Corey Taylor says touring with Slipknot is “hard fucking work”
Corey Taylor has once again opened up about the physical demands of touring with Slipknot, saying that it is “hard fucking work”.
The frontman, who will turn 50 in December, said over the summer that he thinks he has “maybe five years left” of touring to this level with the masked band.
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Taylor explained that he would continue to perform live “as long as [he] can physically do it”, but said he’d “help [Slipknot] find somebody” to take over should he decide to retire from the road.
Now, in a new interview with Rock Feed, the vocalist has spoken further on how long he thinks Slipknot can go on, and how his various physical ailments can impact his job in a live setting.
“I’ve already said that physically I maybe have five years left, but at the same time, I go out of my way to really try to take care of myself,” he told the outlet (via Blabbermouth).
“Now I have a lot of fucking miles on me. It’s hard for me. People don’t realise this, but when I walk, I’m almost in constant pain. It’s the knees, it’s my feet. I have a broken toe on this foot. I have gout across my feet. It gets up into my joints and shit. Yeah, it’s tough. I’m not as nimble as I used to be. I’m not 35 anymore. It’s hard, but there are ways to do shows that don’t require being that crazy now.”
Taylor went on to explain how “travel doesn’t lend itself to being healthy”, adding that it causes you to “eat like shit” and “sleep like shit” on a regular basis. “And nine times out of 10, you’re gonna play like shit,” he said. “We don’t want that. So it’s tough.”
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The musician continued: “Even a guy at my level, it’s not always laid-out catering and the best food and the best people. Sometimes it’s a soggy sandwich at 12:30 in the morning, and you’re looking at it, going, ‘If I put this in my body, I’m gonna throw up’.
“People don’t fucking get that. You know why they think that? It’s because that’s all they see on Instagram, on TikTok, on this and that, and you’re seeing the commercials. There have been times we’ve gotten off stage, we’ve gone right to the airport, flown out. We don’t sleep until seven the next day. And now we’re just all [exhausted].
“Our crew gets it even worse, ’cause they have to fucking go in, make sure everything’s good, and then they can go fucking take a nap. So it’s not gravy all the time, man. It’s tough. It’s hard fucking work. Even at our level, it’s hard work.”
Slipknot have been touring this year in support of their seventh and latest album, 2022’s ‘The End, So Far’. Taylor, meanwhile, is set to embark on a run of UK and European solo dates in November (find any remaining tickets here).
His second solo album, ‘CMFT2’, will be released this Friday (September 15). Pre-order/pre-save here.
Speaking about this possibility of quitting touring this summer, Taylor told Rock Antenne: “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.”
He added: “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.”
