In December 2008, Slipknot and Machine Head teamed up for a three-night stand at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. Steel Hammer took the chance to deliver collectively frontmen Corey Taylor and Robb Flynn for tales of bombing onstage, almost moving into it with viewers members and the worst bands they’ve ever toured with.
What are the most effective reminiscences of your first tour?
Corey Taylor: “I simply keep in mind it was a whole lot of work proper out of the gate. Chaos, chaos, chaos. We realized a whole lot of what to not do from the primary yr of doing that shit. The audiences bought crazier and it simply appeared like we had been onto one thing which is what stored us from shedding our minds. It was a whole lot of exhausting work but it surely was very rewarding.”
Robb Flynn: “On our first tour we opened for Napalm Demise and Obituary and we actually weren’t appreciated in any respect. Individuals simply wished to struggle us and threw shit at us. After that was Slayer in Europe and that was fairly wonderful. We got here again and performed a whole lot of the identical buildings we performed with them. We toured America after that which we ended up nicknaming ‘The Disastour’! Nobody got here to see us which was an actual kick within the face after doing so effectively in Europe.”
When did you realise you wanted to step up from help to headliners?
Corey: “It bought to a degree the place we simply needed to. There weren’t a whole lot of presents coming in, so we needed to out of necessity so we booked our personal excursions to maintain the momentum going. Which looking back is the best way to do it in the event you’re gonna carve your personal means.”
Robb: “You’re 9 dudes in a band, man – you had been destined to be a headliner!”
Hammer: Machine Head appear to have achieved it the opposite means round.
Robb: “Yeah, for the final 10 years all we’ve achieved is headline! That is our first help slot since 1994 with Slayer in Europe. We love headlining however the problem of taking part in to new folks and successful followers over is cool too.”
Corey: “You get to the purpose the place you get provided dream gigs! You’ve simply gotta take that step as much as headliner and take the danger, principally.”
What’s the most effective present you’ve ever performed?
Robb: “Straightforward: Obtain 2007.”
Corey: “Yeah, I used to be watching these guys play from the aspect of the stage and it was simply ridiculous!”
Robb: “It was unbelievable! I had goose- bumps the entire time simply looking on the crowd in awe!”
Hammer: What made it so particular over all the opposite occasions you performed there?
Robb: “There was an electrical energy within the air, man! Individuals had been fucking feeling it!”
Corey: “For us, it was in all probability Hammersmith with Slayer and Hatebreed. It was simply uncontrolled. I keep in mind Joey and even by way of his masks I might see it in his eyes, he was like, ‘Holy shit!’ There was simply an power there that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. We bought offstage and had been like, ‘Fuck, what simply occurred?’”
What’s the worst you’ve bombed?
Corey: “Furyfest 2005 in France. That yr the owner raised the lease on the place so in flip the promoter needed to increase the ticket value to cowl the associated fee. And since we had been headlining everybody assumed we’d requested for an excessive amount of cash. So we had been pelted with every thing from wrenches to glass bottles to lifeless rabbits to plastic bottles crammed with dust – it was harmful. We stood our floor and performed our set; we weren’t gonna take it away from the individuals who wished to see us. We walked away with some severe bruises and cuts, but it surely was a tough fucking present.”
Robb: “We performed in Asbury Park, New Jersey on the aforementioned Disastour. We had been on a invoice with a complete load of hardcore bands and there’s about 30 dudes from the East Coast hardcore crews mobbing us. Me and Adam [Duce, then-MH bassist] drove to a ironmongery store and purchased a dozen hammers and all of us walked in smacking the hammers in our palms. All these dudes had been already on the stage, so we walked up, set our hammers on our amps and simply began taking part in. We thought it was on for a second however as quickly as we began taking part in they had been like, ‘Yo! Take a look at me, I’m up onstage!’ I attempted telling a few jokes to attempt to ease the strain but it surely was the roughest crowd I’ve ever seen.”
What’s the worst prank you’ve pulled on a bandmate?
Corey: “Normally we’re those having pranks pulled on us. Our crew often fucks with us on the finish of an enormous tour. One time our sound man was triggering bizarre samples all by way of our set. There have been moments it will go lifeless quiet and hastily you’d hear this fart, and it was our sound man taking part in these results by way of our screens. We went off to prepare for our encore and we come again and there’s this gigantic rubber dick sticking up out of my monitor. And I look over and so they’d changed Clown and Chris’s percussion with little child rack toms. It was superior although as a result of it was a kind of excursions the place your crew get to know your sense of humour. It was a whole lot of enjoyable.”
Robb: “We had the bus driver from hell on the Disastour: he didn’t like us smoking or leaving our sneakers within the hallway so we had been continually having confrontations with him. On the final day he calls the police and as we walked offstage there have been all these cops dumping every thing off our bus. They mentioned, ‘Simply seize your shit and depart and we’ll allow you to go.’ The bus driver chewed tobacco and we took his tobacco and me and the drummer peed in it and put it again, so he principally chewed our piss!”
Corey: “Ha ha ha! There’s nothing like a little bit of piss in your cha!”
Who’s the worst band you’ve ever toured with?
Corey: “Pushmonkey. Ozzfest 1999. That’s all I’m gonna say.”
Robb: “At the moment residing within the ‘Who the hell is that?’ file!”
Corey: “They dealt with themselves as in the event that they had been so a lot better than everybody else and I’d by no means even fucking heard of them! Who has?! However their music was so unhealthy. We’d at all times get up to them and it will instantly put us in a shit temper, and we’d take it out onstage. I’m glad they didn’t go wherever… Urgh!”
Robb: “For me it will be Coal Chamber when us and Slipknot toured collectively.”
Corey: “Urgh… sure.”
Robb: “We had been able to kill them each day. We’d get up and we had been prepared for it.”
Corey: “I feel everybody was able to kill them…”
Robb: “We’d toured with them earlier than and so they had been cool, however they’d crossed the ‘we’re rock stars’ line by this level and simply… sufficient!”
What’s the dumbest factor you’ve mentioned onstage?
Corey: “What day?!”
Robb: “I get Tourettes as quickly as I stroll onstage, man!”
Corey: “I study completely different languages if I’ve time. Typically I overlook what nation I’m in and simply whip some random shit out pondering the group is gonna dig it. We had been in Switzerland and I simply spaced the place we had been and mentioned one thing in French once we had been clearly on the German aspect. They only checked out me as if to say, ‘Er… what?!’ I held up the French flag in Belgium as soon as. That was in 1999 and folks nonetheless do not forget that! As quickly as I did it I assumed, ‘Oh fuck… that is so the improper flag!’”
What’s the worst damage you’ve ever had onstage?
Corey: “I just lately did one of many keg hits on Duality with Clown and the motherfucker bounced again and hit me within the fucking head. That stung like a bitch!”
Robb: “I’ve had drumsticks within the eye when Dave’s thrown them into the group. And Adam used to run throughout the stage together with his head down by no means wanting the place he was going and as soon as I rotated and he ran proper into me – his headstock hit me proper within the temple. That harm. I’ve paralysed my wrist after misjudging a Pete Townsend windmill and thwacked my hand on my guitar. I needed to get Martin from Meshuggah – who we had been touring with on the time – to fill in ’cos I couldn’t play. That was in all probability the worst.”
Mime for the remainder of your profession for fame and fortune or play reside and stay eternally obscure?
Corey: “I’d reasonably play. There’s a satisfaction that comes out of that that’s everlasting. If you happen to lip synch onstage you might as effectively simply be doing karaoke. That’s why I don’t have any respect for all these folks with their headsets and their dance strikes… it’s principally an acrobatic present and also you’ve simply bought to recollect when to maneuver your mouth? Fuck you. For me it’s the creation that’s superior, it’s at all times going to be completely different each night time. Something can occur. So hell yeah, I’d reasonably play reside for the remainder of my life.”
Robb: “Completely! And taking part in reside is a launch that I would like each day. It helps hold me sane. After I’m off the highway I begin climbing the fucking partitions! If I’m house for a month my spouse makes me go all the way down to the observe room, like, ‘You’re driving me fucking loopy! Get out of right here!’ She’ll be speaking to me however I’ll have a melody or lyric in my head and I’ll be her however with a clean look in my eyes and he or she’ll know – ‘You’re not even fucking listening to me, are you?!’”
What’s the drunkest you’ve ever been onstage?
Corey: “Hamburg in 2002. It was additionally the worst present. Our gear was an excessive amount of for the venue principally. We thought in our infinite knowledge that since we couldn’t do our common present we’d placed on one thing particular for that night time solely. We began throwing concepts round and determined to play the track Iowa for half an hour and make it actually loopy after which depart the stage and do a six-song encore. The extra we considered it the drunker we bought and it bought to the purpose the place we had been simply out of our minds. We exit onstage and open with Iowa, which we had by no means achieved earlier than and we truly performed it sooner than it was on the goddamn album, so it was achieved in about 10 minutes! And I’m blitzed at this level, I’ve bought no sneakers on and I’m leaning into the screens going ‘Haaaaaaahhhmbuurg! Haahmmmbuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrg! Haaaaaaaaaahhhmbuurg!’ Simply fucking gone and also you get to the purpose the place you’re so drunk you possibly can’t even sing correctly. We got here again out and we did six songs and so they had been brutal, not good. Then we left and the group began to understand that was it and so they weren’t comfortable. They had been on the verge of beginning a riot. It was baaaad. We’ve performed there since and we’ve achieved a bit to make it as much as them however that was a very baaaaaaad night time.”
Robb: “I’m usually a little bit buzzed after I go onstage. It’s type of all through the present I’ve to watch out. I’ll be necking the brown eyes [vodka and Coke] and be like, ‘Man you’re fucked up, aren’t you?!’ I discover it exhausting getting too drunk earlier than I’m going onstage. My mind will get to a degree the place it is aware of it might’t get extra fucked up as a result of we’ve bought a present to do and the adrenaline takes over. We performed With Full Drive in 2008 and Phil [Demmel, then-MH guitarist] and I watched the video for it and it was a fucking superior present. Nonetheless… Phil and I had been pounding the brown eyes earlier than we went onstage and I’m doing lengthy rants between songs chugging the issues! And I bought to a degree the place I’d assume, ‘What’s this subsequent half we’re gonna do? Ah yeah, finish of Davidian, that’s the way it goes!’ It’s at all times enjoyable, by no means a catastrophe.”
Initially revealed in Steel Hammer 188, Jan 2009