Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
Speaker 1: story about death, the smell of it, the feel of it,
Speaker 1: the finality of it. It's a story about being bored
Speaker 1: to death, about being beaten to death. It's about sudden
Speaker 1: death and a death by a thousand cuts. Most importantly,
Speaker 1: it's a story about death metal. Because this is also
Speaker 1: the story of a band. A band whose music was
Speaker 1: so dark that one of their members quit rather than
Speaker 1: risk eternal damnation. A band whose live shows were so
Speaker 1: intense they nearly left one band member dead. A band
Speaker 1: whose music was so disturbing, so evil, that some would
Speaker 1: say it led to immer. This is the story of
Speaker 1: slipknot the most extreme thing to come out of Iowa
Speaker 1: since the taco pizza was invented there in nineteen seventy four,
Speaker 1: a band known for their stage mass as much as
Speaker 1: their music. Great music, unlike that loop I played for
Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my melotron called ozembic
Speaker 1: Face MK one. I played you that loop because I
Speaker 1: can't afford the rights to get Busy by Sean Paul,
Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
Speaker 1: Down in Dirty Cheese. Could I afford it? Because that
Speaker 1: was the number one song in America on May twenty third,
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, And that was the day too
Speaker 1: California teenagers committed a brutal murder, a murder they claimed
Speaker 1: was inspired by slip Knot on this episode Death Metal
Speaker 1: down in Dirty Cheese. In the dark world of slip Knot,
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and.
Speaker 2: This this disgraceland.
Speaker 1: He was screaming as he hit the water. Instantly he
Speaker 1: knew he made a terrible mistake. The water was swirling
Speaker 1: all around him, flooding into his mouth and filling his
Speaker 1: throat and pushing into his lungs. Panicking, he tried to
Speaker 1: his arms free, but they were pinned tightly to his side.
Speaker 1: He couldn't move them an inch. As his body sunk
Speaker 1: deeper and deeper into the murky water. His legs were
Speaker 1: in the air. Kicking frantically, he prayed that someone, anyone,
Speaker 1: would help him, but no one noticed, or if they did,
Speaker 1: they were probably laughing. He was a clown, after all, well,
Speaker 1: he was wearing a clown mask. At least the man
Speaker 1: currently drowning in a metal barrel was Sean Kran aka
Speaker 1: Number six aka Clown, the founder of Slipknot, and he
Speaker 1: was about to die tragically choking to death in eighteen
Speaker 1: inches of water, stuck upside down in a trash can
Speaker 1: in front of thousands of metal heads at oz Fest
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine. That summer, the band broke out on
Speaker 1: their first nationwide tour as part of the oz Fest lineup.
Speaker 1: Among bands like Slayer, Godsmack, and System of a Down,
Speaker 1: slip Knot stood out first. There were the sheer numbers.
Speaker 1: There were nine of them, like some kind of heavy
Speaker 1: metal wu tank clan. Then there was the way they
Speaker 1: looked like nine psychos wearing matching jumpsuits and creepy rubber
Speaker 1: masks covering their faces. But none of that would have
Speaker 1: mattered if this band didn't bring it on stage, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what they did. Their sound was massive, multiple percussionists, singers,
Speaker 1: a DJ, a sampler, two guitars in a big, driving
Speaker 1: rhythm section, and they played with sheer force, brutal force.
Speaker 1: The band leaped around the stage like animals, jumping onto
Speaker 1: and over each other, leaping into the crowd and routinely
Speaker 1: pushing themselves until they left blood, puke, or any number
Speaker 1: of other bodily fluids dripping from their masks. By the
Speaker 1: end of the show. As clown Sean Kran pushed it
Speaker 1: further than anyone. A whole cow's heads for the butcher
Speaker 1: and toss them on stage or into the crowd. He
Speaker 1: stuffed dead birds into jars and left under rot so
Speaker 1: the band could get the smell of death on them
Speaker 1: before a show, just like Mayhem did back in Norway.
Speaker 1: In the early days of black metal, Kran from Slipknot
Speaker 1: would do anything to work the crowd into a frenzy
Speaker 1: what it became his time in the late nineties, and
Speaker 1: now it looked like he was going to pay the
Speaker 1: ultimate price. The trash can stunt was one of his
Speaker 1: usual moves. He would find a trash can near the stage,
Speaker 1: dive into it, and go rolling into the marsh pin
Speaker 1: causing mayhem. It always made the crowd go crazy, Only
Speaker 1: this time, when he jumped face first into the barrel,
Speaker 1: it was half full of water. Whatever disgusting liquid might
Speaker 1: be floating around inside an oz Fest trash can. Kran's
Speaker 1: entire face was underwater, his arms were stuck tight in darkness,
Speaker 1: was gathering all around him see black rings in the
Speaker 1: corner of his vision, and they were growing larger and larger.
Speaker 1: His legs quick kicking, preparing for the inevitable, and he
Speaker 1: hoped that dying at Ozfest would at least make him
Speaker 1: a legend. And just when he was on the verge
Speaker 1: of blacking out, the crowd surged forward and someone slammed
Speaker 1: into the barrel and tipped it over. Water went pouring everywhere,
Speaker 1: and Sean Kran finally crawled free, gasping for breath and
Speaker 1: puking up muthfuls of the foul smelling water. After a
Speaker 1: few seconds to catch his breath, he jumped to his
Speaker 1: feet and sprinted back to the stage, and there was
Speaker 1: no time to recover. He started pounding on a metal
Speaker 1: beer keg as the next song kicked in. It was
Speaker 1: all in the day's work for one of the biggest
Speaker 1: metal bands in America. Four years before that, when Kran
Speaker 1: pulled into an empty gas station parking lot in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night, it would have been impossible to
Speaker 1: imagine that it would lead here. It was one of
Speaker 1: those cold des Moines Knights nineteen ninety five, A pair
Speaker 1: of twenty something metal heads pushed their way into an
Speaker 1: empty Sinclair gas station. Fluorescent lights hummed over her head.
Speaker 1: Sean looked around the empty store, at the aisles of candy,
Speaker 1: beer and porno magazines, and standing beside him was a
Speaker 1: friend and fellow musician, Paul Gray. Paul nodded at the
Speaker 1: short teenager with the long hair working the counter, and
Speaker 1: they bumped fists with a grin. That was how Paul was.
Speaker 1: Everybody knew him in Des Moines, and everybody loved him,
Speaker 1: including the guy behind the counter. His name was Joey Jordison,
Speaker 1: and although he was only five to three, he was
Speaker 1: a ferocious drummer, and Paul thought he would be the
Speaker 1: perfect addition to the new metal band they were putting
Speaker 1: together because Paul lived and breathed metal, unlike Sean. As
Speaker 1: a teenager, Sean was into punk. He loved that it
Speaker 1: had something to say and the way the music raged
Speaker 1: against bigotry and conformity. Inequality. Metal to Sean was nothing
Speaker 1: more than the hair spray bands that could play it
Speaker 1: on MTV, bands like Warrant and Poison. But Paul showed
Speaker 1: him a different side of heavy metal music that was raw,
Speaker 1: angry music with a message. Soon Sean was slamming around
Speaker 1: to bands like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel. He and
Speaker 1: Paul were determined to invade the de Moi metal scene
Speaker 1: with a band every bit as heavy, over the top
Speaker 1: and outrageous as their heroes, and once Joey, the little
Speaker 1: dude behind the counter, agreed to join them on drums,
Speaker 1: the pieces slowly began to come together. It was Joey
Speaker 1: who suggested that they named the band slip Knot, after
Speaker 1: a song they had been working out with the same name,
Speaker 1: and not long after, Sean wore a creepy clown mask
Speaker 1: he bought at a Halloween start a band practice as
Speaker 1: a joke, but there was something so sinister that the
Speaker 1: idea stuck, and soon everyone had a mask and a
Speaker 1: number in place of their name. It was so dark,
Speaker 1: so disturbing, and it was perfect too, because right from
Speaker 1: the start the music a slip Knot with some of
Speaker 1: the most dark and disturbing music anyone in Iowa had
Speaker 1: ever heard. It was so dark that, even though there
Speaker 1: were filling clubs, they still couldn't find even a tiny
Speaker 1: little indie label willing to take on the band. It
Speaker 1: was so dark that the band's first guitarist Donnie Steele,
Speaker 1: a practicing Christian, quit the band rather than subject himself
Speaker 1: to that kind of darkness. Not that Sean cared if
Speaker 1: he was running people off. He figured their music might
Speaker 1: be touching a nerve. Besides, when he looked out into
Speaker 1: the crowd and saw massive kids writhing to the music
Speaker 1: like maggots. The fact, that's when he nicknamed their fans
Speaker 1: the maggots. He didn't think it was dark at all.
Speaker 1: Darkness was already out there in the world, and people
Speaker 1: needed something to release that darkness inside of them, something
Speaker 1: to vent their frustrations, and that was the beauty of
Speaker 1: a heavy metal show. The kids in the crowd went
Speaker 1: nuts on each other for two hours, but they left
Speaker 1: that darkness behind and then they went home in peace.
Speaker 1: At least that's what Sean tried to explain Donnie. Placing
Speaker 1: Donnie on guitar, though, didn't worry Sean, and that was
Speaker 1: the easy part. Who worried him was that, after the
Speaker 1: band spent forty grand of their own money to record
Speaker 1: a proper demo, he could hear that their sound wasn't right. Sure,
Speaker 1: the sound was big, but it needed to be bigger.
Speaker 1: It was also missing something for all the grunting, growling
Speaker 1: and unhinged screaming. Sometimes they just needed someone who could
Speaker 1: well sing, just that tiny bit of sugar to help
Speaker 1: all the darkness go down. Because they had fans, every
Speaker 1: show seemed to bring out more and more than maggots,
Speaker 1: and they had an image, and they had the drive.
Speaker 1: But if they're ever going to break out of.
Speaker 3: Des Moines, they're gonna need a new lead singer.
Speaker 1: The smell of death was everywhere. Sure, maybe not to
Speaker 1: a human, but the rats, they could smell it, and
Speaker 1: they were closing in from the shadows. They crept closer,
Speaker 1: scurrying through the parking lot, trailing the scent, past gas
Speaker 1: pumps and around piles of old tires. People think of
Speaker 1: rats as a city problem, but the truth is that
Speaker 1: they multiply everywhere. Rural areas mean farmland, and farmland means food,
Speaker 1: and food means survival. Of course, country rats don't have
Speaker 1: it quite as easy as rats in the city. While
Speaker 1: you might catch a New York City rat dragging the
Speaker 1: size of pepperoni pizza across the subway platform in Waterloo, Iowa,
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eight, these rats had to scratch and
Speaker 1: claw and kill each other just to stay alive. So
Speaker 1: when the smell of fresh death hit their noses, they
Speaker 1: knew they would have to act fast. There would be competition.
Speaker 1: Some of the boldest rats weren't going to wait for
Speaker 1: death to overtake the body lying in the dumpster. The
Speaker 1: smell of blood was driving them into a frenzy, so
Speaker 1: they began to climb onto the dumpster and they tested
Speaker 1: the lids, and their claws made a tapping noise as
Speaker 1: they scurried across a thick black plastic looking for a
Speaker 1: way in. Suddenly the lid flew open, sending rats flying
Speaker 1: in every direction. A fifteen year old Corey Taylor sat
Speaker 1: up with a shot. He let out a blood curdling scream,
Speaker 1: and speaking of blood, he was everywhere soaked into his
Speaker 1: t shirt, caked onto his nose, covering his lips, and
Speaker 1: his shoes were missing. He had no idea what day
Speaker 1: it was, He had no idea where he was. All
Speaker 1: he knew who said his friends, his so called friends,
Speaker 1: had left him for dead, Not that he was too surprised.
Speaker 1: Even though he was only fifteen years old, he was
Speaker 1: already living like somebody on borrow time. First, there was
Speaker 1: his birthdate, December eighth. The date was seriously cursed. Jim
Speaker 1: Morrison born on December eighth died. Young Sam Kinnison born
Speaker 1: on December eighth died. Young Frank Sinatra Junior kidnapped on
Speaker 1: December eighth. John Lennon shot on December eighth. You remember
Speaker 1: that Vince Neil car crash where he killed the guy
Speaker 1: from Hanoi Rocks. Want to guess what day that happened on?
Speaker 1: You got it, December eighth. Corey's problem only began with
Speaker 1: his birthday, though he was born in Iowa, but his
Speaker 1: mom dragged him and his sister across the country looking
Speaker 1: for a man, a payday, or perhaps both. But by
Speaker 1: the time he was ten, Corey had lived in twenty
Speaker 1: five different states and the paydays were hard to come by,
Speaker 1: but his mom always seemed to find a certain type
Speaker 1: of man. Guys with thick mustaches and cheap turquoise rings,
Speaker 1: the kind who wouldn't hesitate to backhand a nine year
Speaker 1: old boy with a big mouth. Grown up bullies. Corey
Speaker 1: hated bullies, the kind who shacked up with his mom
Speaker 1: and put the scars on his face, The kind that
Speaker 1: roamed the halls at school looking for victims to torment,
Speaker 1: and the kind lured him in before taking advantage, like
Speaker 1: the kid who lived next door. When Corey's mom dragged
Speaker 1: him down to Florida, he was five years older and
Speaker 1: he had a great record collection, so he started inviting
Speaker 1: Corey over to listen to music Public Enemy Slayer, Metallica.
Speaker 1: The music blew Corey's mind. He started dreaming about being
Speaker 1: a singer, and the listening sessions also gave him a
Speaker 1: safe place to be away from the chaos at home,
Speaker 1: or so he thought. One day, while they were listening
Speaker 1: to music, the older boy pounced on him. He pinned
Speaker 1: him to the ground and took advantage of a ten
Speaker 1: year old Corey, and then he made Corey swear to
Speaker 1: keep it a secret, or else he would kill Corey
Speaker 1: and his family. So Corey kept quiet. But by the
Speaker 1: time his family moved back to Iowa, the rage inside
Speaker 1: of him was burning out of control. He fought with
Speaker 1: his mom, he got in trouble at school, he stayed
Speaker 1: out late, ran with a wild crowd, and took every
Speaker 1: drug that he could get his hands on. But getting
Speaker 1: tossed in a dumpster and left for dead was too
Speaker 1: big of a wake up call. To ignore. Corey knew
Speaker 1: that something had a change, so he left Waterloo to
Speaker 1: move in with his grandma and des Moines, and she
Speaker 1: gave him love and stability, and she supported his musical
Speaker 1: ambitions even though Elvis Presley was the heaviest thing that
Speaker 1: she had ever listened to. And in des Moines, Corey
Speaker 1: Taylor found a thriving metal scene, more kids like him
Speaker 1: fed up than looking for a place to vent their
Speaker 1: feelings and where they could slam into each other and
Speaker 1: bang their heads and find something sort of like a family.
Speaker 1: Corey started a band called Stone Sour and began packing
Speaker 1: club's lows, but he was on the lookout for something bigger,
Speaker 1: something heavier, something that could incorporate his love for both
Speaker 1: Slayer and Public Enemy, something that could take over the world.
Speaker 1: That's why he was standing in the front row of
Speaker 1: a tiny des Moines club called the Safari in April
Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety six. He was there to check out
Speaker 1: the debut performance from a band of heavy hitters on
Speaker 1: the local metal scene. They included Paul Gray on bass,
Speaker 1: Sean Cran on percussion, and Joey Jordison on drums, and
Speaker 1: they were called Slipknot while two hundred people were stomping
Speaker 1: their feet and waiting for the band to emerge from backstage.
Speaker 1: Corey watched in awe as a group of masked men
Speaker 1: emerged from the back of the room and ran through
Speaker 1: the crowd like a marauding gang on their way to
Speaker 1: the stage. Once they were there, the tall bass player,
Speaker 1: who Corey figured was Paul Gray, even with the pig
Speaker 1: mask covering his face, hit a thunderous low note. The
Speaker 1: drummer pounded out of Phil and then everyone, the band,
Speaker 1: the crowd, and Corey in the front row, went off
Speaker 1: Ninety minutes later. Corey was sure of him this band
Speaker 1: could take over the world. They were only missing one
Speaker 1: thing him. It took a year, but eventually Paul, Sean
Speaker 1: Joey and guitarist Mick Thompson officially invited Corey to join
Speaker 1: Slipknot as a lead singer, and Corey agreed. He picked
Speaker 1: out a mask and adopted the number eight aka infinity
Speaker 1: aka forever because that's how long you wanted his songs
Speaker 1: to be remembered. It may have seemed like a big
Speaker 1: brag at first, but soon it was becoming reality because
Speaker 1: with Corey in the mix, suddenly the band had a
Speaker 1: totally new dimension. They had a singer who could growl,
Speaker 1: who could scream, who could rap, and yes sing in
Speaker 1: honest to God melody. When the time came and with
Speaker 1: Corey Taylor as lead singer, the band sound expanded dramatic.
Speaker 1: They added a DJ, bringing their number to nine death metal, rap,
Speaker 1: pump thrash that were throwing it all into the mix,
Speaker 1: and all of it worked. Their self titled album became
Speaker 1: the fastest selling debut in heavy metal history. Their pulverizing
Speaker 1: sets at oz Fest in nineteen ninety nine cemented their
Speaker 1: status as one of the heaviest bands on the scene.
Speaker 1: The pressure to go even further on their follow up
Speaker 1: was huge, so Corey dug deep into painful memories from
Speaker 1: growing up to harness lyrics for the second album. He
Speaker 1: spilled out grotesque revenge fantasies against the bullies who tormented him,
Speaker 1: dark stories of his homeless years as a teenager. He
Speaker 1: also laid down withering critiques of the fame hungry coattail
Speaker 1: riders and clueless record executives who were beginning to circle
Speaker 1: the band. It all made for haunting material, but it
Speaker 1: also took its toll. Corey began drinking more and more
Speaker 1: as he dug deeper and deeper into the worst memories
Speaker 1: of his life, and the alcohol made him feel numb.
Speaker 1: In the recording studio, drank till he puked in order
Speaker 1: to take away the pain, but then he would resort
Speaker 1: to cutting himself with shards of broken glass just to
Speaker 1: feel something so he could make it through a song.
Speaker 1: The recording process was as brutal as the record itself,
Speaker 1: but it all seemed worth it When Iowa was released
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one, the album went all the
Speaker 1: way to number three on the Billboard charts. But after
Speaker 1: several years of intense touring and recording, the band was
Speaker 1: coming apart of the seams, and the darkness that they
Speaker 1: harnessed in the recording studio was leaking out into the
Speaker 1: real world because Corey Taylor's dream of having his music
Speaker 1: remembered forever was about to come true in the worst
Speaker 1: possible way. We'll be right back after this word. We're
Speaker 1: wre darkness stretched out like a blanket. It covered the
Speaker 1: baseball fields, the playgrounds too, and also the palm and
Speaker 1: pepper trees. In the late night hour. That darkness covered
Speaker 1: every inch of Paris Hill Park in San Bernardino. It
Speaker 1: was a warm May night, and the wind rustled through
Speaker 1: the leaves of the trees, and everything else was silent,
Speaker 1: and from a walking path high up on the hill,
Speaker 1: everything seemed still down below, everything except two barely visible
Speaker 1: human outlines leaning against the tree. They were Jason Harris,
Speaker 1: age twenty, and Amber Riley, age sixteen. From the path,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have looked too suspicious, maybe a young couple
Speaker 1: of for clandestine late night mina, or just some friends
Speaker 1: sneaking a smoke and sharing a pair of headphones hooked
Speaker 1: up to a CD Walkman. And that was the problem
Speaker 1: for Jason. Were he and Amber friends or were they
Speaker 1: something more? Amber knew he was obsessed with her, but
Speaker 1: she toyed with him, she acted like his girlfriend, and
Speaker 1: then she would flirt with their friend Terry, and it
Speaker 1: drove Jason fucking mad. Besides, he and Amber had so
Speaker 1: much in common. They both loved horror movies, death metal, horror,
Speaker 1: core rap. The more gruesome the better, and they couldn't
Speaker 1: get enough of that shit. And Amber talked all the
Speaker 1: time about wanting to see a dead body. Jason had
Speaker 1: practiced on a few neighborhood pets. But tonight they're going
Speaker 1: to go further because Jason had a plan that would
Speaker 1: bind him and Amber together forever. They were going to
Speaker 1: find out what it was like to kill someone. As
Speaker 1: a lone figure emerged on the walking path far in
Speaker 1: the distance, Jason hit the back button on the CD player. Instantly,
Speaker 1: a squealing guitar riff kicked the song to life. He
Speaker 1: and Amber locked eyes and they started chanting along with
Speaker 1: the singer, words about vengeance and brutal violence. Jason pulled
Speaker 1: the knife out, and the blade glinted in the moonlight
Speaker 1: as he set it down behind his back. A moment later,
Speaker 1: their friend Terry emerged from the shadows. He nodded to Jason,
Speaker 1: but his face lit up with a smile when he
Speaker 1: saw Amber. Jason could tell Terry had a thing for Amber.
Speaker 1: Fucking Terry. Terry sat down next to Amber and began
Speaker 1: to chat without a care in the world. Jason laid
Speaker 1: back for a few moments, waiting. Then he started having
Speaker 1: second thoughts. Maybe they should call it off, but Amber
Speaker 1: locked eyes with him and he couldn't resist. He could
Speaker 1: hear the song playing on repeat in his mind. Then
Speaker 1: he picked up the knife and plunged it down into
Speaker 1: his friend Terry's chest, again and again. The next morning,
Speaker 1: police found the body of Terry Taylor with his throat
Speaker 1: slashed and more than twenty stab wounds in his body.
Speaker 1: Jason's mother called the police when he and Amber asked
Speaker 1: her for help getting bloodstains out of their clothes. When
Speaker 1: the police questioned them, the song the pair said they
Speaker 1: were listening to and repeat was Disaster Piece by slip Knot.
Speaker 1: It was two thousand and three and darkness was everywhere
Speaker 1: as the members of Slipknot were moving into Rick Rubin's
Speaker 1: house in studio to begin working on their third album.
Speaker 1: Corey Taylor may have written Disaster Piece as a fuck
Speaker 1: you to the bullies of his childhood, but in two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, no one wanted to hear it. In
Speaker 1: the media firestorm that followed, radio stations quit playing the
Speaker 1: band's music, high schools band kids from wearing their shirts.
Speaker 1: Paul Gray was concerned darkness was starting to engulf the
Speaker 1: band from the inside. The pressure from their success, the
Speaker 1: media frenzy from the murders, all combined with the physical
Speaker 1: toll of constant touring and recording, it was driving the
Speaker 1: band apart, anseled a European tourist, citing tensions within the band,
Speaker 1: and then they announced the hiatus. Corey Taylor and guitarist
Speaker 1: Jim Root reformed Stone Sour and had an immediate alternative
Speaker 1: rock hit. Joey Jorison started his own band, Murder Dolls.
Speaker 1: Sean Kran was busy with a new record label he
Speaker 1: was starting, but Paul Gray didn't take on any side projects.
Speaker 1: As one of the founders of slip Knott, Paul had
Speaker 1: been there since the beginning and ever since he put
Speaker 1: on the mask. Paul knew that slip Knott was his
Speaker 1: band for life, so he tried to hold the rest
Speaker 1: of the band together, and as the rest of the
Speaker 1: band slid further apart, Paul slid further and further into Heroin.
Speaker 1: Because for a band with big appetites, Paul Gray aka
Speaker 1: Number two aka Pig had the biggest appetite of them all.
Speaker 1: He loved the Maggots. After shows and anywhere he would
Speaker 1: come across them, he would always find time to chat
Speaker 1: with fans, and he loved to write songs. In fact,
Speaker 1: he and Joey had recorded dozens of demos for the
Speaker 1: new Slipknot album, and he loved Heroin, especially when he
Speaker 1: had nothing to do, which is exactly what Paul had
Speaker 1: been doing at Rick Rubin's Laurel Canyon mansion for the
Speaker 1: last three months. Nothing. When he arrived in la Paul
Speaker 1: was eager to get to work, so he was disappointed
Speaker 1: when he pulled up to the mansion and everyone was gone.
Speaker 1: Corey split for the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip almost
Speaker 1: as soon as he dropped his bags, and Sean was
Speaker 1: still finalizing details for a band on his label, and
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin, well, nobody knew where Rick Rubin was. Paul
Speaker 1: woke up every day hoping the band would start recording,
Speaker 1: but with all it goes around, it became impossible, so
Speaker 1: he spent his days sitting on a couch in the
Speaker 1: recording studio with nothing to do except Heroin. After three
Speaker 1: months of shooting dope and sitting on a couch, things
Speaker 1: were trending in a seriously bad direction for Paul. When
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin finally made his appearance, it was a normal
Speaker 1: day and Paul stumbled out of bed at two in
Speaker 1: the afternoon. He grabbed his bag and headed down to
Speaker 1: the bathroom, fully prepared to get high and to zone
Speaker 1: out for another pointless day while the band he loved
Speaker 1: fell apart around him. But just as he reached the
Speaker 1: bathroom door, Rick Rubin stepped in front of his path
Speaker 1: and calling a band meeting. That was all he said,
Speaker 1: and then he handed Paul a cup of tea downstairs.
Speaker 1: Paul was shocked to see the rest of the band
Speaker 1: all in the same room for the first time in weeks.
Speaker 1: He had to give Rick Rubin credit for that much.
Speaker 1: At least. There was no equipment, no microphones, and nothing
Speaker 1: set up at all except nine chairs. Paul is expecting
Speaker 1: a recording session, but instead he got a group therapy
Speaker 1: session with Rick Rubin as counselor. It never should have worked,
Speaker 1: it was so predictable, and they were a metal band
Speaker 1: after all. But no matter how awkward it was, Rick
Speaker 1: Rubin stuck with it. He got them hockey, he got
Speaker 1: them vending, and soon they were releasing all that darkness
Speaker 1: that they'd been holding inside, the grudges, the resentments, the anger,
Speaker 1: the guilt. No one pulled any punches for hours. They
Speaker 1: went at it, bashing each other like the kids in
Speaker 1: the wash pit. It was exhausting, but it was also
Speaker 1: cathartic and whatever it was, it worked. Paul swore that
Speaker 1: he only saw Rick Rubin five more times during the
Speaker 1: making of the album, but he'd done the producer's most
Speaker 1: important job. He got them making music again and then
Speaker 1: he was gone, but not before he helped the band
Speaker 1: stage in an intervention with Paul, and they'd given him
Speaker 1: an ultimatum, go to rehab or quit the band. Paul
Speaker 1: chose rehab. He would do anything to stay and slip knot.
Speaker 1: He even finished his bass parts while living in a
Speaker 1: halfway house, and it worked. Paul managed to get off drugs,
Speaker 1: and after a few close calls of his own, Corey
Speaker 1: Taylor was sober well. When Volume three, The Subliminal Verses,
Speaker 1: came out to rave reviews in two thousand and four,
Speaker 1: it seemed like the band was locked and loaded for
Speaker 1: the second era when two thousand and eight's All Hope
Speaker 1: Is Lost debuted at number one on the Billboard charts.
Speaker 1: But after that album came another grueling world tour and
Speaker 1: Joey was starting to complain about pains in his legs,
Speaker 1: and Corey was eager to take off the mask and
Speaker 1: get Stone Sour back on the road, and Sean had
Speaker 1: a million different projects that he was diving into, and
Speaker 1: by twenty ten, it seemed once again like Paul's makeshift
Speaker 1: family was scattering in every direction. He was the bass
Speaker 1: player for slipping on it, and no more and no
Speaker 1: less than his calendar looked empty. Maybe forever, all he
Speaker 1: could see again was the endless boredom. Paul knew about
Speaker 1: one cure for boredom, but sometimes, unfortunately, the cure is
Speaker 1: worse than the disease. It was a beautiful sunlit day
Speaker 1: at England's Nebworth Park, one hundred thousand metal fans stretched
Speaker 1: out as far as the eye could see. Everything looked
Speaker 1: just like it should, and there was a massive tower
Speaker 1: of speakers stretching up into the sky, and the sponsors
Speaker 1: banners flapping in the breeze, and of course seeing an
Speaker 1: escapable smell of middle grade grass floating through the air. Still,
Speaker 1: something was strange and something was off. Something was wrong,
Speaker 1: because despite the beautiful weather, despite the massive festival crowd,
Speaker 1: despite the decent bud and the overpriced beers, despite all
Speaker 1: the bands on the bill, the park was dead silent.
Speaker 1: Someone walked toward the front of the stage. On a
Speaker 1: stand they placed a red jumpsuit and a mask. A
Speaker 1: bass guitar rested in a stand nearby, and the crowd
Speaker 1: stood in silence as the seconds ticked on for two
Speaker 1: full minutes before they finally let out a deafening roar
Speaker 1: from the wings of the stage. The members of the
Speaker 1: band's Slip Knots stood unmasked, waving to the crowd with
Speaker 1: tears in their eyes, all eight of them. Because Paul
Speaker 1: Gray was dead, many people believe that Paul Gray had
Speaker 1: been able to stay clean after a stint in rehab
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three. Unfortunately, many people were wrong.
Speaker 1: It turned out that as far back as two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, Paul's personal physician was writing in prescriptions for
Speaker 1: heavy doses of morphine and xanax. His doctor did this
Speaker 1: despite knowing Paul's history with drug addiction. In fact, the
Speaker 1: doctor would be tried for manslaughter in twenty twelve, although
Speaker 1: he was eventually found not guilty. For Paul Gray One
Speaker 1: Slipknots two thousand and nine world tour ended, he quickly
Speaker 1: spiraled out of control. His wife, who was pregnant with
Speaker 1: their first child, attempted to stage an intervention with their
Speaker 1: immediate family. On May twenty third, twenty ten, rather than
Speaker 1: submit to another round of detos, Paul fled in his
Speaker 1: car and he drove to a hotel room in Urbandale, Iowa.
Speaker 1: The next day, the hotel manager discovered him in his
Speaker 1: room with a needle in his arm. The members of Slipknot,
Speaker 1: a band that had been together for more than fifteen years,
Speaker 1: had been growing apart before Paul's death, but the tragedy
Speaker 1: reinforced their bond with each other and with their fans.
Speaker 1: Every show became an outpouring of rage, of grief, of frustration,
Speaker 1: and just like it had been when the band was
Speaker 1: playing tiny clubs in Des Moines, it was incredibly cathartic.
Speaker 1: For the next year, the band took the stage with
Speaker 1: eight members, leaving Paul's jumpsuit and mask on stage as
Speaker 1: a tribute. As for the basslines themselves, the band kept
Speaker 1: it in the family. Original guitarist Donnie Steele, the one
Speaker 1: who had been scared off by the darkness of the
Speaker 1: band's material in the beginning, returned to the fold to
Speaker 1: fill in the gap on bass, although he played off
Speaker 1: stage to better help the band and the fans grieve.
Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, the band released five, The Great Chapter
Speaker 1: and Tribute to their falling bandmate. The album once again
Speaker 1: topped the Billboard charts, but troubles continued to follow the band.
Speaker 1: Original drummer Joey Jordison was forced to leave the group
Speaker 1: after a rare neurological disease robbed him of the use
Speaker 1: of his legs. Guitarist Mick Thompson was nearly killed when
Speaker 1: his brother stabbed him in the back of the head
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. That's how crazy the stories are about
Speaker 1: this band, all right. The guitarist get stabbed in the
Speaker 1: back of his head by his brother and it only
Speaker 1: got one line in this episode. Joey Jordanson died in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one as a result of transverse malitis, the
Speaker 1: disease that took the use of his legs, which left
Speaker 1: Sean cran as the only founding member of the band
Speaker 1: left as of this recording. That's the thing about a band, Slipknot.
Speaker 1: The faces can change, but the mass remain, and so
Speaker 1: Slipknot keeps thrashing their way into the future, taking on
Speaker 1: the darkness, embracing it, owning it, and then destroying it.
Speaker 1: Because metal is all about release and Almost everyone knows that,
Speaker 1: but some people take the darkness way too literally, and
Speaker 1: that's a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan in this is Disgraceland.
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelambpod dot com.
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