“He’s still part of the family”: Slipknot Frontman Corey Taylor Opens Up About The Late Joey Jordison

José Goulão from Lisbon, Portugal, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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The late Joey Jordison had parted ways with Slipknot back in 2013, with neither Jordison or Slipknot providing any official statement as to specifically why he was leaving the band. Then, on July 26th, 2021, Jordison passed away. Between leaving Slipknot and his passing, frontman Corey Taylor has had a lot to process.

While Corey Taylor has spoken on Jordison’s passing and their relationship in the past, he has shared even more insight now into when he first heard of Jordison’s death. Earlier this month, Taylor spoke publicly during a Q&A session at Mad Monster Party on February 18th; when asked about how he dealt with the loss of Joey, Corey Taylor said the following (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 [SLIPKNOT percussionist M. Shawn Crahan] 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.”

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Words by: Michael Pementel