Corey Taylor says his vocal performances have improved since he had surgery on his broken neck.
The Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman has cut out headbanging and other onstage antics as he recovers from spinal surgery and says that has led to his vocal pitch getting better.
Taylor tells Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones’ radio show Jonesy’s Jukebox: “I’ve had to kind of reassess what I do live. The positive is that I love the challenge of it.
“Maybe I’ve relied on those things for too long, let’s see if I can get through a show or a tour without having to go to these kind of mainstays.
“And the shows have been great. I’ve been damn near on pitch-wise, my stamina’s a lot better. It’s like I’m really kind of filling in all these weird blanks.”
Taylor adds that he is back at about 75% in terms of full fitness and doctors hope he will be 100% recovered within a year.
The singer’s surgery came after it was revealed he had broken his neck without even realising it. He says: “You hit a certain age, and you have to start having those old-man updates.
“I had just turned 42, and I went in and had physical done. And my doctor was, like, ‘Hmm, you need to go to a spinal specialist.’ So I went in and did an MRI and whatever, and what I found out was I had a very old injury in my two vertebrae. My C5 and C6 were completely compressed together, destroyed the disc, and the bone was growing into my spinal cord.
“The doctor told me, ‘I’ve seen MMA fighters that don’t have it this bad. I can’t believe you’re walking.’
“So I had to go in for emergency spinal surgery that actually postponed the last tour I just did for three weeks. They jacked my vertebrae up, they put a replacement disc in, they shaved the bone back, and I still have a gnarly bruise on my spinal cord.”
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And Taylor tells Jones that the initial injury might have been sustained as far back as 1999.
“The only thing that I can think of is at Ozzfest 99 I fell off the front of the stage,” Taylor says.
“I fell four feet and I landed on top of my head. And I think that is what did it. You’re 24 and you don’t even process that. You’re like, ‘Whoah, whatever. I’m too metal for pain.’
“It went on and just over the years. It’s just exacerbated and just gotten worse.”
Slipknot performed 2001 album Iowa in full at their Knotfest event in San Bernardino on September 25 (Sunday). In July, Metal Hammer readers voted Iowa the greatest album of the 21st century.
Knotfest goes to Toluca in Mexico on October 15 and 16 and then to Tokyo in Japan on November 5.
Stone Sour are working on their sixth album.
Slipknot's Corey Taylor slams myth that metal fans aren't smart