Corey Taylor has opened up about the reception that he gets as the frontman of Slipknot when returning to his home state of Iowa.
Despite Slipknot's meteoric rise in popularity at the turn of the millennium, Taylor feels that the people who live in Iowa are still "so mad" about his band's success, suggesting that a large part of their distaste is likely due to the rise of conservatism in the area, and the disapproval of "bitter" musicians who failed to reach similar levels of success.
During a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show, the vocalist first discusses Slipknot's use of masks, and how they've always encouraged fans to wear their own during shows as a way to embrace their mantra of not being "ashamed of who you are." He adds: Wear that person on the inside on the outside and fuck what everybody thinks".
While Slipknot may champion self-empowerment and acceptance, Taylor goes on to explain how the band were always "judged" harshly for being themselves in their home state.
"We were judged for so fucking long about who we were, I mean we came from The Fringe and what we represented was something that, to do this day, is still anathema to a lot of people in Iowa," he says.
"There are a lot of people in Iowa that are very ashamed of the fact that Slipknot comes from there and it's because of this newfound Resurgence and conservative bullshit. As much as Iowa - when I was there - was a purple State it's very red now and there's a lot of people who I know who are not happy about it."
When asked to elaborate by host Sang, who asks: “Isn’t crazy to think that people would be disappointed in the fact that Slipknot has come from Iowa?", Taylor responds: "Not if you come from there, not if you know the people. There's a lot of fucking dicks who still live in Des Moines, Iowa, that are so mad. I know dudes that I've known for 30 years I run into them and they side-eye me hard.
"There's so many bitter pricks in that goddamn town and and they're just hanging on you know, like they just don't want to accept the fact that they didn't want it [success] as much as we did. And I'm not going to sit here and say that they didn't deserve it because there were a lot of great bands in this scene that we came out of, but for whatever reason, they didn't push hard enough and even when we did make it, and we tried to shine that spotlight on the Des Moines scene, because it was almost in a weird way like a pseudo Seattle moment.
"There was a lot of people trolling through Des Moines trying to find the next Slipknot. Everybody who we tried to help blew it, they just didn't fucking want it as much as we did you know: I mean we would have lived and died for the shit and these guys just thought it was a crumb."
Listen to the full episode below:
