Slipknot’s Corey Taylor On Addiction: I Wouldn’t Be Who I Am Now

Taylor reveals that it’s only been within the past year that he’s finally become a fan of who he is.

Finding peace within. Randy Miramontez | Dreamstime.com

Slipknot’s Corey Taylor says there’s a lot about his own recovery and his new attitude towards it on his band’s new album and their Halloween single, “All Out Life.”

Taylor has spoken openly about his struggles with depression and having been the target of child abuse, and his coming to terms with the darkness he’s struggled with having changed his perspective not only on his life, but how he sees himself as well.

“I’m looking to the world through clearer eyes,” Taylor said on Beats1. “I’m also just starting to make peace with the fact that there are dark pieces of my chapters that I’ve had to relinquish and let go of. I’ve said, ‘Look, if it wasn’t for all these dark things happening to me, I wouldn’t be the guy I am right now.’”

He says he’s also realizing his priorities have changed.

“This has made me deal with the fact that I am an addict. It’s made me deal with the fact that I’m in my 40s, I’ve got kids, and I need to take care of them. I’m dealing with all of these crazy things in my life that make me ‘me,’ and yet I should be embracing the fact that I’m alive,” he revealed. “I should be embracing the fact that I’m a father, I should be embracing the fact that I’m in two great bands.”

Taylor has in the past stood up to take on the role of a sober role model.

"It's stronger to be that badass—to be the guy who sees it all, remembers it all, feels it all, and, at the end of the night, doesn't need that quote-unquote party, you know. Because it's hard in this industry; people are made to feel like they don't belong, because they're not a part of that. And it's a shame,” he said in a past interview.

He’s lost a friend to the industry before—fellow Slipknot bass player Paul Gray in 2010. Gray died of a drug overdose caused by morphine and fentanyl.

It's only recently that Taylor's been able to forgive and learn to love himself.

“I was never a huge Corey Taylor fan, until maybe the last year or so," he admitted. "I was like, ‘What? There’s a lot about me that’s really, really cool. I’ve luckily had a lot of great people around me to encourage that and go, ‘We’ve been saying that for years.’”

Slipknot’s newest album should be out next year, and the band is scheduled to headline Download Festival 2019. Their new single, “All Out Life,” debuted on Halloween.