SLIPKNOT's JOEY JORDISON Has No Interest In Seeing BLACK SABBATH Without BILL WARD

U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine recently got the chance to chat to SLIPKNOT and SCAR THE MARTYR drummer Joey Jordison and asked him for his thoughts on some of metal's big-hitters that have been grabbing headlines this year. Here’s what he had to say.

On AVENGED SEVENFOLD:

Jordison: "Honestly, I don't own any AVENGED SEVENFOLD records and I've not heard the new record. I've read about comparisons to METALLICA on the new record, and I guess there's a certain controversy around that, but I've not paid that much attention to it. Nothing against them, I'm not knocking them, but I was just never a fan: not that they're bad, they're just one of those bands that kinda bypassed me."

On METALLICA:

Jordison: "That's the fucking band. Without METALLICA, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing. I have every METALLICA record, of course, and I would spend hours on drums in my parents' basement, with the stereo behind me, cranking those records and learning Lars' [Ulrich] drum beats, beat by beat. And nowadays, for me, METALLICA can do whatever the fuck they want. I'm not sure that 'Lulu' is something I'd be getting into, but METALLICA have a free pass from me to do anything, I can't really knock anything they do. I mean [LED] ZEPPELIN and THE WHO passed the torch to METALLICA; they're that band for our generation. Everything they do now is going to be met with a little bit of a backlash just because they're so big, but without METALLICA, there would be no heavy bands, hardly. People have a hard time saying that, and obviously there's a ton of other great bands, but there's a reason that they're huge and have been able to expand their audience to millions and millions and millions of people. I have nothing but praise for them."

On BLACK SABBATH:

Jordison: "Proper SABBATH is SABBATH with Bill Ward. I'm sorry, it just is. Bill Ward is one of the most underrated drummers ever — the dude is fucking unreal, such a great, great player. And I just can't bring myself to see SABBATH without Bill Ward, because he was such an integral part of that band. He's like John Bonham or Keith Moon, one of those drummers who made the drum parts of those classic songs just as special as the guitar riffs or the vocals. I respect those guys doing what they're doing, but sorry, count me out."