Slipknot’s Clown Explains Use of Camel Dung at Knotfest
Following yesterday’s news that next month’s Knotfest will be permeated by “Scent of Slipknot” — oil drums full of burning camel shit (not burning camel shit and oil, as initially reported) — Rolling Stone reached out ‘Knot percussionist/philosopher Shawn “Clown” Crahan and asked the question on all of our minds: why the fucking fuck are Slipknot subjecting their fans to this? Says Clown:
“We did the camel dung on the first Knotfest. It was awesome; it was beautiful. [Fans] came into the museum and they had to be hit with camel shit. A very distinct smell. You can’t huff it, but it’s got this smell. And it’s not necessarily the most comfortable thing, but its not necessarily the worst thing, it’s just remembering thoughts — it’s gonna be a reoccurring thing.”
Clown continued:
“I write down things in life that are special, that only living in this thought process can you ever obtain. Freshly mowed grass. How it smells when a nice spring rain hits. Because of Iowa, I like being in a different state that doesn’t even have grass and think that I smell fresh-cut grass. It brings me home. Makes me feel safe… So, I figure, since we’re not a band anymore — we’re a culture, everybody needs to get used to that real quick — that the culture has to have a smell. You have to be able to be somewhere in the world, maybe be in a little pain, and then all of a sudden smell that and feel good again.”
So, basically, as the Rolling Stone piece notes, Clown wants camel shit to be to Slipknot fans as the madelines are to Proust in Remembrance of Things Past (or, if you prefer, as the capicola was to Tony Soprano in The Sopranos episode “Fortunate Son”).
Of course, this still doesn’t really answer the question of why Slipknot want camel shit to be “that special smell” for their fans — after all, if the goal is for the smell of camel dung to make the Maggots “feel good again,” then you have to wonder why the band didn’t pick something more common (seriously, when is the last time you just so happened to smell camel crap?).
The question did, however, provide Clown with yet another opportunity to aggressively string together a bunch of profound-sounding nonsense (“we’re a culture, everybody needs to get used to that real quick,” “that only living in this thought process can you ever obtain,” which isn’t even English, etc.). So I’m glad he had a nice time at least.
[via The PRP]
