COREY TAYLOR: 2011 Has Been 'One Of The Biggest Years For Me'

Christina Fuoco-Karasinski of SoundSpike recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer Corey Taylor. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

SoundSpike: When you look back at the year 2011, what do you see?

Corey Taylor: Um, it's pretty crazy. It's been one of the biggest years for me. It's been bittersweet, obviously, taking the stage with SLIPKNOT for the first time without [late bassist] Paul [Gray]. Of course, Roy Mayorga [STONE SOUR drummer] having his stroke. It really was a year of ups and downs. It had its peaks and valleys. It's kind of like making an album. You can only hope that after the valleys you end on that high note. It seems like this year is ending in a really good place. I'm hoping next year is even better, basically.

SoundSpike: Part of your amazing year was the opportunity to speak to students at Oxford University in England.

Corey Taylor: That was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I've ever experienced in my life. It wasn't that I was nervous, I was very anxious. You know how when you're looking forward to something so much you almost mess it up worse than you could have if you'd just been nervous? So it took me a little bit to settle myself down. Just try to enjoy it don't just try to get through it. Just try to enjoy it. It was great. They've been trying to get me for three years. The cool thing about it is the list of people they come up with is requests that come from the students themselves. When they asked me to speak, I was just blown away. I wanted to make sure I was able to do it this year. It went really well. It seemed like the students really dug what I was saying, Then when we were done, I had some time left, so I was like "Well screw it, let's have a Q&A real quick." That's really where the idea for the Q&A in my show came from, was doing that speech at Oxford. You take a little bit with you no matter what you do.

SoundSpike: What do you have planned for next year?

Corey Taylor: Next year is basically working on a new STONE SOUR album. Hopefully get in the studio in March and start recording that. SLIPKNOT, we're going to tour Australia on the Soundwave festival, and then in late summer, we're going to go out on a summer festival tour here in the States. Yeah, that's the plan right now. Plus, in there somewhere, be a dad and basically just start work on book No. 2.

SoundSpike: You must have really enjoyed writing book No. 1 then?

Corey Taylor: Yeah ,I had a really good time doing it. It came together quicker than I thought it was going to. I was just really excited that (a) I wrote it myself and (b) people really, really, really, really dug it. That was really what was important for me, is making sure I wrote it from righteous standpoint and that people read it and enjoyed it, and it's still doing really well. I'm really happy about that.

SoundSpike: Was it difficult to write at times?

Corey Taylor: Not really; the thing that I learned quickly was that if I was feeling the inspiration, I would write. If I wasn't, I would leave it alone. I never tried to force anything. That really helped me get to the meat of it. It kept it fresh. It kept it exciting. It kept it more creative. I didn't really suffer any writer's block, so that was a good thing.

Read the entire interview from SoundSpike.