Corey Taylor on New Slipknot Member: “It Took Him a Second to Kind of Find His Way”

After an extremely eventful few days for Slipknot in the first week of June that included the (since-deleted) announcement that longtime keyboardist Craig Jones had left the band, a photo of a mystery member, a weird teaser trailer and a new EP, there hasn’t been a lot of chatter coming from the masked nonet.

Now, frontman Corey Taylor has spoken a bit to Finnish publication Chaoszine about Slipknot’s newest member which leads us to believe that he… might not actually be new? (via Blabbermouth)

“Obviously, any time you have a change like that, it makes you have to kind of lean into adversity a little bit. We took a little more time to kind of figure things out. Obviously, [him being a] new guy.

“[He’s] good — really good. He’s a total musician. But it took him a second to kind of find his way. But now he’s killing it; now he’s really, really good.”

The way Taylor describes the new member makes it seem like he’s had more time to acclimate to the band than just the last two weeks. One possible theory is that Jones didn’t actually leave the band and is just changing his character or looking for further anonymity. There are other theories about what the identity of the mysterious member could be, with one Reddit user making the case for the member of a forgotten ’00s nü-metal band.

During the same interview, Taylor talked about doing shows next year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Slipknot’s debut album.

“Right now, Slipknot’s kind of wrapping up a little bit. Next year, I know we’re talking about doing a handful of shows all over the world because it’s gonna be the 25th anniversary of the first album. Now, don’t quote me on that. Best way to make God laugh is to announce your plans out loud. But that’s what we’re hinting at; it’s what we’re talking about.”