A lucky Slipknot fan was able to sit down with frontman Corey Taylor for an interview, thanks to winning a contest on El Paso, Texas, radio station KLAQ. The interview took place before Slipknot’s recent show at the El Paso County Coliseum. The fan, Christopher Schoemann, sat down with DJ Lisa Sanchez and Taylor for the 13-plus minute interview you can watch in the player above.

In the interview, Taylor opens up about his thoughts on the current state of music and ripped KISS singer-bassist Gene Simmons for his controversial quote "Rock is finally dead." Taylor said, “I love the fact that we had the highest sales in a first week for a metal band [with our fifth album ‘.5: The Gray Chapter.] the whole year. To be honest, I’m proud of that.”

Taylor also points out that the band scored more than three million views for the livestream of Knotfest, adding that they “won’t get an award for that.” He explains, “You don’t always need a platinum album to relate that to success so, with all due respect to Mr. Simmons, he needs to get out more.”

In the KLAQ interview, Schoemann also asked about Taylor how the new bassist and drummer are fitting in with the band. “Everything is going really well," Taylor said. "The Knotfest shows were our first shows live with [the new members]... they kicked ass. We are getting along really well, it feels really good.”

Taylor, who wore his Slipknot mask for the entire interview also discussed what he likes about El Paso, Texas, and gave advice for local bands trying to make it as well as some insight into the band’s writing and recording process. Read more about the interview here.

Slipknot’s ‘.5: The Gray Chapterdebuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 132,000 copies in its first week.

Slipknot - Do You Think You Know Metal?

 

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