On the heels of announcing his upcoming socially distanced solo tour dates, Corey Taylor took to Rolling Stone to pen an op-ed about why he chose to get on the road right now, and also, the plight of the "Outrage age."
The entire editorial is worth reading. Here are some highlights.
As for why he decided to do the tour, right now, Taylor says the industry needs to get the rust of the gears and get going:
To most, it’ll only seem like a ploy to get back out there for people to fall and fawn for the songs I love to play, but to me and everyone in my industry, we know that there are thousands of people who depend on us to make their livings, and they need the great gears to churn and the rust to fall away from the “‘live scene” so we can all get back to work. It’s the life’s blood for millions: the people who book us, the clubs who host us, the techs and management who help us, the drivers on our busses, the bands who accompany us, the promoters who start the screaming and finally, the fans we bring the show to because they need it just as much as we do, after 365 days stuck in our caves. People need release and we’re ready to give it to them.
Taylor then notes that no matter how much he explains precautions, people will just see the headlines and get mad and look for a reason to be outraged, without looking at the details. "We find ourselves completely enveloped in a generation of extremes; the global manifestation of the mob in the Colosseum, yelling for Caesar to choose death but then wishing it on the Emperor himself if he goes against their judgment."
Taylor noted it started with good intentions, but got out of control "It started with real issues, like systemic racism, toxic sexism, abusing positions of power, discrimination, and all the trimmings that go with these problems. Sadly, though, for whatever reason, we all became addicted to the drama and the upheaval, and we looked for anything else to be pissed off about, with little or no content."
He adds "No one can handle anything anymore, which means no one can handle real talk anymore, which means everyone just wants to cancel shit, with no room for improvement." Ultimately, he says this is the problem:
No one lets small shit slide anymore. We treat “Baby It’s Cold Outside” — a song you only really hear seasonally — like some nefarious carol… and yet some of the biggest pop songs in the last five to 10 years certainly wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny when it comes to subject matter. I’m not saying it’s right — I’m just telling you how it is: when you use the same level of outrage for little shit that you should reserve for the bigger issues, people are not going to take you seriously. You may dismiss that, but things don’t get done on a singular level — it takes the plural to make change, especially the kind of change that takes bringing together people who may or may not have anything else in common with you, except for one fleeting moment agreeing on the egregious.
