SLIPKNOT’s SHAWN ‘CLOWN’ CRAHAN: ‘Next Album Could Be Our Last’

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan said the band’s upcoming sixth studio album could be their last, saying on The Jasta Show (as transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar.com):

“I just spent four months thinking about my life and where I’m at now because I’m at a real honest place of admitting of what I don’t want to be.

“A lot of it is bringing all this emotion to art and music. And honestly, this music that we’re writing writing right now is just like the proof of looking inward and being able to put the first foot down and say, ‘We’re gonna do something for ourselves and write.’

“So we’ve been writing and this music is coming out… I feel weird things are coming but it’s always like that for the guys like us, we get involved in our records and sky all of the sudden changes.

“And we got some stuff man. I feel like this could be it for me. We’re all getting older. I never like telling anyone like, ‘Hey this is it!’ Because I don’t have to, f*ck everyone.

“But like I’ve said, I’ve been reflecting and there’s a lot of hard things that I could say about friends, brothers… We’re good, but it’s a big world. I’ve done enough work, I’ve produced and done remixes and art and preformed, I’ve done enough where while I was in it none of it was registered.”

Clown added:

“I wouldn’t take back anything I was, or anything I am – it’s all circumstances and choices, and you have to be responsible for your choices. And I think I’ve made some bad choices and I’m not gonna make any more bad choices.

“And I think this next one being album six and being a hard rock band, and the kind of art that I make and the kind of lyrics Corey [Taylor] writes, the kind of world we’re in… I mean we’re getting older, people die.

“It’s surreal around us. We’re all old and hurting and we’re all getting surgeries. Jim [Root] – last album had this like massively weird appendix thing happening. We were making him stay home and he was getting more and more down and not recovering.

“And the clinic was like, ‘You need to go out and play with your band!’ We’re like, ‘Don’t you dare come back, you’re gonna die!’ He came back and I’m like, ‘You’re gonna jump in the air in the first song.’

“He comes, he’s got this little tube coming out of his body with this football thing that he named Herald. I would tell people ‘This is the only chance you have to smell real death from a brother and download that knowledge of what that actually smells like. [Laughs]”

Focusing on the writing process, Crahan noted:

“Jim and I have been doing a lot of writing and we refuse to let the people like the label or whoever – none of them are bad, nobody’s bad in our career, everybody’s supportive – but if anyone were to be like ‘Hey, money, blah blah blah…’

“So we’ve been writing about every four months and it’s changed our lives. We want to be artists.”