Other bands hated Slipknot when they first started out – but Sharon Osbourne saved them

Slipknot’s appearance on the 1999 Ozzfest is the stuff of legend. Making their debut on the travelling festival’s second stage a full month before their self-titled 1999 album was unleased on an unsuspecting world, the Iowa nine-piece’s full-on performances were a taster for their impending greatness.

But not everyone was so impressed with them. Speaking in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, guitarist Jim Root and percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan recall how their unexpected impact made other bands jealous, prompting them to “shit talk” the Iowa nine-piece.

“They’d tell us directly to our faces, ‘You’re not going to last’ or ‘You’ll be lucky if you sell 6,000 records’,” Jim tells Hammer. “It was kind of a mental headfuck, and it shows you how competitive it could be at that time.”

The same unnamed bands would also object to Slipknot and their street team distributing free two-song cassette samplers in the crowd in an attempt to whip up some pre-album buzz, claiming it was proving a distraction by drawing people away from their own shows. These petty complaints resulted in Slipknot being told to stop handing out the cassettes, which they did out of respect for Ozzfest organiser Sharon Osbourne, who had been “so supportive”. Clown tells Hammer that he eventually became so frustrated that he decided to break the ban on handing out the tapes.

“I said, ‘Screw this, I can’t let these tapes go to waste anymore’,” he says. “I thought, ‘We’re not gonna get kicked off the tour, and if I have to apologise later, I will.’ And wherever I went, all I could hear was our tape being played on hundreds of car stereos.”

The jealousy wasn’t confined to Ozzfest either. Slipknot’s first national tour in 1999 saw them supporting Coal Chamber, who were being managed by Sharon Osbourne at the time.

“We were fucking unhinged, and I think there were moves to kick us off the tour more than once,” says Jim. “But Sharon Osbourne would be like, ‘The reason you have people at these shows is because of that band. Shut your fucking mouths and play your shows.’ It was a very interesting time.”

You can read the full story of the making of Slipknot’s debut album and more in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.