Corey Taylor Thinks He Only Has 'Another Five Years' Of Rigorous Touring With Slipknot

Corey Taylor doesn’t think he’ll be touring rigorously with Slipknot for too much longer.

Appearing on Germany’s Rock Antenne podcast, the Heretic Anthem vocalist revealed that the physical demand of touring with an intensely full-on band like Slipknot when he’s turning 50 in December is fine now, but he wants to be replaced if he can’t do it any longer.

“As long as I can physically do it, and as long as there are people there to see it, man, I'll continue to do it,” Taylor said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. “Now, if the quality starts to fail, then I'll know it's time to hand it in. I've already thought about it; maybe I've got another five years left of physically touring like this.

“I try to take care of myself. I work out when I can. The travel out here [in Europe] is exhausting; the food is horrible, so it makes it hard to do that. But as long as I can keep at it, that's at least what I wanna do. So, yeah, it is what it is.”

And if his bandmates want to continue and Taylor doesn’t, he has no problem with the band finding another vocalist. “If they wanted to continue and I wanted to retire, I would help them find somebody, to be honest,” he said. “This band has always been bigger than the sum of its own parts.

“It was hard moving on without Paul [Gray, late Slipknot bassist]. It was hard moving on when we had to part ways with Joe [late Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison]. It's always been hard when the original nine ceases to be the original nine, but at the same time, the ones who are here are here because we love it, and we've always gotten something out of it.

“I've said it since day one — if I didn't want to do Slipknot, I wouldn't do it.” You can check out the interview below.

Slipknot were in Australia in March, headlining their namesake festival Knotfest for the first time down under. Kill Your Stereo’s review of Knotfest Australia concluded about their performance, “Slipknot, indeed, is the heirs-apparent to the Metal Throne as THE G.O.A.T. once Metallica calls it a day.” Read the full review here.

It’s been a strange time for Slipknot, as Shawn “Clown” Crahan has dropped out of numerous tour dates to be with his wife, who is dealing with unspecified health issues. 

Outside of Clown’s temporary step back, Craig Jones, it seems, has left the band for good after 27 years of service. Slipknot stated his departure in a brief statement on social media, writing in a now-deleted Instagram post, per Metal Hammer:

"To our fans, Slipknot is announcing that we have parted ways with Craig Jones. We wish Jones all the best for the future."

Then, to confuse fans even more, Slipknot posted a photo of a new masked being to Instagram on the same day, insinuating a new member had joined the group. They then dropped the new EP titled Adderall, much to the surprise of their fans.