The story of Slipknot is littered with absolute chaos. From their frantic beginnings through to their unpredictable live shows, each member has pushed the limits of what they are capable of as much as their bandmates. But when it came down to Sid Wilson joining The 9, he went as far as to almost knock one of his future brothers unconscious. That was Shawn 'Clown' Crahan.
In a new interview with Revolver, Sid has detailed what it was like when he first started working with the band. "I was already practising with the band and coming up with parts and everything," he comments. "But before making the commitment, I needed to see the band live. They kept telling me, 'We're crazy, we're crazy. We wear masks, we're crazy.' I'm like, Got it. Check. Crazy. I'm like, 'I'm crazy. Trust me.'"
So when the opportunity arose to be able to watch the band, Sid knew what was coming. It was in the lead-up to the band playing their discomforting belter Tattered & Torn, a moment when Shawn would start chanting "Kill me" and make his way into the crowd to wreak havoc, that he knew his moment had arrived.
"He would go out in the crowd and wrestle with kids, tie them up with microphone cords and drag them across the floor," he continues. "So he would go into the crowd every show — I didn't know this, I'd never seen the show before. And I can see him looking at me through the mask, and he starts this 'Kill me' [chant], and I see him coming out from behind this drum, and I could just sense it.
"I was like, 'He's coming for me. He wants to prove to me that they're crazy — and I am fucking nuts'. So I'm like, 'It's on'. And I just start running, and I start leap-frogging people, grabbing their shoulders and just jumping over. And then I'm crawling across the top of the crowd. And I get up there, and he was getting ready to take one step off the stage. He looked down to get his placement, and he looks up, and I'm right there.
"I grab him, and I headbutt him six times. Bam, bam, bam. And I'm coming in for the seventh one, and he pushes me away, falls down and crawls back to Joey [Jordison]. And he goes, 'I don't give a shit what anybody says — that guy's in the band.'"
And the rest, they say, is history.
Sid and his girlfriend Kelly Osbourne, daughter of Ozzy, welcome their first child together into the world last month.
Kelly admitted that Ozzy was excited about the prospect of having a grandson, saying, "He's told everyone the gender of my baby before I ever got the chance to. But I will say, every single day he does this little song and this little dance about how excited he is, and he is so excited that it's a boy. It's the first - out of me and my brother, it's the first boy, so, he's like planning all these things."
Clown recently spoke to NME about how he isn't interested in releasing full-length Slipknot albums going forward.
“I always thought, ‘What would it be like if Slipknot was big enough that we weren’t held to albums?’ Let’s say Clown could convince you, ‘Hey, instead of waiting two years for 12 songs, I’m gonna give you one song every month.’ So in reality, I’m shaving a year off for the same thing".
“You have to go with me on this journey, but what I promise you is, there’s artwork that goes with it, there’s utility that goes with it, it’s cheaper than what a normal individual song would be…
"And it’s gone through all the filters – it’s gone through the band, it’s gone through Corey Taylor, it’s gone through a professional mixer and masterer – no avenues have been chopped up, it’s all business as usual. And we want to do this because I think it’s time for you, our fans, to get everything.”
