STONE SOUR's COREY TAYLOR: 'We Have Really Intelligent, Passionate Fans That Follow Us'

Phil Freeman of RoadrunnerRecords.com recently conducted an interview with Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT, STONE SOUR). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: How did [STONE SOUR's two-disc concept album, "House Of Gold & Bones"] start? Did you write the story first, and the album after, or vice versa?

Corey: To be honest, the album and the story were kinda symbiotic. I'd had the idea for a while, but just in a very general sense. It wasn't until last year that I started sketching it out and looking at a beginning, middle and end. And that, honestly, as I was writing these ideas down, that kind of got me writing music in my head. So they kinda fed each other. And once I demoed all these songs, it really got me thinking about the story a little stronger, and really writing the story, almost cuing off the music and vice versa. So I really don't think I could have done one without the other. It was a very weird, almost serendipitous situation to be in.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: Were the other guys in the band into it right away, or did they take some convincing?

Corey: No, they were pretty into it, man, and that's the cool thing about this band. They weren't hesitant at all, they were quietly very into it, and then really took that energy and excitement and put it toward the recording. Instead of getting overly stoked about it, they were just like, “This is a great idea, let's just get right to it.” I think the more I explained the story to them, the more they got into it, and the more I explained the grand scope of what I wanted to do with the short story and the comics and the artwork and everything, that just made it even better for them. They could really see that this was a huge project to embark on, and they really rose to the challenge.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: STONE SOUR's not a "concept album" kind of band in a lot of people's minds - were you worried you'd alienate some fans with a move like this?

Corey: Honestly, I'm not worried about it. By doing this, we're not saying that for the rest of our career we're gonna make nothing but concept albums. For me, it was the excitement of just capitalizing on all the creativity and doing something that could really tie everything together under one umbrella project and give something special to the fans. But I would only be worried about it if the songs weren't there, and the songs are so clearly there. At the end of the day, it's not like we wrote the music specifically to tell this story. They go hand in hand. So to me, that wasn't just the best challenge about it, but the best payoff, knowing that we had all this great music and we were going to be able to tell this great story in those kind of confines and really excel at it. Trust me, if I didn't think our fans could take it, I wouldn't have done it. But we have really intelligent, passionate fans that follow us, and I think they're really gonna dig this.

Read the entire interview at RoadrunnerRecords.com.