Meet the front man of ‘the most revolting band in the world’

Corey Taylor, the singer of Slipknot, laughs when I observe that he is disappointingly well adjusted. He had just been explaining that he does his own cleaning at home, that he ‘hates seeing privilege and entitlement’, that he can get from place to place without needing his hand held (you might scoff, but many musicians get infantilised by a life of indulging and being indulged). ‘I have a very healthy ego,’ he says. ‘But I also know to keep it in check as much as I can, because I don’t want to be that dude.’

Which is not to say Slipknot’s career has been free of incident. Far from it. Though they have released only six studio albums over the past 21 years — the last three all US No. 1s — they’re the biggest metal band to have emerged since Metallica in the 1980s, headlining arenas and festivals around the world, and they achieved that by being anything but sensible and well adjusted.

The Daily Telegraph called them ‘the most revolting band in the world’; they were accused of inspiring murders in both South Africa and California; there was a bizarre incident when a grave robber left their lyrics at the scene of the crime; they’ve had one member die of a drug overdose; and they’ve been painted as a mortal threat to society. And, to be fair, their appearance — clad in horror masks and black leather — doesn’t make them look like people you’d want to take home to mother. Taylor himself was sexually abused as a child in Iowa. He was drinking at 11, and a heavy user of cocaine and methamphetamine by his mid-teens. By the time he was 18, he had tried to kill himself. ‘Let’s put it this way,’ he says. ‘I chose this life because of how dark it was.’