You know you must be doing something right when the guy that basically created your musical genre gives you a compliment. And in this case, it wasn’t just any compliment – Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness himself, once told Corey Taylor that he wanted to be in Slipknot.
Traveling back in time to when Ozzy released his documentary, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne (for additional context, this would’ve been when Slipknot was in between album cycles for All Hope Is Gone and .5: The Gray Chapter), Corey explained on the red carpet of the film premiere about the first time he met Ozzy.
While the original video interview clip isn’t available for embedding, we’ve transcribed his wild story below for you:
“If it weren’t for him, none of us would be doing this, man. You know, he set the standard and all we do is try to live up to it.” Taylor goes on to recall his favorite Ozzy moment: “The first thing that Ozzy ever said to me, man and this was insane, and it came out of nowhere, was – I was sitting in catering with Sharon [Osbourne] and Jack [Osbourne] and like all the kids and everything.
And we were sitting there, and Ozzy came out and I was just like oh my god. And he goes- ‘Slipknot! I want to be number 10.’ And I went [YESSSSSSSS!!], any time you want!! That right there set the tone. He gave me a huge hug and I was like wow.”
Reflecting further on the moment, Cory said: “I mean, it’s just one of those things that makes you fortunate to meet the people that you looked up to and have every expectation be exactly what it was. I think the thing that makes Ozzy so legendary is the fact that even after all this time, he still does it for the pure pleasure of doing it.
You know, yeah, he makes a lot of money doing it. He’s in amazing bands, he’s gotten to play with so many amazing people. But, he still goes out and performs and does it to the best of his ability because he loves to do it.
You know, it’s one of those things that as a fan, and also as a frontman, you hope that you hold on to years later, you know? The guy just loves entertaining the fans, loves having a good time on stage and just lives for it.”
On one hand, the idea of Ozzy in Slipknot is badass. On the other, and this isn’t meant as a diss, but later in life Ozzy didn’t really have the physical stamina for the insanity that is a Slipknot gig, ya know? Regardless, we’d definitely be down for a studio collaboration. Make it happen, boys!
Watch: The Time Slipknot’s Clown Owned a Condescending Interviewer