were practicing, which was our singer's house, Andy. So, Clown would come over. He knew Andy. Clown comes over and starts playing with Paul and Andy, jamming stuff in the basement on the Body Pit stuff, really — it was where Body Pit practiced. We didn't have a drummer, so there was some down time when they started doing that stuff.
"And then that's kind of how that started. Paul and Andy were doing it with Clown. I didn't know Clown, really; I'd met him before. And Paul and Andy and I were in this thing. So it was them just dicking around with a friend of theirs. It was separate; [they were doing] different music. And then we never really… How are we gonna find a technical death metal drummer in Des Moines? Joey. But Joey didn't wanna do it. But Joey did wanna do the Slipknot stuff with Andy and Paul and Clown. So, that's kind of how that went. Our band died.
"See, Joey was in a band with our other guitar player on the first record, Josh, and Craig, who did our sampling stuff. They were both the guitar players in Joey's band. So it's kind of like you took me, Paul, Andy, Joey, Josh and Craig, and threw those bands together and then added Clown. Clown was kind of the — he was the pivotal thing on that, because basically you had two bands that sort of broke up around him, and reformed around that idea.
"So I guess, in a way, it's like two different bands sort of dissolved and turned into the other thing. We never really looked at it like that, because just the chronology and the way it happened and it wasn't the intent. What's funny, though, is we went around and broke up another band — we broke up Corey's band [Stone Sour] by stealing him. And then we eventually needed another guitar player, so we got Jim [Root] from Corey's band to come in. So, yeah, it was a very incestuous kind of thing. We basically just went around and screwed up people's bands and shit."
