Corey Taylor

Born on December 8, 1973, Corey Taylor is the lead vocals for both Slipknot, a nu-metal/rock band (formed in 1999), and Stone Sour, a softer rock group (also formed in 1992). As many people love telling others, Corey was in Stone Sour before he was in Slipknot. Proof of this would be that Corey was the original vocals of the first stages of Stone Sour, which began back in 1992. But Corey did not join Slipknot until 1997, when the "old" Slipknot (which recorded one demo [MFKR] and one unreleased album [CrowZ]) departed ways with original vocals Anders Colsefni. Corey then joined Slipknot, and they later released their debut album, "Slipknot." Anders and Corey actually performed live together, until Anders officially announced his departure from Slipknot, leaving Corey as the main vocals. What inspired Corey Taylor to become a vocalist? Maybe his intrest in Rock 'n' Roll legend Elvis Presley. As Corey and his grandmother listened to Elvis, she also helped support his vocal career by purchasing equipment for Corey and helping him with his talent. With the name Slipknot mentioned, one could only think about the masks that the band wears. Back when Slipknot originally started with Anders as vocals, the band wore masks over their faces (which, in fact, the members of the 'MFKR' Slipknot who are also part of the 'new' Slipknot still wear similar masks to those back in the 'MFKR Era'). But anyway, Corey's mask is of a crash dummy with dread locks. Back in 1999, when Slipknot released their first debut album, Corey Taylor's dreads were actually his real hair, wraped up and put through holes at the top of the mask. This changed however when Corey got a scalp infection from the hair. So he later replaced the hair with artifical hair that was sewen onto the top of the mask. Another feature that Slipknot is popular with is the numbers that they use. The numbers are used on a lot of things, but focusing on only Corey: his number is eight. Each member of the band has a number that they chose when the band started. Rumors have it that each member chose a number and no two members chose the same number, so there were no fueds between the members about which number they wanted. One of the things I've seen, personally, on message boards in Corey Taylor's old job, before he joined Slipknot, which was in a porn shop. His comments on it: "People would look at me like I was a freak, but they were the ones buying in the porn shop at four in the morning. Straight looking people I'd know would come to the register with 14-inch dildos and then they'd recognize me sitting there, and I'd be like, 'Like any lotions or lubes with that?'. But I didn't want anyone to feel dirty in the shop - because people are made to feel dirty every day of their lives, and that's bullshit." The porn shop's name was "Adult Emporium". Did Corey always want to sing? Actually, no. He wanted to to play drums at first, but began his singing career when he heard Soundgarden's "Screaming Life" and Nirvana's "Bleach". Shawn Crahan, percussionist of Slipknot(number six) used to know Corey as "Kind of Des Moines" back when Stone Sour was the biggest band in the area. As mentioned above, Corey has been using his own vocal merchandise. The microphone that Corey uses for Slipknot is a Shure SM58 microphone. Corey has been known to have a few "stages" or "types" of singing. Listed below are seven of these types of singing. 1) When he's actually singing (wait and bleed, mid point of no life) 2) Crazy screaming (beginning of sic and Eyeless), (surfacing fuck it all part) 3) Slow talking (I can't see, I can't be.., purity) 4) Fast talking (spit it out, no life) 5) Melodic (prosthetics, scissors) 6) Raspy scream (tattered and torn) 7) Normal scream. Like in only one, diluted, etc. If you've seen Corey without his jumpsuit or his priest outfit on, you can try to get a view of his tattoos. He was quite a bit, as listed below. * On Corey's chest, he has the band logo, which was tatooed onto his body in his hometown of Des Moines. * On Corey's neck he has the number eight, representing his number in the band Slipknot. * On Corey's forearm, he has a tattoo that says "Truth." * On Corey's right side of his neck, he has a tatoo that stands for "Father". * On Corey's left side of his neck, he has a tatoo that stands for "Death." * On Corey's right and left hip bones, he as smilie face tatoos. * On Corey's left upper arm is a tattoo of the Joker from the Dark Knight Why might Corey have his tattoo saying "Death" and "Father?" Possibly becuase Corey did not know his real father. Actually, if you look at the Slipknot lyrics for Eyeless (track 3 of Slipknot), you can find the lyrics towards the beginning of the song that says "I am my father's son. Cuz he's a phantom, a mystery, and that leaves me nothing!" Corey is nicknamed "Faith" and "Sickness".