Did you know that Corey Taylor of Slipknot made a conscious decision to avoid cursing on the band's third studio album? Or that he had a fued with accomplished producer Rick Rubin? Why did guitarist Jim Root write a special note on the back of his guitar while on tour in support of the album? Stick around as we andswer these questions and more, on...
10 Fun Facts About Vol 3 (The Subliminal Verses) by Slipknot
1. No Cursing
Vocalist Corey Taylor made a conscious decision to avoid cursing on Slipknot's Vol 3 (The Subliminal Verses) due to criticism regarding the amount of cursing on their first two studio albums. The frontman himself told an interviewer in 2019:
"I was catching so much hell. Whether it was Slipknot or Stone Sour... 'Oh, he can't truly be a great writer because he can't write without using expletives!' and whatnot.
"I was, like, 'Oh, really? OK...' So I did that whole album specifically for that. To me, it was a bigger 'F*** you' to write a whole album without saying that... I was pretty proud of that." - Taylor, Corey Taylor Explains Only Slipknot Album That Has No Profanities, Jomatomi, Ultimate Guitar (Oct 1, 2019)
2. Slip-Not
Slipknot's
Vol 3 (The Subliminal Verses) didn't start out with a very productive
recording process, and almost didn't happen because the band was too
busy drinking and was not getting any work done, as various members of
the band recount their own stories:
(Drummer) JOEY JORDISON told Revolver Magazine in 2008:
"Me and Paul demoed a bunch of songs. I
flew down to Los Angeles and arrived expecting to practice. I walk in
and Corey says, "No, I'm going to the Rainbow [Bar & Grill, the famous L.A. rock-and-roll hangout]."
And Shawn says, "No, I'm working on something else." I'm like, "What
the f***?! We're not f****** jamming?" So I go get a bottle of Jack
Daniel's and drink myself into oblivion. Then I wake up at 3 o'clock the
next day and say, "Right, let's jam," and no one wants to. It took us
three f****** months before everyone came together." - Jordinson,
Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn,
Revolver (Sep 26, 2008)
Vocalist COREY TAYLOR would say:
"For the most part,
I pushed everybody
away. I would drink all day and then go to the bar at night. I was the
quintessential lead singer. You were gonna cater to my ego and tell me
everything was great. And that's so not who I am. Honestly. I never
wanted to be like that. I would keep a bottle of Jack next to my f******
bed every day. Instead of figuring out why I was upset, I just drowned
in it... I just
wanted to feel something other than terrible." - Taylor, Slipknot Look
Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26,
2008)
And turntablist SID WILSON would explain:
"Like some of the other guys, I went
through some relationship problems and started drinking and smoking
reefer really heavily, nonstop all day to deal with the depression. I'd
stay up for three days straight. Then I'd pass out for a day and
continue the cycle until I realized a year later that there's a lot
worse things than being on the pity pot. I started playing piano and
that was a good release for me—getting rid of the depression through the
keys." - Wilson, Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26, 2008)
3. Healing Process
The
recording process for Slipknot's Vol 3,
The Subliminal Verses was largely a time of healing and reunion for
Slipknot who's interpersonal relationships and dramas had caused so much
tension that the band had essentially broken up with multiple members
formign or re-forming other bands during the hiatus. Singer Corey Taylor
told Revolver Magazine that it was their manager Cory Brennan who
helped to bring the band back together again:
"At Christmas 2004, I had $2,000 in the bank. It's hard for me to talk about... We got f***** by our old management so bad. We were young, we were really stupid, and we were duped. We thought that people were looking out for us and they weren't.
But by the time we got to Vol. 3, we had found our current manager, Cory Brennan. He had worked at Roadrunner and been around since the beginning. The guy is so savvy and so together and, because we all knew him, we believed in him. He helped us get focused again and find that passion. He helped us realize, "F***, dude, we're in Slipknot! We're the biggest f****** band on the g****** planet." And that gave us confidence and maybe helped us rally for one another on Vol. 3.
It showed me that everybody in the band wasn't against me. We were there for each other. But really, we were rebuilding bridges for the whole first year of the Vol. 3 tour cycle. And it took us a long f****** time to get to that point where we healed a lot of wounds." - Taylor, Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26, 2008)
4. The Mansion
Slipknot's Vol 3, (The Subliminal Verses), would be recorded in 2003 at The Mansion, a four bedroom estate owned by producer Rick Rubin, located in the Laurel Canyon region of Los Angeles, California. The Mansion is famous for the multiple bands who have recorded hit albums within its walls. A list that includes Red Hot Chili Peppers, Audioslave, Marilyn Manson, The Mars Volta, System of a Down, and Linkin Park. The estate was also a former home of Golden Age actor Errol Flynn.
And did you know that
The Mansion is also allegedly haunted? According to various people who
claim they had paranormal experiences while working or staying at The
Mansion. Including Rick Rubin's publicist who claims she saw a woman in a
white dress walk past her on the staircase. Or Slipknot's Corey Taylor
who claims he saw a man in a tuxedo enter his room while he was taking a
shower.
5. Rick Rubin the Ghost
Although
producer Rick Rubin is an accomplished producer with many notable hit
albums on his resume, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor was less than
impressed by the producer's methods. As he told Revolver Magazine in
2008:
"I wouldn't know what it's like to work with Rick Rubin. I only saw him about four times. Rick Rubin is a nice man. He's done a lot of good for a lot of people. He didn't do anything for me. I'm not happy with the vocals on that record. There were a lot of takes that I thought were much better than the ones they f****** used and I wasn't asked about a lot of s***. It sounds amazing; the songs are great. But we were being charged horrendous amounts of money." - Taylor, Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26, 2008)
He was also noted as saying in a different interview:
“Rick Rubin shows up for 45 minutes a week... I respect what Rick Rubin has done. But the Rick Rubin of today is a thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I f****** live.” - Taylor, I Want To Say Sorry To Rick Rubin, Martin Kielty, Metal Hammer (Sept 21, 2022)
6. Rick Rubin the Yoda
Although
singer Corey Taylor had a negative experience working with producer Rick
Rubin on The Subliminal Verses, guitarist Jim Root had a much different
experience. As he explains:
"As dark as that [time was for me], it was really amazing how attentive Rick Rubin was to us as a band. He knew I was going through a hard time. I never told him, but I got a knock on my bedroom door, and his assistant came up and he had this herbal calming drop that you put on your tongue to mellow out. A lot of the guys in the band say Rick was unavailable. And, yeah, he takes on a lot of projects at one time, but he also does things that are beneficial. He was listening and having us retrack things that needed work. He's kind of like Big Brother up on the hill. Even though he wasn't there physically every day, he was. And that's my favorite record we've done. We tried some things that were different and took some chances and they came out great. I was hoping we'd be able to evolve from that. I'm not sure that we have." - Root, Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26, 2008)
7. Unsung Hero
Corey Taylor credits producer Greg Fidelman as the "unsung hero" of Slipknot's The Subliminal Verses despite the fact that he was only credited as an Engineer. While Corey was frustrated with Rick Rubin over his lack of availability to mentor the young singer, he was quick to heap praise upon Greg Fidelman for being the mentor that he sorely needed at the time.
"To me, [Greg] was the other producer... He was there from sometimes six in
the morning till four in the morning — I mean, every day, when we
needed him... We have a great rapport with him. He gets us,
he challenges us, but he also knows when to get out of the way and just
let us be us. So we have a great relationship with him...
"The best thing you can have is somebody who's not afraid to tell you that that idea is s***... And I feel like too many bands do that — they don't have anybody pushing them; they have nobody challenging them. Because they get to a point where they think, 'Well, I don't need anybody to f****** tell me… I'm talented enough... I obviously know what I'm doing.' But that's not the case. You forget that the albums that people loved you on, there were other people helping you do that. It's a collaborative effort...
You have to have that open mind... to understand that listening to an idea takes 10 seconds. If you just dismiss it out of hand, then you may be missing that one moment, that hero moment, that can f****** make everything come together...
And Greg knows exactly how to throw those little bombs out there to push us. He infuriates us sometimes, but at the same time, I'd say nine times out of 10, he's right... he knows what we're trying to go for, he knows what we aspire to be, and he helps us get there." - Taylor, Slipknot's Corey Taylor Praises Producer Greg Fidelman..., from Let There Be Talk #455, text by Blabbermouth.net (Jan 9, 2019)
8. Super-Liminal
The title
Subliminal Verses speaks to the "Duality" of Slipknot's approach to
making music and the intentional twists that the band puts on their
music to keep the listener guessing. As the singer himself explained to
Fuse TV:
"Basically the concept behind Subliminal Verses is that there's two levels of information. There's the blatant, and then there's the... kind of subdued... The blatant always comes off the way it is... It's in your face, right there. And you can listen to a song a million times and get the same message.
But with the subdued,
which is kind of underneath... under the smoky remnants of it, that's
where the subliminal part comes in because there's always two sides to
every story. There's what's going on and then there's what's not going
on... with everything. There's two sides to everything. The real message that comes through is that "just when you thought you understood us,
there's a whole new program ready for you guys to download." - Taylor,
Slipknot Reveals the True Message Behind 'The Sublimanal Verses', Fuse
(Oct 2016)
9. House Destruction Party
The
music video for "Duality" was filmed at a fan's house that was about to
undergo renovation. However, fans that filled the house for the
performance were so energetic that they end up causing far more damage
than the band had expected. The list of damages included but was not
limited to broken windows, water-damaged carpets, destroyed gutters and
picnic tables, and a hole in the cieling where a chandelier used to be.
The video would cost almost half a million dollars to shoot, with
Roadrunner Records allegedly paying the homeowner $50,000 to help with
repair bills.
Slipknot Co-Founder and Percussionist, Shawn "Clown" Crahan would explain:
"(We) asked our real fans to be in the video and people came from all over... it meant so much to us. We weren't really supposed to destroy that house – but we did it anyway. Another plus for that song is that I get to beat the f*** out of my keg. What else could you want?" - Crahan, Hell Unleased, Tom Bryant, Kerrang #1423. p. 24 (Jul 14, 2012)
10. Corey's Regrets
Although
Slipknot singer Corey Taylor had strong words in criticism of producer
Rick Rubin over his experience while working with him during the
production of Subliminal Verses, he would later express his regrets for
placing unfair blame on Rick and defelected more of the criticism at
himself and his own expectations:
“I’m going to be honest. I think it was more on my end than it was on his... He works his way and he always has. I was not used to working that way. I was a young guy, freshly sober... Being a singer and being sober, ‘I need your attention, Rick! I need it!’ So that was me being young, unsure of myself, needing the guidance – which I got from Greg Fidelman...
I didn’t have anybody there to help me. So I blamed him a lot – in retrospect, probably more than I should have... I feel bad about it. Hopefully some day I’ll be able to make some amends with him.” - Taylor, I Want To Say Sorry To Rick Rubin, Martin Kielty, Metal Hammer (Sept 21, 2022)
Bonus Fact: The Go-Homeacaster
Slipknot guitarist Jim Root almost took
his guitar and went back home during the middle of a European Tour in support of Vol 3, even
going so far as to write down the cost of airfare on the back of a
Telecaster which he gave a special nick-name:
References:
Hell Unleased, Tom Bryant, Kerrang #1423. p. 24 (Jul 14, 2012) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duality_(song)
I Want To Say Sorry To Rick Rubin, Martin Kielty, Metal Hammer (Sept 21, 2022) - https://www.loudersound.com/news/slipknot-corey-taylor-sorry-producer-rick-rubin
Corey Taylor Explains Only Slipknot Album That Has No Profanities, Jomatomi, Ultimate Guitar (Oct 1, 2019) - https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/corey_taylor_talks_only_slipknot_album_that_has_no_profanities_explains_why_he_did_it.html
Slipknot Look Back on Torment and Tumult... text Jon Wiederhorn, Revolver (Sep 26, 2008) - https://www.revolvermag.com/revolvermag.com/slipknot-vol3-subliminal-verses
Slipknot Reveals the True Message Behind 'The Sublimanal Verses', Fuse (Oct 2016) - https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2016/10/tbt-slipknot-subliminal-verses-interview
Slipknot's Corey Taylor Praises Producer Greg Fidelman..., from Let There Be Talk #455, text by Blabbermouth.net (Jan 9, 2019) - https://blabbermouth.net/news/slipknots-corey-taylor-praises-producer-greg-fidelman-bashes-rick-rubin-ahead-of-new-album-recording-sessions