Corey Taylor Speaks Up on Quitting Social Media
While I’ve definitely noticed a sharp decrease in Corey Taylor’s social media presence since We Are Not Your Kind came out (who in the metal media hasn’t?? we’ve got bills to pay!), I didn’t realize he’d outright quit entirely. And it’s now been six months since The Only Man in Metal Who Matters graced our timelines with his posts!
All of us have surely referred to social media as “toxic” at one point or another, and for someone at Corey’s level of fame those problems are only amplified. Speaking to The Irish Times, he says he’d been experiencing an uptick in online harassment of late, and also described how certain elements of his life began to suffer when he turned to social media as a refuge while his last marriage was falling apart:
You quit social media. Why?
“I have been off social media for six months. It’s been brilliant. I don’t miss it at all. Here’s the thing. It made me go back and read the news again. I read the news every day. It’s not like I’m not up to speed with everything, but now I’m not getting shitty reactions to news stories. I’m not barraged by a bunch of memes in reaction to a news story here or there. Now I’m getting the story itself and I can form my own opinion. I can talk to people face-to-face about it. I can’t tell you how tired I am of people being incensed about something. That’s all news stories are now. It’s everyone looking for a reason to be mad. I’m tired of people being mad.”
You have spoken in the past about suffering from depression. Has your mental health improved from being off social media?
“Absolutely. There was a few years when I was dealing with some shit right around the end of my last marriage. The fallout from that marriage had forced me into social media, burrowing into a place where people wanted to make me feel better about things because it was bad in my house.
“I was really ensconced in social media for a while to the point where, when I came up for air, I had gotten to the point where the people on social media were my real friends and my real friends weren’t. It was because my real life had become so unhappy. When I got out of that situation, I took a long look at where I had gone to. It took me a long time to extricate myself from it and now, a year ago, I made the change.
“I have somebody who runs my social media for me and that’s all it should be. From social media, from my point of view, you don’t know who is trying to talk to you, who they are and what they want from you. When you don’t give them attention, they turn on you. I have had to deal with some serious shit because of that. It’s called cyber trolling. In a lot of ways it really is stalking. It’s the darker side of fame that people don’t want to talk about. It’s everybody from me to Chrissy Teigen.
“It’s really got to the point that it is a dogpile. If you don’t give them the right kind of response, they will come after you in the dirtiest ways creating different accounts under different names. That to me is enough not to ever go on social media again. It brings out the worst in people. It is social mania. It’s ridiculous.”
I get it! Truth be told, it’s remarkable that Corey put as much effort into his social media accounts for as long as he did; he was certainly one of the most vocal and visible people in the metal community, and we were lucky to have him. Understandable that he chose to step away when it got to be too much. Maybe he’ll be back eventually if he ever gets the itch again.
Slipknot are on tour in the U.K. and Europe right now! Remaining dates below:
Jan 20 – Sheffield, United Kingdom – Flydsa Arena [Tickets]
Jan 21 – Nottingham, United Kingdom – Motorpoint Arena [Tickets]
Jan 22 – Cardiff, United Kingdom – Motorpoint Arena [Tickets]
Jan 24 – Birmingham, United Kingdom – Birmingham Arena [Tickets]
Jan 25 – London, United Kingdom – The O2 [Tickets]
Jan 28 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Ziggo Dome [Tickets]
Jan 29 – Frankfurt, Germany – Festhalle [Tickets]
Jan 30 – Paris, France – AccorHotels Arena [Tickets]
Feb 01 – Luxembourg, Luxembourg – Rockhal [Tickets]
Feb 02 – Lyon, France – Halle Tony Garnier [Tickets]
Feb 04 – Budapest, Hungary – Sportarena [Tickets]
Feb 06 – Lodz, Poland – Atlas Arena [Tickets]
Feb 08 – Stuttgart, Germany – Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle [Tickets]
Feb 09 – Munich, Germany – Olympiahalle [Tickets]
Feb 11 – Milan, Italy – Mediolanum Forum [Tickets]
Feb 12 – Zurich, Switzerland – Hallenstadion [Tickets]
Feb 14 – Vienna, Austria – Stadthalle [Tickets]
Feb 16 – Hamburg, Germany – Barclaycard Arena [Tickets]
Feb 17 – Berlin, Germany – Mercedes-Benz Arena [Tickets]
Feb 18 – Dortmund, Germany – Westfalenhalle [Tickets]
Feb 20 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Royal Arena [Tickets]
Feb 21 – Stockholm, Sweden – Ericsson Globe [Tickets]
Feb 22 – Oslo, Norway – Telenor Arena [Tickets]
Feb 24 – Helsinki, Finland – Hartwall Arena [Tickets]
Mar 20 – Tokyo, Japan – Knotfest Japan* [Tickets]
Mar 21 – Tokyo, Japan – Knotfest Japan* [Tickets]
Mar 24 – Singapore – Singapore Rockfest* [Tickets]
Mar 27 – Jakarta, Indonesia Hammersonic Festival* [Tickets]
Mar 29 – Manila, Philippines – Amoranto Stadium [Tickets]
May 16 – Columbus, OH — Sonic Temple Festival* [Tickets]
Aug 01 – Wacken, Germany – Wacken Open Air* [Tickets]
Aug 10 – Barcelona, Spain – Knotfest at Sea* [Tickets]
Aug 22 – Milton Keynes, United Kingdom – Knotfest UK* [Tickets]
*festival date
[via Ultimate Guitar]
