COREY TAYLOR: 'I Don't Know' If JOEY JORDISON Will Ever Return To SLIPKNOT

MusikUniverse.net conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor before the band's November 30 concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether the new SLIPKNOT musicians — believed to be drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Alessandro "Vman" Venturella — are "hired guns" or they will eventually become "official" members:

Corey: "We'll just have to see, won't we? I mean, nobody is handed anything in this band. Everybody earns what they get in this band. And that's what I've been telling everybody since Day One. I know a lot of the fans were upset because we wouldn't commit to anything. It's, like, 'Woooah, hold on!' We've been a band for fifteen years, and we've done a lot together. And you don't just get handed something like that; you earn your way in. I can tell you they're doing great. They're fantastic to hang out with, they're great on stage, they sound awesome, and we're having a good time. Other than that, we'll just have to see what we see."

On whether SLIPKNOT will officially reveal the new musicians' identities once they have been made "official" members of the band:

Corey: "Yeah, we'll probably end up telling the world next year. But for right now it was more important to just kind of get all of the important stuff out of the way first — get the album out, get the video done, get Knotfest done, get the first tours done, just to re-establish the band. 'Cause it's not about the individual members. And that's one of the reasons why we've done it like that. It's, like, it's not about them. Don't make it about them. Because we're trying to make it about the music first, and the show first. It's about the collective. And people forget that that's the way it was in the beginning. We really tried to put the band first when we first started. It wasn't until later that people started doing various projects that people started to get to know us individually. It's not like we just kind of did that to begin with. And that's what we're trying to get back to. When the time is right, people will know."

On whether he can see drummer Joey Jordison returning to SLIPKNOT one day:

Corey: "I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's hard, you know?! One of the reasons why he's not with us now is because he was going one way and we were going another, and I mean on all fronts. With respect to Joey, I won't comment any more. But the future holds surprises that none of us can see in advance. So all I can say is we'll see. But 'I don't know' pretty much covers it."

On whether SLIPKNOT urged its new drummer to play in the style of Joey Jordison during the recording sessions for the band's fifth studio album, ".5: The Gray Chapter":

Corey: "No, no. We kind of let him go. The great thing about our drummer is that he grew up a fan. So he has been coming to our shows since he was very little. So his style just happened to be that frenetic kind of vibe to it. And that was a relief; it was one of the reasons why we wanted him. We didn't want a [Joey] clone — let's put it that way. We wanted somebody who could — technically — could fulfill everything from the old stuff but also had their very own style. And that's what the drummer has; he has a very distinct style that just happens to fit with pretty much everything that we do. But we let him kind of do… We encouraged him, obviously, to explore different parts and take things to another level instead of kind of laying back and doing what would be 'normal,' I guess. But for the most part, we just kind of let him get on with it."

SLIPKNOT's new album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", sold around 132,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on October 21 via Roadrunner.