Japanese kawaii-core sensation Babymetal seem to continue to be a divisive force amongst metal fans, but metal musicians continue to show them nothing but love. Well, everybody but Behemoth's Nergal, who says he's not a fan. Bands who have publicly shown their support include Lamb of God, Metallica, Slayer, Deftones, Abbath, and Limp Bizkit. Carcass even defended them, Dragonforce recorded with them, and Korn guitarist Brian Welch even joined them on stage.
Another musician who has love for the band is Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor. Stone Sour recently went on tour with Babymetal, as both bands were out supporting Korn. In a new interview with Junkee, Taylor revealed he first heard about the band through his tween son, Griffin, who has some pipes of his own. As for the moment Taylor first heard of Babymetal, he says:
He’s such a big music fan. He’s actually the one that got me into Babymetal! [laughs] I’d never heard of them, and he comes running up to me and is like, “You gotta check this out.” I was so amazed – it was like “What the fuck?” [laughs] His enthusiasm is what got me into them.
He’s been a fan of music for as long as he’s been able to respond to it. His talent’s always been there, too. I can remember on his second birthday, we got him a keyboard with a little microphone attached. As soon as he realised that the microphone made noise, he started making noises into it. “UHH! UHH! UHH! UHH!” The crazy thing was that it was all rhythmically matched up exactly to the little drum machine — I knew he was onto it right away.
The cool thing is that as he’s gotten older, we’ve bonded so strongly through music. Before, it was me more focusing on laying down the law and just being a dad. I was trying to hammer in those important things — morals, manners; having those foundations and that compass. Now that he’s a little older and putting those things into practice, it’s allowed us to lift that a little bit. I’m still a dad first and foremost, but I’ve also been doing what I can to teach him what I know about music.
It’s a new level to our relationship; and I never had that with any person who tried to be my parent growing up. This is a really new thing for me, and I love it. It’s really cool.
I think the relationship Corey is building with his son is awesome, and who knows, Griffin Taylor might end up being a legendary musician in 20 years just like his father. Keep rockin' out!
This reminds me of an anecdote Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfeldt shared, saying the band helped ween his young daughter off One Direction. It's the reverse direction of what's happening with the Taylors, but the idea of Babymetal bringing metal families together is pretty awesome.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPIwqDkQqw[/youtube]
[via Revolver]
