Corey Taylor accepts he should have allowed himself more time to recover from emergency spinal surgery before going back on stage with Slipknot – but he didn’t want to.
He remains unsure of exactly when he broke his neck, which led to the urgent procedure taking place last month.
But he believes his health issues could stretch 17 years into the past, when he fell off a stage and landed on his head.
Taylor tells 93X: “There was a host of different things, but the only thing I can think of is, I fell four feet off stage, landed. Being 25, I just kind of brushed it off – ‘I can still feel everything, I must be fine.’
“What had actually happened was compound fracture, and the doctor couldn’t believe that I was walking. It literally went from zero to surgery like that.”
But the frontman had known something was wrong “for the last few years.” He explains: “The strength of my right side was completely gone.
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“I had the strength of an 80-year-old. In fact, I probably would have lost a fight to an 80-year-old. That’s how bad it was – and it sucked.”
Taylor suffered a fall during the second Slipknot show since his return. But he says the video made the incident look worse than it was. “I jumped up, and as soon as I jumped I knew, ‘I’m not going to clear this,’” he recalls.
”It was wet, and that’s why. The reason I took my time was because I just wanted to make sure I didn’t break anything. The video looks terrible – but I’m laying on the ground just laughing my ass off.”
He says was instructed to rest for at least two weeks before performing again, and gave himself three weeks. He says: “Yeah, I probably should have waited a little longer. But I didn’t want to.”
Slipknot’s North American tour with Marilyn Manson continues, with Taylor remaining under doctors’ orders to curtail his usual antics.
Slipknot tour dates 2016
Jul 19: Toronto Air Canada Centre, ON
Jul 20: Montreal Bell Centre, QC
Jul 21: Quebec Videotron Centre, QC
Jul 23: Syracuse Lakeview Amphitheater, NY
Jul 24: Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center, NY
Jul 26: Bristow Jiffy Lube Live, VA
Jul 27: Camden BB&T Pavilion, NJ
Jul 29: Clarkston DTE Energy Music Theatre, MI
Jul 30: Burgettstown First Niagara Pavilion, PA
Aug 02: Charlotte PNC Music Pavilion, NC
Aug 04: Maryland Heights Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, MO
Aug 05: Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena, IA
Aug 07: Denver Pepsi Center, CO
Aug 09: Salt Lake City USANA Amphitheatre, UT
Aug 11: Auburn White River Amphitheatre, WA
Aug 13: Concord Concord Pavilion, CA
Aug 14: Inglewood The Forum, CA
Aug 17: Chula Vista Sleep Train Amphitheatre, CA
Aug 19: Albuquerque Isleta Amphitheater, NM
Aug 20: Phoenix Ak-Chin Pavilion, AZ
Aug 21: Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, NV
Aug 25: Dallas Gexa Energy Pavilion, TX
Aug 26: Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, TX
Aug 27: Austin 360 Amphitheater, TX
Sep 25: San Manuel Ozzfest Meets Knotfest, CA
Oct 15-16: Toluca Knotfest, Mexico
Nov 05: Tokyo Knotfest, Japan
