See CLOWN Rejoin SLIPKNOT On Stage At U.K.'s DOWNLOAD Festival

SLIPKNOT co-founder and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) rejoined his bandmates last night (Sunday, June 11) for their headlining set at the Download festival in the United Kingdom. His return to the live stage came just four days after it was announced that Crahan was taking an indefinite leave of absence from SLIPKNOT's live shows in order to stay home with his wife, who is suffering from some undisclosed health issues.

SLIPKNOT's summer European tour kicked off on June 7 at the Nova Rock festival in Austria, and includes dates in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark and more.

In a 2005 interview with the Des Moines Register, Shawn talked about his wife's ongoing battle with Crohn's disease (a chronic inflammatory bowel disease) and her hospitalization which forced him at the time to skip the first SLIPKNOT gigs of his career.

"That's the thing I fight for most in this biz, is family," he said. "Family can and is being incorporated into rock 'n' roll. You can have a wife, you can have a child or children and be a rock 'n' roller."

"Right now has definitely been the hardest time in my life," said the father of four children.

Crahan said that "health is the most important thing you have on this planet if you're gonna have a successful life," and so he knows it's ironic that as his wife battles daily for normalcy, he's slamming his body around the stage each night.

"The older you get, the wiser you get on how to benefit from taking care of yourself in your performance," Crahan said. "But my performance is to feel uncomfortable, so I'm kind of screwed any way you look at it."

Last October, Shawn reflected on the loss of his daughter in an interview with U.K.'s Independent, saying it is one of the most horrific pains any parent can go through. Losing a child isn't something you get over," he said. "That's all I can say. It changes you — and that's it."

Gabrielle Crahan died in May 2019 in Los Angeles, with Shawn announcing the death the following day. The 22-year-old was one of four children Shawn had with his wife, Chantel, whom he married in June 1992.

SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, "The End, So Far", which was released last September via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to "We Are Not Your Kind", it is the band's final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.