SLIPKNOT Frontman Rejects Blame In Sword Slaying

August 20, 2008

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has spoken exclusively to Blender magazine regarding reports that the schoolboy who stabbed a fellow student to death with a sword in South Africa Monday morning (August 18) wore a mask that resembled the one worn by Taylor. Eighteen-year-old Morné Harmse slashed the neck of 16-year-old Jacques Pretorius at the Nic Diederichs technical high school in the town of Krugersdorp, with students who witnessed the fatal attack saying that Harmse looked and acted like he was "possessed by the devil." Pretorius died at the scene. Harmse also stabbed two gardeners, and authorities discovered three more swords and four other masks in his school bag. The additional masks reportedly were patterned after those worn by SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison, percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan and DJ Sid Wilson.

Local community leader Pierre Eksteen put the blame on music, saying, "He came here camouflaged as the guy from SLIPKNOT. We know the wrong kind of music and drugs have bad effects. Young people need to be informed of the effects of bad Satanic music."

But the head of the South African police's investigative psychology unit, Gerard Labuschagne, responded, "Whenever there is a murder, people jump to conclusions, and always God or Satan told the killers to do it. These notions shouldn't be taken seriously because it is straightforward: someone, of their own free will, can kill another person."

Taylor told Blender: "Obviously, I'm disturbed by the fact that people were hurt and someone died. As far as my responsibility for that goes, it stops there, because I know our message is actually very positive." He continued,"You have something like this happen, it could have been Marilyn Manson, it could have been any number of people who make art that is startling visually, on the darker side. It could've been Pat Boone, for Christ's sake. At the end of the day, there are always going to be mental disorders and people who cause violence for no other reason than the fact that they're fucked up and lost. And all we can do is try to learn from it."

Morné Harmse in court - audio report from South Africa's The Times newspaper:

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