Corey Taylor Talks Slipknot’s New Song “Birth of the Cruel,” New Member “Tortilla Face,” More

Stuart Sevastos, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Published on:

Yesterday, August 5th, Zane Lowe named Slipknot‘s new single “Birth of the Cruel” as his World Record on Apple Music’s Beats 1, and he had lead singer Corey Taylor on his show to break down the song as well as the Nine’s forthcoming album, We Are Not Your Kind, which is due just a few more days from now, on August 9th. Taylor also discussed the familial dynamics in the band and the group’s new mystery percussionist, who some fans have nicknamed “Tortilla Man” or “Tortilla Face.”

Asked by Lowe what someone has to do to become official as a new member of Slipknot, the singer quipped, “You’ve got to wear the Tortilla on your face first of all, and the audience has to figure out who you are. Tortilla face. He’s doing great. He’s a great dude and is killing it, man. It’s kind of cool. It’s brought this whole new energy to everybody as well. So it’s a lot of fun to watch him.”

Speaking of the camaraderie within the group, Taylor referenced the recent death of Shawn “Clown” Crahan’s daughter Gabrielle and how the band members dealt with the tragedy. “As far as the OGs in the band, we’re all closer than we’ve ever been, to be honest. Especially dealing in the wake of, unfortunately what happened with Shawn,” he said. “We all rallied around him hard, because people were coming at him. Just another symptom of the dark side of social media. People were coming at him and we just basically … I won’t even get into it because people are gutters, some people are garbage eaters. And the fact that they were coming at my man was wrong. So we all circled around him basically, we circled the wagons. We said, no, you’re not going to do that. And that kind of showed us all that we were still really close. We were still brothers, you know.”

Listen to the interview and check out the remaining dates of Slipknot’s Knotfest Roadshow tour below.

Knotfest Roadshow with Slipknot, Volbeat, Gojira and Behemoth:
August 6 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
August 8 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena
August 10 – Des Moines, IA @ Iowa State Fairgrounds (Slipknot and Gojira only)
August 11 – Tinley Park, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 12 – Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
August 14 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
August 16 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
August 17 – Bonner Springs, KS @ Providence Medical Center Amphitheater
August 18 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
August 20 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage
August 21 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
August 23 – Burgettstown, PA @ KeyBank Pavilion
August 24 – Scranton, PA @ The Pavilion at Montage Mountain
August 25 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
August 27 – Mansfield, MA @ The Xfinity Center
August 28 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
August 30 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
August 31 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion
September 1 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
September 3 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
September 4 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
September 6 – Austin, TX @ Austin360 Amphitheater at Circuit of The Americas
September 7 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
September 8 – The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman