COREY TAYLOR Shoots Down Rumor SLIPKNOT Is Calling It Quits After 'The End, So Far' Album

Corey Taylor has shot down the rumor that SLIPKNOT will break up after the release of the band's next album.

Ever since SLIPKNOT announced the title of its upcoming LP, "The End, So Far", earlier this week, speculation has been rife that the name is a reference to the fact that the LP will mark the end of the band's recording career.

Taylor, who turned 48 last December, addressed the rumor during SLIPKNOT's concert this past Thursday (July 21) at the Hills Of Rock festival in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The singer told the crowd (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'll tell you what, some of you might have heard the news that SLIPKNOT has a new album coming out very, very soon. The name of that album is called 'The End, So Far'. And for those doomsday motherfuckers who think that SLIPKNOT are gonna break up, that is not the case. This simply represents the end of one moment and the beginning of the rest of our fucking lives. Do you understand what I'm fucking saying to you out there?"

In the past, Taylor has repeatedly hinted that he would quit SLIPKNOT if he ever felt that he wasn't able to perform up to a certain standard. During a 2016 appearance on an episode of the "Someone Who Isn't Me" podcast, Taylor was asked if he thought he would ever decide that he is "tired of touring." Taylor replied: "You know, honestly, if you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said no. But, I mean, just now… I'm just kind of starting to… I'm not young anymore. And as willing as my will is, I'm just beat up, man. I mean, I might as well be 60 in SLIPKNOT years, for Christ's sake."

He continued: "I don't know if I would retire. I might step away from SLIPKNOT at some point, just because the way the music is, and that sense of energy, I don't know if I could be able to do that into my fifties. And I would never want the band to feel like I was holding them back, because I just couldn't physically do it. So that means I wouldn't completely quit music; I would probably just step away from SLIPKNOT."

In a 2019 interview with the "Marshall Podcast", Taylor touched upon possible retirement, saying: "It's when you stop caring that you should stop. Period. Because you're not doing it for the same reasons that you started doing it in the first place.

"I talk to fans all the time and they're, like, 'What's your motivation for doing this?', and it's the same since I was 13. It's because I love doing this, I love doing music, I love making music, creating it.

"The money's gonna come and go. If I wanted to make money, there's a host of different jobs that I could do just to make money. This isn't about that; there's something deeper. I'm glad I get to make money doing this, but it's not about that for me, it's about the next one."

Asked if there had been moments where he lost sight of that bit, Corey said: "Only when I was drinking. And it wasn't because of the music. Like, I was still committed to the music, but I was so out of it that it took me out of myself, so I can't even include that because it wasn't me at the time. I also know that one of the things that I realized and what actually encouraged me down the road of sobriety was seeing how bad my voice was sounding, how bad my creative level was at. That was a huge piece in me, calling it a day on that shit."

In a 2018 interview with Music Universe, Taylor was asked about his bandmate Shawn "Clown" Crahan's assessment that the next SLIPKNOT album could be Clown's last. "We all kind of say that," Taylor explained. "I've said it in the past. We've always said — and this is not in a negative way — we've always said that when we get to the point where we physically can't do SLIPKNOT the way we want to do it, we'll stop. And for some of us, the years of being in SLIPKNOT have taken [their] toll. Cold mornings kick my ass. My neck, my knees, my hips… [DJ] Sid [Wilson] has broken every damn bone in his body. Clown, he's had his share of health issues and whatnot and physicality. We've all had an injury in this band — from our necks to our retinas. And honestly, if that was his decision, I wouldn't do SLIPKNOT without him — absolutely not."

He continued: "There's a certain mentality that goes into SLIPKNOT, and he started it. He's always been the vision for this band, for SLIPKNOT, and without that, it crumbles. So, yeah, if he left, that would be it for me as well. And I say that, honestly, in a very positive way, because none of us would want to continue doing it from a half-assed point of view. Nobody wants to go 50 percent on a SLIPKNOT album."

SLIPKNOT's seventh studio album, "The End, So Far", will be released on September 30 via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to 2019's "We Are Not Your Kind", it will be the band's final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.