SLIPKNOT Percussionist Thanks Fans For Their Support

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan has thanked the band's fans for their support in the months following the passing of SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray

Gray's body was found on May 24 in a hotel room in a Des Moines, Iowa suburb. A coroner ruled that the 38-year-old musician died of an accidental overdose of morphine.

Crahan told Metal Hammer magazine, "I haven't publicly spoken about Paul, except for the conference meeting [that was held shortly after his death], but I wanted to let you all know that I want to personally thank everyone who stood up for us and helped us. I want to personally thank each and every person out there who said beautiful things about Paul.

"We really have a fanbase and a culture and it's real important to us, so thank you... We're in a mourning period right now, dude. We're in a place that we never thought we'd be in so it's a little hard to explain, but we have a brotherhood that will never be replaced so there's no worries there."

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor recently said that he doesn't want to make any rash statements about the band's future and is focusing, for the time being, on promoting "Audio Secrecy", the new album from his other band, STONE SOUR.

"It's kind of a gray area right now," Taylor said in FMQB Productions' radio special, "Inside Stone Sour: Audio Secrecy". "Everybody is still feeling it. It's too soon to tell.

"I'm very conflicted about whether or not I want to do anything with SLIPKNOT, because to me, Paul was such an integral part of the band. He was the whole reason that the band was the way it was... Paul was the glue and the orchestrator behind some of the best music we ever wrote. He was the soul of the band.

"I don't want to make any statements that I'll look like a fool in retrospect, but to me, right now, it just doesn't make sense," Taylor said. "Until it does, that's the way it stays for me. That's why I've been saying it's too soon to tell... you never know."

SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison, who was recently out with ROB ZOMBIE on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, told The Pulse of Radio that there have actually been talks about SLIPKNOT's future following Gray's passing. "Shawn (Crahan) just came out, the 'Clown,' he just came out to the Mayhem festival, and we sat down and we talked and we're starting to map out the game plan right now," he said. "So there is another SLIPKNOT record already kinda in the making. You know, we're getting timelines set and, you know, it's gonna be a little bit but there's definitely another record. Paul would always want us to make another record. He wouldn't want the band to stop — SLIPKNOT was his life."