Stone Sour are on the European festival circuit right now and doing some interviews. Guitarist Jim Root, who is also obviously the guitarist of Slipknot spoke to the official Sonisphere site and of course the topic of the future of Slipknot came up. With the surprising death of bassist Paul Gray, Root's response was not surprising:
Q: First of all, do you want to tell us what the situation is now with SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR in terms of priorities and plans?
Root: Basically we are doing what we normally do, just kind of flip-flopping everything. SLIPKNOT's the kind of band you need to step away from and kind of take a break from and let it heal, so to speak. Right now we are just concentrating on releasing this record with STONE SOUR doing a year and a half to two years touring and we will cross any other bridge when we get to it.
Q: You won't be going back to SLIPKNOT for at least another year and a half then?
Root: Probably two years at least, I would say.
Q: And then would it be to tour again or will you start working on writing?
Root: I'm not sure what we are going to do. We haven't talked about anything we're going to do. We've got some things to think about so right now we are just going to not think about them. We're at the beginning of the STONE SOUR cycle and not really thinking about our calendars. There's going to be a big healing process that needs to happen before we even think about whether or not SLIPKNOT will continue. And right now that's the furthest thing from our mind. Right now we are just grieving or trying to find time to grieve anyway for the fact that our bro's gone. It's weird because some days I don't even think it's real, so that one's not going to make sense for a while.
It's completely understandable that with the band on break, the last thing they are even thinking about right now is recording a new record. At this point they are just grieving the loss of one of their close friends.
On a more positive note, great footage of Stone Sour playing their new single "Misson Statement" has been posted here.
