Slipknot’s Corey Taylor Addresses the Rumor that “The Negative One” is About Joey Jordison
So hey, remember that rumor that one of the new Slipknot songs, “The Negative One,” is about former drummer Joey Jordison? Yeah well, shock of shocks, it’s bullshit.
Metal Hammer recently asked vocalist Corey Taylor (who presumably wrote lyrics for “The Negative One”) about the theory, to which he replied:
“Oh my fucking God! People need to fucking unplug every now and again. I did hear some shit about the video for it, like it’s supposed to be Joey, but it’s so fucking funny.”
Taylor then continued:
“Here’s the thing. The album is a story — not in a certain order; it jumps around — but it’s a story of this band for the last four years, from the moment Paul died to the moment we stepped out of the studio. So there are certain songs that deal with, not Joey in particular, but about the tension and trying to deal with the ugliness that we all have in us.
“‘The Negative One’ was about me, not about Joey, and that’s why the song says, ‘Your choices are the negative one and me,’ which is the two kinda colliding together. ‘The Devil In I’ is the same, which you’d think would be fucking apparent.
“I love the fact that our fans are that passionate, but ‘Judas Priest,’ get out of the fucking basement once in a while! Log off of the fucking Twitter and go smell a flower, and just let yourself get back to a point where you go, ‘Y’know what? That’s a little crazy.’”
In the more conspiratorially-minded maggots’ defense, this band has long encouraged deep readings of their work — especially Clown, whose press quotes tend to be so nonsensical that they seem like a Lost-esque riddle to be solved unto themselves.
But I always thought this was a dumb theory. It was just too much of a stretch; the text simply did not support the argument.
So, that settles that! Now we can all get back to waiting to hear the whole album and pretending we have no idea that Jay Weinberg is the band’s new drummer. Happy days are here again!
Slipknot’s new album, .5: The Gray Chapter, comes out October 21 on Roadrunner. The band starts a tour with Korng 810 in October. Get dates here.
