Earlier today, the family of former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison released a statement announcing that the iconic drummer has passed away. He was only 46 years old and passed away peacefully in his sleep. Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan have now paid tribute in their own unique way.
The social media accounts of both Slipknot members went black earlier in tribute to Jordison. The main Slipknot account also shared the same large black square.
TMZ reports Jordison's family said they will hold a private funeral service for him, although no date was mentioned.
Jordison parted ways with Slipknot in 2013, and the band never quite went public with what happened, although frontman Corey Taylor made some allusions to what happened in 2014 in an interview on The Jasta Show.
At the time, Taylor said "There's legalities [that are involved which prevent me from talking about it], but at the same time — and people need to realize this — there's respect. I'm not gonna talk about Joey's life, because it's not my place, and people need to realize that. If Joey wants to talk about the situation, he can. I can only talk about how it pertains to this band, and the only way I've been able to sum it up — and this is the broadest term — is that sometimes you're on the same road, and you'll reach a T section, and sometimes you turn together, and sometimes you split. And this time we split. It was just that simple. We just weren't able to work anymore. And that's it."
He continued "I'm not gonna sit here and dog somebody that I spent 15 years building something amazing with — I'm not gonna do that. And the fans need to understand that. And I think for the most part most of them do, but there's always gonna be those people who just want a little more so they can talk shit. And that's the only reason why they want the full story — so they can talk shit."
At the 2016 Metal Hammer Golden Gods, Joey Jordison shocked the metal world by revealing his battle with transverse myelitis. The disease is a form of multiple sclerosis that affected his back, and most importantly for a drummer, his legs. In 2018, Jordison said he recovered 100% from the disease, although he faded from the public eye.
In a 2016 interview, Jordison complained he was fired in an email and that the band was confused about his diagnosis. "No band meeting? None. Anything from management? No, nothing. All I got was a stupid fucking email saying I was out of the band that I busted my ass my whole life to fucking create. That's exactly what happened and it was hurtful. I didn't deserve that shit after what I'd done and everything I'd been through."
"They got confused about my health issues and obviously even I didn't know what it was at first. They thought I was fucked up on drugs, which I wasn't at all. I've been through so many things with those guys and I love them very much. What's hurtful is the way it went down was not fucking right. That's all I want to say. They way they did it was fucking cowardly. It was fucked up."
Tributes have been pouring in from all over the rock world. Joey will be missed.