SLIPKNOT's COREY TAYLOR: 'We Still Feel The Urge To Go Above And Beyond'

In a recent interview with Music Week, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor and percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan were asked if record sales still matter in an industry that has completely changed since the band's first album was first released 20 years ago.

"What's important is what's always been important for me, and that is to be able to get the demons out and to be able to perform," Crahan responded. "I like to live through music and I like to take my pain and music and perform it in front of people who like to let out their pain and love. That's number one. Record sales have never meant anything to me ever, and I'll tell you why. I'm sorry I don't know the exact fact, but I want to say it was [2008 album] 'All Hope Is Gone' that finally helped [2001 record] 'Iowa' to be certified platinum. Business begets business. From the time 'Iowa' came out until the time it went platinum, which was many, many years after, all I heard from people was that 'Iowa' was the greatest metal album of all time, but, fuck, it didn't even go platinum until our fourth record. If I got caught up in record sales, I would drive myself mad."

Regarding what has kept SLIPKNOT together for two decades, Taylor said: "I think it's just the belief in what we do. It's the love of the music. If that went away, we would, too. It's just the excitement of writing new music, of creating new art, new content, and the excitement of getting that in front of an audience… The minute you feel like you've achieved it, that's usually when people start to phone it in. The minute you feel like, 'Ah, I don't need to try that hard anymore,' that's the death of a dream. That's when a lot of bands just start to basically repackage the shit they've done before, you know? You can see it in their eyes, man; you can hear it in their voice and hear it in their approach. Something's gone. It's almost like the spirit's left the body. Whereas we still feel that dedication, that urge to go above and beyond."

SLIPKNOT played its first full concert in two and a half years on June 7 at Rockfest in Hyvinkää, Finland.

The band's European tour will run through a July 5 appearance at the Resurrection Fest in Spain. It will be followed by the "Knotfest Roadshow" headline tour of North America. VOLBEAT, GOJIRA and BEHEMOTH will join as special guests on all dates. Produced by Live Nation, the 29-city outing will kick off July 26 in Mountain View, California at Shoreline Amphitheater and continue through September 8 where it will conclude with a performance at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, Texas.

The group's sixth studio album, "We Are Not Your Kind", will arrive on August 9. It has been preceded by the release of a new single, "Unsainted", and the first live performance on this album cycle, a two-song appearance on the May 17 edition of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"