There’s a Conspiracy Theory Claiming That Slipknot is a Rotating Cast of Uncredited Live Musicians

Have you ever been banging your heard during a Slipknot live set and suddenly had a Body Snatchers moment, where you stared up at Sid Wilson’s insane gasmask-clad face and thought, ‘It looks like him, it sounds like him… but it’s not him’?

Apparently, you are not alone. A Rockfeed post by MetalSucks’ own Brian Storm has introduced a conspiracy held by “Slipknot truthers” (I wrote that so you didn’t have to) which claims that the band actually changes up their live roster constantly, with all members except for Corey Taylor often being replace by someone of similar build.

Website MOSHCOUTURE is the central driver of this rumor, claiming that they spoke to a man who toured with the band, but was never an official member. Rumors also abound that Skrillex DJ’ed for them for a couple of months, and that Satyricon’s Frost sat in on drums. There’s also the issue of Jim Root’s hand tattoos, which are sometimes visible, sometimes not. It’s all pretty well outlined in an episode of the webseries This Exists, which you can watch below.

Rock star conspiracies like this are a long-standing tradition, from Paul McCartney actually being Billy Shears to Andrew WK being a role played by multiple people. But as Brian points out, Slipknot have a whopping nine members, so the fact that they might not be able to get everyone in a room together at once, much less onstage in Copenhagen, does make sense.

Here’s the question: would you care? If you found out that it was not actually Shawn Crahan banging that empty keg with a baseball bat that one time you caught Slipknot in Hartford, would it break your heart? One could say the same thing for the replaced members of Kiss, though it feels different; Kiss are a classic rock band with four founding members playing four instruments needed for Kiss’ music. But with how much goes on during a Slipknot performance, and how insane and kind of superfluous some of the music involved in that performance is — two extra percussionists? A DJ? A samples expert? — perhaps it doesn’t matter if Slipknot occasionally performed with a stand-in.

Anyway, watch the video below to learn more about the silliest conspiracy ever. In the meantime, feel free to submit who you think Slipknot actually are under the mask in the comments section below.