Regardless on your feelings about the aftermath, I think we can all agree that what Phil Anselmo did a few weeks ago was unequivocally wrong. For those who just awoke out of a coma, he shouted "white power" and gave the Nazi salute. Anselmo has apologized numerous times and will face a long road of rebuilding his image. The true aftermath of the incident was seeing all these racists come out of nowhere validating his stupid message. Slipknot's Corey Taylor feels there is no place for such racism in heavy metal.
In a new feature for UK's The Guardian where he answered fan questions, Taylor was asked what his reaction to the Anselmo video was. Taylor admitted he hadn't seen it, but said it was part of a bigger problem in the scene:
I’ve been watching this all and I’ve kept mum for the most part, because I wasn’t there. So I don’t know the background on what happened, I haven’t seen the video of it – though I’ve been told by many people that it’s blatant, and there’s no way to misrepresent what was done.
I will say this. This is a bigger problem than what happened that night. Slipknot has dedicated itself to bringing people together, to fighting racism, to fighting hate in general since the day we were started. I don’t have time for people who judge other people by the colour of their skin. If that in itself offends some of my fans, then I’m sorry, you’re wrong. I don’t ever want our fans to feel like we’re judging them because of colour, religion, culture, upbringing, etc. We welcome everyone, we always have and we always will.
I know there is a problem in metal, and it all comes down to, at least in America, where you grow up and what that culture is passed on from: parents, family members, friends, adults. It’s a generational thing. I thought we were close to phasing it out, but unfortunately I was proven wrong. So I just dedicate myself to fighting it. It’s across the board in music, though – it’s not a specifically metal thing. But it has come up in the metal community. It’s risen its ugly head because of the incident we’re talking about.
But I’ve not only played a lot of metal shows, I’ve been to a lot of metal shows, and I know for a fact they are quite diverse and they always have been. We welcome the tribe of misfits – we’re the island of misfit toys, and we always have been. It will take very little to eradicate racism from metal because the majority of it isn’t racist.
So that's what Corey Taylor thinks, if you were wondering.
