- Corey Taylor and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan exchange chaotic stories while eating hot wings through their masks
- Taylor ranks his music beefs, from Fred Durst to Nickelback to Machine Gun Kelly
- Crahan reveals he’s a big fan of Britney Spears
It is not often that you would associate Slipknot with balloons, birthday parties and pinatas. But here we are, watching Corey Taylor and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan don party hats, receive a birthday cake, big up Les Mis and Britney Spears and be showered in confetti and balloons.
They do eventually smash a piñata to pieces with a pair of baseball bats, but still, the overarching sentiment is wholesome as s**t.
The pair, who have been two of the most iconic faces (well, masks) in heavy metal during the 21st century, took part in the latest instalment of Hot Ones Versus, facing off against each other over a series of questions and death wings.
Due to Taylor and Crahan being adorned in their traditional boiler suit and facemask get-up, the discussion of favourite pop princesses and musicals does still come with an ever-so-slightly sadistic edge. As if you’re watching two cult members enjoying some downtime before they take part in The Purge.
While Taylor reveals himself to be a fan of Les Misérables and Clown shares his appreciation for the career of his favourite ‘pop princess’ Britney Spears, there is still a decent amount of foul f**king language and discussions about previous beefs within the music industry to maintain the chaotic aura the heavy-metallers have crafted over the last quarter century.
Ranking his beefs with Limp Bizkit, Machine Gun Kelly and Nickelback, Taylor prefaces his answer by saying, “I love that this is coming up as I’m doing all this work on myself. A lot of the things that I said were based off of my own ego, my own insecurities, my own arrogance”.
Continuing with his ranking, Taylor adds, “My issues truly weren’t even with Limp Bizkit, they were with Fred [Durst]. It was just about what Fred represented at the time, the things that were being said and the people in the band that were actually saying stuff about us.”
When it came to Machine Gun Kelly, Taylor stated, “Before the beef, I did have respect for him and I liked his music. We butted heads ego wise and creatively because of a song that he and Travis [Barker, Blink 182 drummer] invited me to be on. He and me are very similar and I hope he’s figuring shit out because I know he’s been through some dark shit.” While regarding Nickelback, whom he describes as a “musical echo” Taylor said, “It’s just the same thing. There’s some stuff of theirs that I like,” although when he mentions ‘How You Remind Me’ Crahan erupts into laughter, which perhaps alludes to how little he thinks of the quadruple platinum monster hit from 2001.
The sight of the pair eating the Wings of Death through their signature masks is certainly something to behold, especially when Taylor develops a bout of the hiccups and Crahan reveals that he is profusely sweating behind his mask. The visual is not as horrifying as it could have been, however, with Crahan also holding up a picture at one point of the mask he wore during the band’s ‘Iowa’ era, after the release of their second album, which infamously featured an exposed brain and a pentagram carved into the face.
At the conclusion of the episode, Taylor and Crahan are presented with a birthday cake to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Slipknot’s eponymous debut album and are then showered with confetti and invited to smash a pinata to smithereens with a pair of baseball bats. They comment on the Hot Ones balloon budget before annihilating the poor, sweet filled burro. Crahan exclaims “hey, candy!” as he surveys the damage done, while proudly displaying the papier-mâché donkey head as a trophy, in a scene reminiscent of the early days of Slipknot when Clown would bring dead cow heads on stage with him.
So, although we didn’t know we needed a Slipknot Hot Ones episode in our lives, it turns out we really, really did after all.
