Slipknot – they wear masks and costumes. Even when it's really, really hot outside. Of course heat isn't the only thing you have to worry about, as Corey Taylor will tell you when recounting the horrors of his Iowa-era mask. In an interview with Kerrang!, Taylor says the Iowa mask pretty much soaked up all the sweat coming off him and was about twenty tons by the time shows were over.
It was also prone to flying off because of the weight, as he'll tell you.
"Oh, god… They were all fucking horrible. The hardest was my original with the dreads. Anything that's full-headed – there's just no getting out of it.
"At least when you've got some kind of a half-mask with some buckles and shit, you don't feel like you're singing in a portaloo. But when it's all [closed], you just put this big rubber hood on and there's just no getting out of it. You might as well just stick your head in a… It's no fuckin' bueno.
"So that one and the [2001's] 'Iowa' one, because they were basically variations of the same thing. Those were the worst. Oh my god, the 'Iowa' one… The 'Iowa' one was foam rubber. The ones from the first album were thin, they were just fucking rubber.
"But then we got a little money and we were like, 'Wow, let's fucking make some cool shit for the 'Iowa' run!' And they used foam rubber, which was basically just like giant sponges. You could tell where we were at in the show by how big my head was getting, and how heavy this fucking thing was.
"This is true story: we were in Kansas City and it was so wet and so heavy, that fuckin' thing flew off my head like a fucking wine cork. And it was right in the middle of 'Heretic Anthem.' I've got black makeup on my face and stuff, and here it is, just sitting in front of me.
"There's like 20,000 people and I just kind of went… *imitates putting the mask back on his head very slowly* And this is no joke – it was like putting on a rug that had been sitting out in the rain. *flips everyone of in the audience* So this is for you, okay? This is for all of you. This is what we go through for each and every one of you. And I love you for appreciating it.
"As far as the easiest one… Honestly, the [2004's] 'Vol. 3' one was pretty easy. However, it was the hardest to sing out of. And they call it the football mask because it's got stitches and shit. And it's like… *adopts dumbass voice* 'It looks like a baseball!' I'm like, 'Shut your fucking mouth.' But because it wasn't like symmetric, it was hard for me to get the mic up to my mouth, so it really changed the way that my vocals sounded.
"Which is why now when I do my mask I make sure that the rubber is flushed with my mouth so I can get the mic up to it. You know, mask problems."
Slipknot is currently working on a new album due out in 2019.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckrHn_lC1J0][/youtube]
