During a recent appearance on The Zach Sang Show, Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor opened up about how his home state of Iowa still doesn’t fully accept the band despite their popularity and success.
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Though the band made a name for themselves at the turn of the millennium, Taylor told Sang he feels that the people who live in Iowa are still "so mad" about his band's success, proposing that a large part of their received contempt is likely due to the rise of conservative views in the area. As well as the disapproval of “bitter pricks" who failed to reach similar levels of success.
During his chat with Zach, Corey begins with discussing Slipknot's use of masks, and how they've always encouraged fans to wear their own during shows as a way to embrace their mantra of not being "ashamed of who you are." And to “wear that person on the inside on the outside and f*** what everybody thinks.”
However, regardless of Slipknot’s mantra of self-empowerment and acceptance, Taylor believes the band’s home state has always "judged" them harshly for being exactly that — themselves.
”We were judged for so f***ing long about who we were. I mean we came from the fringe and what we represented was something that, to do this day, is still anathema to a lot of people in Iowa," he said.
"There are a lot of people in Iowa that are very ashamed of the fact that Slipknot comes from there and it's because of this newfound resurgence and conservative bulls***. As much as Iowa - when I was there - was a purple state it's very red now and there's a lot of people who I know who are not happy about it.”
When asked by Sang if he thinks its “crazy to think that people would be disappointed in the fact that Slipknot has come from Iowa?” Taylor responded, "not if you come from there, not if you know the people.”
"There’s a lot of f***ing d***s who still live in Des Moines, Iowa, that are so mad,” Taylor added. “I know dudes that I've known for 30 years I run into them and they side-eye me hard.”
As for those "bitter pricks,” Corey noted, “they’re just hanging on you know, like they just don't want to accept the fact that they didn't want it as much as we did.”
While he did go on to say, “I'm not going to sit here and say that they didn't deserve it, because there were a lot of great bands in this scene that we came out of,” he did admit that “for whatever reason, they didn't push hard enough and even when we did make it, and we tried to shine that spotlight on the Des Moines scene, because it was almost in a weird way like a pseudo Seattle moment.”
"There was a lot of people trolling through Des Moines trying to find the next Slipknot,” Corey revealed. “Everybody who we tried to help blew it, they just didn't f***ing want it as much as we did you know. I mean we would have lived and died for the s*** and these guys just thought it was a crumb.”
Check out the full interview below.
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