"Then we spot the mask. Caked in garish make-up and framed by filthy orange tresses, it lies face up and concave on an armchair, its already sinister clown features grotesquely twisted. Shawn Crahan scoops it up in his shovel-sized mitt, kisses his wife and daughter goodbye, and heads to the door. It's time for Clown to go to work."
It's October 17, 1999, and I'm standing in Shawn Crahan's house in suburban Des Moines. I've seen Slipknot play before, earlier that year, on May 27, at the opening date of Ozzfest '99, at Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, but this is my first up-close-and-personal meeting with Clown. The paragraph above was written in the introduction to Slipknot's first ever magazine cover story. You never forget your first time.
