SLIPKNOT's CLOWN: 'So Many People In The Beginning Wanted Us To Fail Because We Are So Great'

Amy Harris of CityBeat recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT co-founder/conceptualist/percussionist Shawn M. Crahan (a.k.a. Clown). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

CityBeat: You guys have different uniforms every tour. What is the process to go about designing them or picking them?

Crahan: I am kind of the visionary, so to speak. That doesn't mean visionary of the overall whole thing. I take a lot of responsibility in evolving everything. Right now, since our bass player [Paul Gray] passed away [in 2010], we are reminiscing a life spent. We toured last summer, and we re-made our very first coveralls and brought out our first masks in remembrance to remember where we came from and celebrate his life. The current ones are a mixture of our first album and our second album. His number was number two and he had a really big part in that record as he did all records. We thought we'd give the American kids something special. Usually right now if Paul wouldn't have passed, we would almost be getting done with our fifth record album cycle, getting ready to go home from it. This kind of stuff is all kind of inspired by him a little bit because we don't have a new album and we just are kind of sharing in this thought process with our fans together. We don't see him on stage; they don't see him on stage. We go through it together. We are getting ready to end that thought process of sharing that loss together. It doesn't mean there is an ending to something and a new beginning. There will never be a new beginning. There will always only be nine. But we have toured Europe, we have toured South America, Australia, and now America with this thought process of sharing this loss together. We will end that, that sporadic touring of understanding that he is no longer with us. Then we will take some time off, write a record, record a record, pre-prep tour, go out on tour, drop a record and then support that record. But there will always be nine. I don't know if there will ever be another person on stage. There probably could be a bass player behind us. I don't know and I don't have to think about it because it's a long way off.

CityBeat: Do you get hot in the masks on days like today?

Crahan: No one but the nine will understand that sort of submission. The only way I can explain it is when it is all done and you take it off and look at the mirror and you look at yourself you know that as you walked into the church of the KNOT, onto the altar of the KNOT, giving the sermon of the KNOT to the congregation of the KNOT, and when you are done and the doors are shut and you came back and you take off the attire, you look at yourself and you know that you gave 190 percent of your life lived today and there is nothing more than that. Even if I don't have time to call my wife, even if I don't have time to be creative on my computer, or I am lazy, or I am not getting anything done. One thing I know is I give 190 percent on stage and when I take it off and look at myself and know that I am alive and that I did it and I pulled through that, it is not even a good feeling, for me it is like salvation. I only do this because I am looking for peace. With peace comes war, and I am at war with myself. I have been since I was born. I love music, and I can't imagine life without music. My wife is always there for me. My kids are there for me, but they are their own people. The one thing that has always been there for me is music. Before I met my wife there was music. If my wife were to pass or something there would be music to help me through that. That's not going to happen but I am saying music has always been my life. I owe everything to it.

CityBeat: In the beginning, you guys wanted to remain anonymous by using the masks. You have liked being anonymous through the years, but now people know who you are. Do you still feel like it is necessary?

Crahan: It was kind of a trick because so many people in the beginning wanted us to fail because we are so great. We have been blowing up since day one because a good idea is a good idea and a good song is a good song and a good band is a good band with a performance. So, part of the vision was everyone wanted to know who was behind the mask and that was probably the least most important thing ever. Why ask that? Why not ask how that came about or why this came about or what is behind this? Not what is behind the mask? It is music people are into and music the kids are buying. Rarely do they even get to spend a night with us. It is usually in the car or in their headphones. So why ask that question? So slowly, it wasn't until the third record, I did a documentary called "Voliminal: Inside The Nine" where when I showed behind the scenes footage, I blurred out people's faces, but when I did interviews, I would do nothing but faces. By our third record, people didn't care what we looked like anymore. They liked us better with the mask on. I always knew that would happen. There was never a conscious decision of trying to be out of the limelight without knowing who I am. Let's talk about the music, let's talk about the lyrics, let's talk about the why's not who is behind the mask, because I don't wear a mask. I don't wear a mask at all.

Read the entire interview from CityBeat.