Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande spoke with Modern Drummer about the inspiration behind his stage mask and costume.
He explained, “When we did the lines, we felt like the design of the mask was not very balanced, because we had all the information from below but we didn’t have anything on the forehead. So, ‘What are we going to do?’ ‘Let’s put like a circle in the forehead.’ But we didn’t like it. So I came with the idea of the bullet hole in my forehead.”
Casagrande then shared a personal experience that inspired the bullet hole design — a gun threat. “The reason why is two years ago in Sao Paulo I was walking on my neighborhood, it was 9 AM in the morning. I was going to the gym and I had my backpack with me my phone. Two guys, each one in a motorcycle, they stopped me, and they put a gun in my head and they asked me to give them my phone and my backpack. So that was something that somehow changed a lot of inside me.”
He continued, “I don’t want to say bad things about my country because every place has dangerous environments. They can be not good for you, but sometimes in Sao Paulo, it’s not a very safe place to be, but that was the only time it happened to me. Fortunately there was a guy with a gun and he decided to not shoot so I was lucky enough.”
Casagrande left Sepultura just before rehearsals for their 40th-anniversary farewell tour began. Shortly after, he replaced Jay Weinberg as Slipknot’s drummer for their 25th-anniversary tour. Casagrande had previously auditioned for the band, playing a 10-day trial to join them for their 2024 Here Comes the Pain tour.
In other news, Casagrande was named the best metal drummer in Modern Drummer’s 2024 Readers’ Poll.
