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 convey collectively frontmen Corey Taylor and Robb Flynn for tales of bombing onstage, practically entering into it with viewers members and the worst bands they’ve ever toured with.
What are the very best reminiscences of your first tour?
Corey Taylor: “I simply bear in mind it was a variety of work proper out of the gate. Chaos, chaos, chaos. We realized a variety of what to not do from the primary 12 months of doing that shit. The audiences received crazier and it simply appeared like we had been onto one thing which is what stored us from dropping our minds. It was a variety of arduous 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 variety 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 nicely in Europe.”
When did you realise you wanted to step up from assist to headliners?
Corey: “It received to a degree the place we simply needed to. There weren’t a variety of gives coming in, so we needed to out of necessity so we booked our personal excursions to maintain the momentum going. Which on reflection is the best way to do it in the event you’re gonna carve your personal manner.”
Robb: “You’re 9 dudes in a band, man – you had been destined to be a headliner!”
Hammer: Machine Head appear to have performed it the opposite manner round.
Robb: “Yeah, for the final 10 years all we’ve performed is headline! That is our first assist slot since 1994 with Slayer in Europe. We love headlining however the problem of taking part in to new folks and profitable 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 chance, principally.”
What’s the very best 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 most likely Hammersmith with Slayer and Hatebreed. It was simply uncontrolled. I bear in mind Joey and even by means 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 received offstage and had been like, ‘Fuck, what simply occurred?’”
What’s the worst you’ve bombed?
Corey: “Furyfest 2005 in France. That 12 months the owner raised the lease on the place so in flip the promoter needed to elevate the ticket value to cowl the fee. And since we had been headlining everybody assumed we’d requested for an excessive amount of cash. So we had been pelted with all the things from wrenches to glass bottles to useless rabbits to plastic bottles stuffed with filth – 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 fingers. 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! Have a look at me, I’m up onstage!’ I attempted telling a few jokes to attempt to ease the stress 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 a giant tour. One time our sound man was triggering bizarre samples all by means of our set. There have been moments it will go useless quiet and swiftly you’d hear this fart, and it was our sound man taking part in these results by means of our displays. 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 type of excursions the place your crew get to know your sense of humour. It was a variety of enjoyable.”
Robb: “We had the bus driver from hell on the Disastour: he didn’t like us smoking or leaving our footwear within the hallway so we had been continuously having confrontations with him. On the final day he calls the police and as we walked offstage there have been all these cops dumping all the things off our bus. They stated, ‘Simply seize your shit and go away 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 dangerous. We’d all the time 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 every single 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 that they had crossed the ‘we’re rock stars’ line by this level and simply… sufficient!”
What’s the dumbest factor you’ve stated onstage?
Corey: “What day?!”
Robb: “I get Tourettes as quickly as I stroll onstage, man!”
Corey: “I be taught totally different languages if I’ve time. Generally I neglect what nation I’m in and simply whip some random shit out considering the gang is gonna dig it. We had been in Switzerland and I simply spaced the place we had been and stated one thing in French after 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 keep in mind that! As quickly as I did it I assumed, ‘Oh fuck… that is so the unsuitable flag!’”
What’s the worst harm you’ve ever had onstage?
Corey: “I not too long ago 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 gang. And Adam used to run throughout the stage along 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 most likely the worst.”
Mime for the remainder of your profession for fame and fortune or play dwell and stay eternally obscure?
Corey: “I’d quite play. There’s a satisfaction that comes out of that that’s everlasting. If you happen to lip synch onstage you could as nicely 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 received to recollect when to maneuver your mouth? Fuck you. For me it’s the creation that’s superior, it’s all the time going to be totally different each evening. Something can occur. So hell yeah, I’d quite play dwell for the remainder of my life.”
Robb: “Completely! And taking part in dwell is a launch that I would like every single day. It helps hold me sane. After I’m off the street I begin climbing the fucking partitions! If I’m residence 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 she or he’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 might placed on one thing particular for that evening solely. We began throwing concepts round and determined to play the tune Iowa for half an hour and make it actually loopy after which go away the stage and do a six-song encore. The extra we thought of it the drunker we received and it received 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 performed earlier than and we truly performed it sooner than it was on the goddamn album, so it was performed in about 10 minutes! And I’m blitzed at this level, I’ve received no footwear on and I’m leaning into the displays 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 gang began to understand that was it and so they weren’t blissful. They had been on the verge of beginning a riot. It was baaaad. We’ve performed there since and we’ve performed a bit to make it as much as them however that was a extremely baaaaaaad evening.”
Robb: “I’m typically just a little buzzed once I go onstage. It’s form 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 might be fucked up, aren’t you?!’ I discover it arduous getting too drunk earlier than I’m going onstage. My mind will get to a degree the place it is aware of it may possibly’t get extra fucked up as a result of we’ve received 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. Nevertheless… 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 received 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 all the time enjoyable, by no means a catastrophe.”
Initially printed in Steel Hammer 188, Jan 2009