Corey Taylor on Learning of Joey Jordison’s Death: “The First Person That I Called Was Clown to Make Sure He Was Okay…”

Last year, the metal world was shocked and stunned to learn that Joey Jordison, founding drummer of Slipknot and member of bands including Murderdolls and Sinsaenum, had died at age 46. Now, in a new interview, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has spoken about the experience of learning that his former bandmate had died.

Speaking at the annual Mad Monster Party convention in Concord, NC, Corey was asked how he dealt with the death of Jordison. Here’s what he said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth:

“That’s a tough one. It hit me hard, even though I hadn’t seen him or talked to him in a very long time. And I won’t get into certain things, but I will say that it hit us all really hard. The first person that I called was Clown to make sure he was okay. Because those guys… I can remember going down and seeing them both at the gas station that Joey worked at — like,  way  back in the day. And he would work the overnights. When I wasn’t working at the porn shop, I would go down. And they were always scheming; they would always sit together scheming. It’s, like, ‘I’ve got this fucking idea. All right? We’re gonna set our faces on fire.’ And I was, like, ‘No. You’re really not gonna do that.’

“All that history and all the memories came back then. And his health was obviously part of that. And it was sad because this man was probably one of the most gifted people I’ve ever seen in my life… It was far, far too soon. And it broke my heart. Regardless of what had gone down between us, it broke my heart. It was a hard… It’s still hard to think about. I think about it now and it doesn’t seem real. So it hit us just as hard. It’s one of the reasons why we pay homage to him and Paul [Gray, late  Slipknot  bassist] at the end of [each Slipknot] show — to make sure that people realize that even though he was gone, he’s still part of the family, and he always will be.”

You can watch the whole video below: