The death of Dave Williams, former singer for the Dallas, Texas nu-metal band Drowning Pool, cut Slipknot singer Corey Taylor deeply. Williams was the original vocalist for Drowning Pool, and according to Taylor, before he was ever a famous frontman, he was a diehard Slipknot fan.
Williams only got to record one album with the band prior to his death in 2002, that album being Drowning Pool’s 2001 debut, Sinner. Williams died from cardiomyopathy, which is a disease of the heart muscle.
During a recent chat with Rock Feed, Taylor paid tribute to the late Drowning Pool singer. Speaking about how he knew Williams as a Slipknot fan first, Taylor says:
“We knew Dave Williams way before Drowning Pool. He was a maggot from Texas who just came to every f******g show, and was working on getting his band signed. So, we knew him way before anybody else did.”
Taylor goes on to share that he and Williams were actually meant to chill not too long after his death took place:
“I was slated to hang out with him two days after he passed away because they were doing a radio show that Stone Sour was actually on. And yeah, that was a bad day. It was a horrible day. He was one of the sweetest people on the f*****g planet, dude.”
Rock Feed goes on to talk about how Williams’s music can still be enjoyed by fans today, which prompts Taylor to express how much he likes the band’s album, Sinner. Speaking about that record, the Slipknot singer says, “That first album is so f*****g good.
“People forget, man. You can go back and listen to that album, and you put that album out now and it still resonates with people.”
Following his death, Williams was replaced by Ryan McCombs in 2005; Drowning Pool remains active to this day, their latest album being 2022’s Strike a Nerve. Below you can hear Corey Taylor talk about Drowning Pool’s Dave Williams.