M. SHAWN 'CLOWN' CRAHAN: 'Whenever SLIPKNOT Calls It A Day, I Ain't Coming Back'

Jason Roche of LA Weekly recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT mastermind/percussionist M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

LA Weekly: During live performances, you often put yourself at risk of physical injury by doing insane stunts on stage. Has your recovery time gotten longer as you've gotten older?

Crahan: Oh, yeah ... I'm always injuring myself. I don't know if it's because I'm a klutz or an idiot, I don't know. I just had major knee surgery. I took a trip to Australia, and when I got back, I couldn't move my left leg. The normal healing time runs up to the exact date of our first show on Rockstar Mayhem. I'm not worried, though, about me. I'm worried about Clown. Clown will take the weakness of me, and tell me to deal with it. And then Clown gets to disappear after the show, but I am stuck with all of the damage. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I treat every show like it's the last. Since the beginning, every show we've told ourselves that this could be the last. My kids know that if I die on stage, that's where I should have gone. I don't want to, though. I want to live for a very long time. I'd like to retire and leave on a good note. Whenever SLIPKNOT calls it a day, I ain't coming back. I'm in Tahiti with my wife, wearing some stupid briefs on a beach with a Corona in my hand, while she is walking around topless.

LA Weekly: You mentioned some of the outside endeavors you want to pursue outside of music. What exactly are your goals with Living Breathing Films?

Crahan: I want to make psychological thrillers. I want to make you look at life differently. I remember seeing "Taxi Driver" while growing up, and my mom would explain how people were in an uproar about Jodie Foster being an underage girl portraying a prostitute. That excited me that you could have that effect on people through cinematography. I've been married 19 years. The first time I watched Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut", I got fifteen minutes into it, pushed "stop" and went upstairs and stared at my wife for half an hour. She looked up and asked, "What's up?" I asked, "Are we all good?" She said, "Of course we are." The next day, I turned the movie on again, I got about seven more minutes in, shut the fucker off until I was confident we were all good. That's the effect I want to have on people in everything I do with my art, my music, my films.

Read the entire interview from LA Weekly.