The Dark Reality Of Slipknot

The name Slipknot elicits strong responses. More than a quarter of a century has passed since the band's eponymous album debuted via Roadrunner Records, but the Iowan metal monster continues to carve out its legacy as a major player and instigator in the bizarre history of heavy metal music. "Bizarre" proves to be an apt description of everything surrounding the group too, as there are a number of disturbing and shocking stories related to Slipknot and their legion of fans.

From a certain member of the nine rubbing his feces all over himself (and his bandmates) and the heavy metallers traveling around with a dead bird in a jar, to the harrowing and tragic crimes somehow linked to the group, Slipknot finds a way to court the biggest controversies and scandals. At the same time, inner turmoil has engulfed the outfit as they have experienced enough never-ending band drama to last a lifetime. In fact, it's safe to say that when some of the notable musicians who can't stand Slipknot used to play in the actual band, it reveals a lot about what it must be like behind the scenes.

So, let's dig beneath the surface and take a look behind the masks and mayhem to uncover the dark and sometimes unsettling reality of Slipknot. Be warned, though: What comes next isn't for the squeamish.

Before hitting the big time, Slipknot built up a reputation as a must-see force of nature in the '90s. Their fans, known as the Maggots, traveled from far and wide to witness the hype for themselves and to see if the rumors were true. One of the most notable stories from this era is how percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan used to lug around a jar containing a dead crow. But what could be the reason Slipknot kept a dead crow in a jar in the first place?

According to DJ Sid Wilson's comments to Spin, it's so they could experience "what death smelled like." As Wilson explained, the bandmates would open the jar and take a whiff of the decaying animal corpse inside in an effort to put themselves "in that dark place." While that sounds disgusting enough as is, it isn't the most eyebrow-raising incident involving the poor crow, as Wilson revealed. "But the O.G. Maggots, before we made it big, they were nuts," Wilson said. "They were saying, 'Let us smell it.' So we put the jar down there and they start pulling out this stuff and eating it! I think it was more disturbing for us. The kids were sicker than we were. They always had something to prove."

Years later, Crahan admitted that he had no desire to carry around a dead crow or smell it now.

Signing with a major label and performing for a larger audience might have inspired other bands to tone down their antics, but not Slipknot. After all, this was the late '90s, so the edgier, the better. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2000, guitarist Jim Root discussed an incident from a year earlier that took place on their European tour. For some unknown reason, Shawn Crahan decided to store his feces in a bottle and take it up on stage with him. Now, that in itself sounds like a questionable life choice, but no one could have prepared themselves for what Crahan did next.

"Then he'd smear it all over his drums and himself and Mick [Thomson's] back and, I think, mine, too," Root said. 

This wasn't an isolated incident either, as singer Corey Taylor discussed on "Bertcast" in 2020. If the band ever saw Crahan rubbing his belly, they knew they were in for it on stage.

Anyone who listens to Slipknot's sophomore album, "Iowa," instantly feels how the music ratchets up a level in terms of pure intensity. There's a ferociousness and anger to every track that surpasses their 1999 eponymous album, which already overflowed with uncaged rage and unbridled aggression. In the years after its release, the band revealed they weren't in a good place while recording "Iowa," and their unrestrained emotion and personal turmoil come out in the music and lyrics.

Speaking to Revolver, the various people involved in the making of "Iowa" discussed how it was an album that almost destroyed the band — figuratively and literally. Corey Taylor explained that the process of making Slipknot's self-titled debut record felt cathartic to him as he freed himself of the anger inside of him, but the "Iowa" experience was just wrath for its own sake. "I just remember a lot of darkness, a lot of anger," he said. "I was cutting myself recording songs in the studio. I was bleeding everywhere. I just wanted something, I didn't care what it was."

Much like his bandmates stated, Taylor agreed that "Iowa" came at a cost, but it enabled them to create "a dark, brutal, amazing album out of it."

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Due to Slipknot's sinister appearance and the dark nature of their lyrics, they are a parent group's worst nightmares all wrapped into one. In 2003, these committees received further ammunition for their cause after Slipknot's music became embroiled in a disturbing murder case.

According to CHARTAttack's report, 20-year-old Jason Lamar Harris and 16-year-old Amber Rose Riley stabbed 22-year-old Terry Ray Taylor to death in April 2003. Reportedly, the pair confessed to planning the murder for months in advance, as Harris wanted to know what it would feel like to kill someone while Riley wanted to see a corpse. But how does Slipknot figure into this appalling event? Well, according to the authorities, the pair listened to the band's music before and after the crime, while also singing a controversial lyric out of Slipknot's "Disasterpiece" — which is off 2001's "Iowa" album — as they committed the murder.

Ultimately, Harris received a 50-years-to-life sentence for his role in the crime, while Riley was sentenced to 26 years to life.

When someone explores the real meanings behind Slipknot songs, they discover the lyrics are deeper than what's on the surface level. From tracks discussing the band's complicated relationship with the music industry to even trying to inspire people to be better, Slipknot tackles a multitude of topics in their music. While it's common for fans to tattoo lyrics onto their bodies or find other creative purposes for them, someone decided to leave behind the lyrics for the Slipknot song "Surfacing" — off their 1999 self-titled album — at a gravesite that had been robbed. For those who haven't heard the song before, "Surfacing" is a brutal rager that serves as a metaphorical middle finger to the world.

According to Metal Underground, Justin Manning's gravesite was robbed in August 2006. The 17-year-old Manning died after an automobile accident, and an urn with his ashes was buried at the Bonner Springs Cemetery in Kansas. The cemetery sexton, Kenneth Brooks, disclosed that Manning's urn was stolen, while authorities discovered a note in the vicinity that featured the lyrics of Slipknot's "Surfacing." According to Brooks, there had been prior issues at this gravesite.

Manning's mother, Angela Bickham, didn't want to speculate that it was her son's friends behind the incident; however, there was confirmation of an incident that took place at the funeral where Manning's friends sought to bury a hat and CDs along with his urn in his grave. Reportedly, this caused a ruckus on the day.

Slipknot experienced a PR nightmare in South Africa in 2008 after a horrendous school killing sent shockwaves throughout the country. In Krugersdorp, Johannesburg, 18-year-old Morne Harmse walked into his school — Nic Diederichs Technical High School — armed with a sword and proceeded to kill 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius and injure three more people.

What caught the attention, though, were reports that Harmse wore a Slipknot-inspired mask during the attacks. In addition, there were reports that Harmse was a big fan of Slipknot's music and heavy metal as a whole. Due to these factors, Slipknot drew the ire of several groups, with some believing the band should be held responsible for its perceived negative influence on the younger generation. In a later interview, Taylor addressed the incident, expressing concern about what happened but also categorically denying the band provides any kind of message that encourages people to harm others.

In 2009, Harmse received a 20-year prison sentence for his crime. He was paroled in 2022.

Family feuds aren't unusual. Sometimes, relatives clash over the most trivial of matters. In the case of Slipknot guitarist Mick Thomson and his brother Andrew, their argument went way too far in March 2015. According to the Des Moines Register, the inebriated brothers started quibbling in the early hours of the morning. Their conflict soon moved from inside to outside of the house. Police officers were dispatched to the scene after the incident turned violent and a knife fight broke out, which ultimately resulted in Mick being stabbed in the back of the head.

Both brothers suffered injuries in the melee and were taken to the hospital in separate ambulances; however, none of their wounds were deemed to be life-threatening and they both recovered. The police's investigation found Mick and Andrew to be equally at fault for the incident and slapped them with charges of "disorderly conduct by fighting." Neither brother chose to lay charges against the other, though.

Joey Jordison wrote his name into music legend thanks to Slipknot. The diminutive musician established himself as one of the best drummers in heavy metal history as his mastery of the double-bass pedal inspired a generation. He also remained one of the most popular members of Slipknot, so it came as an absolute shock when the news broke that he was gone from the band in 2013. Slipknot's statement suggested a mutual parting of ways, while Jordison emphasized it wasn't his decision and the whole ordeal caught him off guard.

In a later interview with Metal Hammer, Jordison revealed he had been fired from Slipknot via email. He explained how it had blindsided him since there had been no meeting or conversation with anyone in the group or their representatives. On his last tour with the band, Jordison had experienced several physical issues that impacted his legs — only later did he discover he had transverse myelitis, which is a neurological condition that causes inflammation of the spinal cord, according to Mayo Clinic. "They got confused about my health issues and obviously even I didn't know what it was at first," Jordison said. "They thought I was f***ed up on drugs, which I wasn't at all."

What upset Jordison the most was how his firing was handled, especially after all they had been through together. "The way they did it was f***ing cowardly," he said. "It was f***ed up."

Disagreements between band members happen all the time. In some cases, they end up being too big for everyone to move past, and someone departs the group. However, in Slipknot's case, the simmering animosity between Corey Taylor and Sid Wilson boiled over and resulted in them sorting out their issues with fists.

In 2022, during an appearance at Monster-Mania Con (via Revolver), Taylor opened up about a tumultuous period between him and Wilson in 2016. He explained that the pair found themselves at loggerheads at the time, though he couldn't explain the specific reason for it. It reached the point where one of them would leave the room if the other entered. The built-up tension would come to a head during a meet-and-greet with Slipknot fans in Sweden. As Taylor explained, a fan had given him a comic book when Wilson appeared and knocked it out of his hand. Taylor exploded in fury, and a fistfight ensued.

"That turned into us turning on each other and going at each other hard to the point where the band had to pull us apart," Taylor said. "He was saying he was gonna go home and leave the tour. I wasn't going to apologize. It was bad, man." According to Taylor, he and Wilson mended fences after Wilson was the first person from the band to reach out to him after his spinal surgery and they both apologized to each other.

Aside from Joey Jordison, percussionist Chris Fehn's departure from Slipknot was the other one that caught everyone by surprise. After all, he had been a part of the act from 1998 until 2019. However, the split certainly did not happen on the best of terms, as Fehn filed a lawsuit against the band thereafter.

Fehn's suit claimed that Slipknot — specifically mentioning Shawn Crahan and Corey Taylor by name — purposely misled him by setting up various other companies for the group without informing him about it. Feeling deceived and wanting his share of what he believed was his, Fehn demanded a full accounting report and breakdown of the band's finances from the start until 2019.

In a now-deleted post on Slipknot's website, the band claimed Fehn's accusations were false and insisted that he knew why he was terminated from the outfit in the first place. Taylor also replied to a comment on X (formerly known as Twitter) to say he was "wrongfully accused" and it hurt to have "fans believe" he stole from a bandmate. Fehn's lawsuit against his former group was withdrawn in 2020.

In 2021, news of the devastating death of Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison spread through the music community. For fans, Jordison's passing stung that little bit extra since he hadn't received the opportunity to rejoin the band since his firing in 2013. Now, the reunion would never happen. In 2022, Corey Taylor revealed to NME that Slipknot hadn't met up with Jordison after his firing; however, several members had been in contact with him over the years. Taylor claimed that he and Jordison resolved their differences before the latter's death, calling their relationship "strained but civil."

In 2024, Jordison's estate filed a lawsuit against Slipknot for allegedly profiting off the drummer's name and death. According to the lawsuit (via NME), Shawn Crahan and Taylor were in possession of items belonging to Jordison, which they had agreed — in writing — to return to him after his dismissal from the band. Reportedly, Crahan and Taylor withheld information about other items in their possession and used them in a mobile museum known as Knotfest. In addition, the lawsuit claimed Crahan and Taylor lied about checking in on Jordison's family after his death, accusing them of peddling this false narrative to further their own album sales and saying they never cared about Jordison. Slipknot's lawyers denied all claims made by Jordison's estate and asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed entirely.

Want to learn more about Iowa's most famous metal sons? Check out the untold truth of Slipknot.