In a recent interview on Your Mom’s House Podcast, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor talked about the deal Slipknot almost made with Sony and why it fell through.
“We were originally slated to sign with Sony. Ross Robinson the producer was already on on board to do it and whatnot our original manager actually worked for Sony Records, had worked the deal out and everything but nobody’s hurt us,” Taylor explained. “So we have this showcase in Vegas actually on the Strip. Basically it was all of the band that Ross was producing. So we were on it, Amen was on it which was an amazing punk band. 150 people it wasn’t a lot of people right just in this little room next to an arcade, like you could see people ordering pizza and sh*t. We proceeded to just destroy everything, it was so f*cking satanic.”
He continued, “Little known to us was one of the massive executives at Sony in the back, the next day literally killed the deal. Killed the deal, wrote a memo to everyone involved and said, ‘If this is the future of music, I don’t want to be alive,'” the singer recalled.
However, the band reached platinum, and got the last laugh. “Fast forward a year and a half we go platinum and then we go double platinum when we went double platinum. We sent a bouquet of dead roses to him at Sony and all it said was, ‘We are the future of music, we want you dead, Slipknot.'”
The failed deal happened after the band recorded and released their first studio album with Taylor, ‘Iowa.’ Reflecting on the band’s journey, Taylor said in another interview, “It’s kind of funny. Trust me: No one is more surprised by our success than I am. Like, on paper, this band doesn’t work.”
“You know, you’ve got nine dudes from Iowa, playing crazy heavy metal music, like beyond heavy metal music, at this point, wearing masks and matching outfits — yeah, that’s a band that’s built for the ages, when you really think about it. That’s a band that’s not only going to have No. 1 albums and hits; they’re going to get a Grammy — yeah, sure, yeah. I’m sure Nostradamus could’ve predicted that one,” Taylor added.
Slipknot is bringing back Knotfest this year as a special one-night-only 25th-anniversary celebration. They kicked off 2024 with two shows: a small gig at Pappy + Harriet’s in April and a bigger one at the Sick New World festival. These marked the band’s first performances with new drummer Eloy Casagrande. The Sick New World lineup also featured names like Till Lindemann, Knocked Loose, Hatebreed, Poison the Well, and Gwar.
