Slipknot's Clown on why the band rarely discuss their much-missed former bandmate, Joey Jordison

Slipknot percussionist, creative mastermind and co-leader Shawn 'Clown' Crahan has discussed his relationship with former bandmate Joey Jordison , who passed away in 2021 , in a new interview. Jordison, who left the band in 2013, seemingly had a strained relationship with the rest of Slipknot in the years following his departure, but Clown has suggested he could have feasibly rejoined the 'Knot fold had things turned out differently.

“I don't know, man, it's just like something that you had your whole life, that you lost, when we lost Joey,” Clown tells Knotfest . “And if everybody thinks about it, we really never talk [about that situation]. You can't find anything of us explaining all that, because it's nobody's fucking business, and he's our brother. And who knows, man, there might have been a chance in life. I don't know the future. There might have been a chance we would have gotten back together. I don't know. I can't tell you yes or no, but there's a better chance [of] yes [than] not because of friendship and growing older and talking and being able to understand things. So I just want you to know we're having a really good time with our music and with each other. We're all working really hard right now, really hard. As hard as it is to break in new philosophies, to do this setlist, to make new things, to have new people. It's so much work.”

Slipknot are currently on the road celebrating the 25th anniversary of their incendiary debut album , playing most of that record in full. Clown explains the band's decision to only play songs from that era on this current tour, stating: “I want to play songs that are dedicated only to that moment, and not give in and be a sellout and play Duality at the end on fucking cheese ball shit. Everybody leans into that cheese because they're weak .”

“‘Here comes the pain’, not ‘There goes the pain’, or ‘We're going to mend the pain,’” Clown adds, referencing the iconic line from 1993 thriller Carlito's Way that is sampled on Slipknot's debut album cut (sic) . “Or, ‘Hey, 25 years later, the pain's gone.’ 25 years later, on different mentalities we still use the number one mentality: Here comes the pain. It’s never going away.”

Slipknot's 25th anniversary tour will see them continue to plough through North America across the coming weeks, before hitting Central and South America and Europe before the year is out.