"Wait And Bleed" is a staple of Slipknot's live shows, having been played damn near 1,000 times live over the years. And if it were up to vocalist Corey Taylor, he'd never play it again.
In an interview with All Things Music, Taylor said he's not really the guy in the band that vetoes songs to be played live. Though at one point he gave a hard "no" on playing "Wait And Bleed", which backfired on the band thanks to a less-than-perfect show review.
"I'm going on record here," said Taylor as transcribed by Metal Injection. "I'm not the one who vetoes these things. I vetoed one song for a half a tour – you're gonna laugh – 'Wait And Bleed' because I was fucking tired of playing it. I was like, 'can we do one run where we don't play it?' Listen to this shit. We got a 4K review from headlining Download specifically because we didn't play 'Wait And Bleed'. I was like, 'are you fucking kidding me?' I was so mad. I purposefully was like 'I don't fucking wanna play this song ever again.' Well guess what? I'm the asshole we did it.
"It's in my fucking solo set now. So there you go. I can't escape it. People love that song. It's not a bad song. It's just old, man. And I, like everybody else who makes music, I love the fact that we have legacy stuff. But man, I fucking played that [forever]."
Taylor also made a good point about fans asking for Slipknot to play certain songs, and then when they do it goes over like a fart in church. Which I guess makes sense – even if 1,000 fans ask for a song, what're the chances that they (and everyone else into that song) are all at the same show at the same time?
"The fans are fickle too, because every other fucking fan favorite is like 'you fuckers never play 'Metabolic,'" said Taylor. "Then we bring it out and you could've heard a pin drop. Nobody gave a shit about 'Metabolic'."
So are there any songs Taylor would really like to get on stage? Yup – "Gematria (The Killing Name)", which he'd love to open a show with and acknowledges it'll never happen. "There are certain odiums around the way that song was created and recorded, which is why some of the guys in the band are like 'fuck that, we'll never play it,'" said Taylor. "[The reason] isn't even sentimental. It's resentment. But for me man, it's such a fucking burner that I just love that song. But it'll never happen."
