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Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of Slipknot and Stone Sour.

Corey Taylor is a founding member of Stone Sour, and has released six studio albums with them. Taylor joined Slipknot in 1997 to replace their original singer, Anders Colsefni. He has released six studio albums with Slipknot. He has also worked with several other bands, including Junk Beer Kidnap Band, Apocalyptica, Anthrax, Aaron Lewis of Staind and Soulfly. Taylor was ranked number 86 in Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.

Life and career

Early and Personal Life

Corey Taylor, born December 8th 1973, is the lead singer of the Nu-Metal band Slipknot, and also vocalist, and occasional guitarist of Stone Sour, The latter being formed prior to the commercial success of Slipknot.

At a young age Corey liked to get down to the likes of "The King" - Elvis, due to influences from his grandmother. "Elvis was a great singer". His grandmother also helped him with buying equipment and his talent for music. During Corey's youth he and some friends often talked about a burnt out old house that they dared not go near. Then one night they all decided to make their way towards the house; to their surprise it was all lit up and after hearing noises they ran screaming.

Before he joined the Slipknot, he worked in a sex shop to earn money (It was named "Adult Emporium"). On stage he is loud, fast, and out of control. Offstage, he seems very calm, and down to earth. Before Slipknot he was part of the band, Stone Sour, Corey loves comedy albums, which he grew up on. As a child he was homeless for a while, the song and video for "Left Behind" was inspired by that time. He first met his father on March 28th, 2005 and the two formed a strong relationship. Taylor has been married once before and has 2 children, one Griffin Parker born Born September 17th, 2002 and Angeline, born in 1992 from an old relationship. Taylor and his now ex-wife Skarlett Stone divorced in 2007 after a 3 years marriage.

Battles with alcoholism

Being known as "The guy that was always ready to go out and do shots", Taylor's drinking became more problematic as time went by. Eventually, it reached a point where Taylor would begin to drink as soon as he got up in the morning and generally would not stop until blacking out. According to Taylor, the problem began to eat away at his family life as he became more and more apathetic to the people and things surrounding him. Taylor finally made several attempts at suicide. All this culminating to the night of November 14th, 2003. On this night, Taylor was about to jump off the 8 story balcony of the Hyyat on Sunset Boulevard. Skarlett, his wife at the time, managed to talk him down. After this incident Skarlett told him either he had to sober up, and start being a father and husband or she was leaving with their kids. Taylor chose to quit drinking and go sober rather than lose his family. The next year would prove the be "The Worst Year Of His Life" as Taylor struggled to redefine himself as a person and give up his partying persona and repair the damage that he had done to his body. He spent the year in "Self-Imposed Isolation", claiming that he "Pushed his wife away for a while and was a really selfish, cold dick". In the process, the struggle would fuel some of his songs with Stone Sour, such as "Socio" and "Zzyzx Rd". Finally, Taylor would come to grips with his sobriety and began to use it as a source of inspiration.

Death Scare

In September of 2004, fans of Taylor where alarmed by quickly circulating rumors that he had died. The rumors where started by a website that had declared Taylor's death to a drug overdose, then later to a fatal car crash. The whole incident happened to coincide with a birthday for Taylor's son on the following Friday (September 17th). The sudden and unexpected influx of people going into the Taylor Household' for Taylor's Son's birthday only caused even higher heights of concern, causing even Taylor's manager to call them and confirm that Taylor was alright. Finally Taylor decide to put the issue to rest, walking out onto the patio and yelling to the crowd, "I am not dead" laughing, his father-in-law backed him up, "Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated". But when Taylor was 15 he did have a drug addiction and had overdosed on cocaine numerous times.

Meeting His Father

Taylor grew up not knowing his father. His father left prior to his birth and, at the request of Taylor's mother, remained absent from Taylor's Life. It would not be until many years later that the two of them would meet. Skarlett took it upon herself to confront Taylor's mother about the issue. Demanding that she reveal to Skarlett whatever she could about Taylor's father. When Taylor's mother finally agreed, Skarlett hired a private investigator to find Taylor's father. When the two of them finally met, the reunion turned out very well, starting with the two of them reportedly crying for 20 minutes. Taylor was overjoyed by the reunion stating that, "A whole new chapter in my life had opened."

Discography

Studio Albums

  • CMFT (2020)
  • CMF2 (2023)

EPs

  • CMFB… Sides (2022)

Singles

Title Year Album
"X-M@$" 2010 Non-album single
"From Can to Can't"
(with Dave Grohl, Rick Nielson & Scott Reeder)
2013 Sound City: Real to Reel
"London Calling" Non-album single
"Black Eyes Blues" 2020 CMFT
"CMFT Must Be Stopped"
(Ft. Tech N9ne & Kid Bookie)
"HWY 666"
"Culture Head"
"All This and More" CMFB… Sides
"Samantha's Gones" 2021 CMFT
"Thunder Force"
(with Fil Eisler & Lzzy Hale, Ft. Scott Ian, Dave Lombardo & Tina Guo)
Thunder Force Soundtrack
"Carry On" Non-album single
"Holier Than Thou" The Metallica Blacklist
"On the Dark Side" 2022 CMFB… Sides
"Beyond" 2023 CMF2

Singing/shouting

Masks

Mate Feed Kill Repeat

Corey's first "image" in the band, was a full priest outfit with a frock coat and he also had on white makeup and liquid latex "X"s over his eyes.

Slipknot

During the Self-Tilted Era Corey wore a slam dummy mask turned inside out, with dreadlocks attached to the top (which were made from his real hair). He later switched to a ghost glow mask, with fake dreads.

Iowa

During the Iowa era Corey wore a full face latex mask, very similar to the one he wore in the Self-Titled Era. However the mask was thicker and had a more beaten look. It once again had dreadlocks attached to the top, however they where slightly longer than the one in the Self Titled Era and were died green.

Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

During the Vol .3 era Corey wore a damaged latex mask that covered only his face. The mask features a lot of scratches, stitches, staples with made it look very beaten and disfigured, expressionless face. The mask is dark green and brown and has some red and grays. The mask features a large scar around the mouth giving the appearance of the jaw being torn off and sown back on. It was the first mask Corey wore that covered only his face which made his hair a large part of the appearance of the mask. Corey dyed his hair multiple colors in this era, including Red, Blue, Purple and Black and a mixture of these.

All Hope Is Gone

Corey, in All Hope Is Gone wore a featureless mask witch covers a majority of his head except the top (Later mods included a plate at the top of the mask.). The mask lacks much detail and has a small slit under his nose, a cutout area around his mouth and 2 different sized holes for eyes. The left eye features a circular plate that goes around the eye that limits the field of view that Corey can see out of. The eyes also include Mesh that obscures his eyes from vision.

.5: The Gray Chapter

Corey's mask in .5 appears to be a skin face mask, similar to Leather face from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It covers the entire front side of his face and has no hair on it. The lower part of the mask (from the upper lip down) is a separate part, and is detailed to look as if it is stitched to the upper part. The upper part is removable, and underneath shows a grey face with dark grey veins detailing it.

We Are Not Your Kind

To be added

Gallery

Gallery

Masks

Replica Masks

Trivia

  • Corey has always been a huge fan of Spider-Man, he wears a large Spider-Man head ring in the song "Bother" by Stone Sour, has a Spider-Man tattoo, and even gave his son the middle name "Parker".
  • He also had a band with former Slipknot member Josh Brainard called "Audacious P".
  • He is also in a cover band called "Dum Fux", Genres include Punk, Metal, 70's Rock, 80's Synth and Whatever the band feels like doing.
  • After recording Diluted, he cried and producer Ross Robinson came into the booth to comfort him. Corey then learned that he can trust and love people without being hurt.
  • While recording the song Iowa, he stated that he was completely naked and cut himself with broken glass and vomited on himself because "that's where the best stuff comes from. You've got to break yourself down before you can build something great."
  • Jim Root, a fellow Slipknot member, was also a member of Corey's second band, Stone Sour, since before they both joined Slipknot until 2014.
  • When he first joined Slipknot, Corey would often lose his voice while trying to achieve a vocal style similar to his predecessor, Anders.
  • Corey lost his virginity when he was only 11 years old.
  • He has a son and two daughters.
  • During 2001, Corey threw his mask to a fan in the crowd, but she gave it to Dominic Howard of Muse, who were supporting Slipknot. There is footage of Howard wearing the mask and shouting in a "Slipknot style" on Muse's 2nd Hullabaloo DVD. Many Slipknot fans thought Howard stole the mask from Corey originally.
  • During high school, Corey was in a band called Criminal Mischief.
  • Corey made concept art for a (unreleased) demo in '97, which Denny Harvey (former Stone Sour guitarist) has a copy of, and according to him it was for "MFKR pt. II".
  • Corey recorded a song with Sticky Fingaz called "End of the World", it was supposed to be on the rapper's 2000 album, "Black Trash: The Autobiography of Kirk Jones" but was cut and has never been released.
  • Corey loves jazz music, and wants to make a dark jazz album.

External Links

Navigation

Slipknot
Current Members: #0 Sid Wilson • #4 Jim Root • #6 Shawn "Clown" Crahan • #7 Mick Thomson • #8 Corey Taylor • (V) Alex VenturellaMichael PfaffUnidentified sampler
Former Members: Anders Colsefni • #4 Josh "Gnar" Brainard • #2 Paul Gray • #1 Joey JordisonDonnie SteeleKun Nong • #3 Greg "Cuddles" Welts • #3 Chris Fehn • #5 Craig "133" Jones • (J) Jay Weinberg
Live Only: (ᗺ) Brandon Darner

References

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