Interview with the Clown (6) from
Slipknot
November 10th 1999
interview by Lesa Pence
I was lucky enough to have been able to speak with one of the most charismatic members of Slipknot on this November evening. Shawn (6), percussionist and psychotic clown, called me prior to their Portland, Oregon gig and graciously revealed some of his personal likes and dislikes, and gave me an intimate and realistic look at the man behind the mask�
What did you do today?
Not a damn thing. Slept, ate, getting ready to play.
How�s the tour treating you guys?
Awesome.
You tired yet?
Yeah, we�re pretty burnt.
Are you? You ready to retire?
Oh, not retire. Maybe like, three days off would be good.
Not ready to pack it in yet, huh?
No way. We�re all good.
So, tell me your latest good road story.
Seems like the band is better and better every day. We�re getting sicker and sicker and sicker. We�re getting closer to our real dreams and that�s, you know, world domination.
Last night, Joey (the drummer) - I�ve been playing with him for about 4 years and I�ve known him for about 10 - and he�s pretty anal about his equipment and he just destroyed his drums last night. It�s an $8,000.00 drum set. He broke like 4 cymbals, broke his cage, fucking tossed his drums, threw kegs on �em. Just went pretty crazy.
Whoa!
So, that was enlightening.
That was a new one on you, huh?
Yeah, cut his leg all open and everything.
I was going to ask you if anyone had been to the hospital lately.
No. We almost took him, but we were able to get the bleeding under control and everything.
I heard that you don�t ever take your masks off during interviews. Are you wearing your mask right now?
Uhm. I�m not wearing one right now. (laughter)
What ARE you wearing right now?
Uh.. shoes. Socks. Pants. Two shirts, a jacket, and a John Deere hat.
Are you cold there right now or something? It gets cold in Iowa, doesn�t it?
Oh yeah. It�s Shining weather.
You get buried in the snow, no wonder you�re so crazy.
Oh yeah, I get cabin fever.
Have you toured the MidWest already?
Yeah, we�ve played at home and we�ve played Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska�
How are they responding to your shows?
I don�t know if they�re onto it yet, but they got a big surprise if they fuck with us �cuz we fuck with you back. I don�t put up with shit.
Have you had any run-ins with protestors like Marilyn Manson used to at their shows?
No, because we don�t talk about politics or religion so we�re not flat out just coming on and saying "worship the devil" or any of that�
(Strange sounds in the background of someone coughing and Shawn is telling them to turn the hot water on really high. Sounds like Shawn is helping someone who is ill to steam themselves out.)
What�s the matter?
We got a little sickness going on. But it won�t stop the show. Can�t kill us.
Somebody sick?
Yeah, about all of us.
Don�t get the flu, man. It�s putting everybody down for about two weeks.
Well what happened was uh�our drum roadie got pneumonia. And he doesn�t have it full-fledged but it�s starting to get on other people.
Well I wish him the best of luck.
It can�t kill us. The show will go on.
What�s the biggest misconception about your band?
Uhm.. (laughs) I hate it when [journalists] say, "Are you lke Gwar,, ICP or Kiss?" It�s like, SHUT THE FUCK UP. It�s like yeah, we�re exactly like all of them. Yeah, right.
I�m the kind of guy that like, you and your friend could be in your car, talking about say, Edgar Allen Poe going back and forth arguing about it, blah blah blah and I�m in the back seat and I�m not even paying attention. And, then we make a stop at my house and you go up and look in my bathroom, and on my book shelf I�ve got every book Edgar Allen Poe has ever done. I�m that way with the band. All these people have all these misconceptions. And they all wanna fuckin� talk. They wanna talk about the coveralls and the masks and the 9 guys and the 3 drummers and they wanna talk all this shit, right?
Right.
But you know what? They�re talking before they see. And then they come and see the band and then they�re fucking holes. They�re "sucks", as I call them. Their dripping little sucks fucking shut the fuck up after they�ve seen us.
Admittedly, I wasn�t as into Slipknot as I was after I saw your show. The next day, I was telling everyone I knew (even my goth friends) that if they do not come to the next show with me they would be making the biggest mistake�
So they�re all coming to the show?
Oh yeah, they�ll be there. You�ll like playing at the Palace, too. Lots of room there for you guys to go off.
Yeah, that�s what our manager was saying.
I�m curious what the story is behind the song, "Purity".
Well, basically there was this thing on the internet. And it was a very frightening story�
(wretching sounds in the background �Shawn says to someone nearby - "Are you puking?")
Uh.. there was a webpage that had this story, and it seemed off the bat that the story was probably made up, but if you put that aside, and just read the story, it was a pretty fascinating story and it was extremely disturbing. And when I showed the story to Corey, our lead singer, it really fucked him up. And, you know, he wrote off it. He tied personal experiences with the collaboration of what it was about and he wrote the song "Purity" and that�s about the extent of it.
Interesting�
We�re actually having to pull it off the album. I can�t really talk about it, but it�s not directly because of the song "purity" it�s more because of some other stuff that I just can�t talk about. And, you know, it�s all right, because if people want to point fingers or whatever and people always want to go gold digging.. whatever, dude. We�re always going to play the song live. And if you�re one of those artists out there that isn�t fucking honored when you influence someone to take it one step further, you can just go fuck off, you know?
You literally have to take it off of the CD?
Yeah, it will be pulled off.
So, the people who have it now are lucky, right?
Very lucky, yeah.
Whoa�that�s wild.
Just to let everyone know, we�re putting a song called "Me Inside" that is on the digipak and it�s also going to be on the free sampler, I mean, we�re not doing this to generate anything or whatever it�s just something that we have to do.
Not a publicity stunt�
No. Absolutely not, because we�re always going to play the song and it�s one of those things that happened and you know, whatever. We�re not gonna sit here fucking spending a lot of time thinking about it. We�re always gonna play it live and if you have it, you can play it for your friends. It�s on with business. Let�s get on with it, you know?
Right, cool. Are any of you guys related?
No. We�re related in the music scene, we all used to open up for each other in different bands. That�s how we�ve known each other for a very, very long time. But none of us were like old fuckin� school hardcore friends from the beginning
Are any of the band members married besides you?
Uh, yeah. I�m the only one with the kids, you know.
Wow. You�ve got kids, too?
Three kids. 8, 6 and 3. Two girls and my middle one�s a boy. And Craig, the sampler, is married.
Do the wives and girlfriends get scared watching your live shows like the wives or girlfriends of boxers or racecar drivers do?
Well, I don�t know about anybody else�s girlfriends, but my wife, it�s kind of a catch 22 with her. I mean, I�ll call her up on Ozzfest like "Hey I cut my head open, I got 17 stitches" and she�ll tell me "You know, if you ever kill yourself for this band, I�ll tell your children that you chose the band"! She�ll give me shit and I�ll have to be really good. And then she�ll come to the next show and I�ll be like "Honey, what did you think?" and she�ll say "Oh the lights were good.." and I�m like "No.. what did you THINK?" and she�ll say "Well, you�re not doing flips anymore, you�re not throwing things" and I�m like "What the fuck"!?
(more commotion in the background)
Hold on a second�
(Shawn is giving someone direction about how to work the shower knobs� I can hear him telling someone "Hey it smells like puke in here!" He starts laughing uncontrollably�and then says "Ahhh I love my band members" laughs some more�"We have a black cloud that follows us" laughs a lot more. )
What did you do for Halloween?
Uh, dressed up like Slipknot and played.
Have you seen anybody impersonating you guys yet?
Every show.
Are people making their own masks and stuff?
Yeah, making their own masks and they come as�
(Someone screams in the background� Shawn starts laughing really hard and can�t talk
and finally asks me, "Did you hear him"? �laughs some more� "This band�s fucking nuts"!!! laughs and laughs)
What would people be surprised to find out that you like to do with your spare time?
I, personally, I�m really in love with art. Anything to do with it. I�m constantly working with my children. They all have a very awesome talent, drawing and painting. I weld, I make sculpture and stuff and I�m always creating stuff on the computer, like movies and pictures. And Corey, he�s a fucking movie freak. Movies and comic books.
What kind of movies does he like?
Everything. It doesn�t matter if it�s humor, or what it is, as long as it has a little substance. It can�t just be a piece of shit movie.
Did you guys see "Fight Club�?
Yeah.
What did you think?
Fight Club is exactly what I have been probably for the last 10 years of my life. And I am not making that up. That movie aggravated me, made my stomach so upset. There are so many things in that movie that are me, personally, that I almost lost it. I mean, I was like "Oh my God". I mean, forget that you�re beating the fuck out of yourself or out of someone, you�re doing it to get the fucking pain of being born� you�re getting the pain of the world out.. and that�s what I do every day in this band. I just beat the shit out of myself.
You�re one of the lucky ones. You�ve got an outlet.
Yeah. Totally, I�m fucking so privileged. It can be taken away at any time. So that movie made me mental. So anyway, there�s Sid, he�s the DJ. He�s got a group that he�s a part of. It�s like all these local DJs where he�s from called SPC, that he�s kind of involved with and they do raves and that kind of stuff.
So, he still has time to do that then?
They don�t have albums out or shit like that, they�re just good friends, best friends, they�re all DJs and they go support each other. They�ll do a rave and everyone will come out and support them; it�s just something they�re all a part of. Craig, he�s a computer genius�.
Do you both work on the band website?
I do Slipknot 2 and Craig does Slipknot 1.
It�s incredible work, you should be really proud of yourself. It�s a total experience to go there, it�s not just a website.
Thank you. Thanks very much. It�s me and one other guy. And the other guy does the actual programming and we sit there for hours and hours together. Conceptually, we did it together. I was involved in Slipknot 1 in the beginning, but it wasn�t making me happy. That page needs to be more informational. You know, banners and (sarcastic voice) if you don�t have Netscape, click here�all this bullshit. All this ugly shit that I hate, that takes away from the artistic Then I saw Flash 4 for the first time, with the guy who helps me do this one (he�s a guitar tech and he was in a different band at the time ) and he showed me and I was so impressed with the way it moved, that my brain started making movies and when came together and we did it!
The site is awesome.
It�s actually gonna get a facelift. It�s gonna get "eviller". It�s gonna get so evil, that.. you�ll leave your work and school and your boyfriend to come home and figure out puzzles to get information! It�s gonna be so fucking nuts people aren�t gonna be able to handle it.
Kind of like PinHead from Hellraiser�s little box, right?
Yep! Exactly!
Can�t wait� when are you going to have the time? On the road or what?
We�re all looking for a little bit of time off. A little bit of time off would really, be nice. Once we get some time off then I�m gonna start doing some web page shit again and we�ll go from there.
I�ve got one last question and then I�ll let you attend to your band�s medical needs. What do you want for Christmas and have you been good this year?
I�ve never been good. Ever. I don�t think there�s one year that I�ve ever been good. But to be honest, I just want to be home for Christmas.
You think you will be?
Yeah, we are. We�re actually going to Europe and we won�t be back until the 23rd. and then I�m home from the 23rd until New Year�s. I just want to be home with my children, that�s all I want. I want to get a Christmas tree and I want to watch them wake up and open presents.
Well, good luck on the rest of the tour.
Well thanks; say hi when we come through.
Yeah, I�ll definitely see you at the show here in Hollywood.
Cool.
Stay as healthy as possible.
I will, and I�ll see you at the show.
Thanks for talking to me, Shawn.
All right. Bye Lesa.