Right now, with very few exceptions, Slipknot are the most popular metal band in the world. And a lot of that has come from the band, especially frontman Corey Taylor, positioning themselves as champions of our scene and supporters of heavy-ass music from around the world. Which is why it’s unsurprising that Corey Taylor took a moment during the band’s set at this weekend’s Welcome to Rockville fest to address the recent tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival.
For those of you who don’t know, after a number of red flags and warning signs were ignored by organizers and security at rapper Travis Scott’s annual Astroworld Festival in Houston, the crowd of 50,000 rushed the stage at the start of his performance after waiting for two hours. The result was was hundreds of injuries and the deaths of at nine people.
Before Slipknot played their huge single “Wait and Bleed,” Taylor made a solid point of commenting on the tragedy without vilifying anyone or any genre of music. Instead, he promoted the metal cultural tenet of If They Fall, Pick ‘Em Up.
“I’m not gonna bring everything down but I feel like it needs to be said,” said Taylor, as transcribed by MetalSucks. “One of the wonderful things about this genre, about this audience, about this family is that we look out for one another. This is supposed to be a place of celebration, of love and about looking out for one another. And everybody that’s ever been in a fucking mosh pit knows: if somebody goes down, you get ’em right the fuck back up. So I want you all to hold on to the memory of those eight souls that we lost. But I also want you to remember this: no matter what show you go to, if you’ve got eyes, you keep ’em open, you keep ’em focused and you look out for one another.”
Watch Corey’s entire statement below:
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Words by Chris Krovatin