Slipknot's Corey Taylor Has A Raging Emotion Boner For Soundwave

Days out from his gig headlining one of the biggest heavy music festivals in the world, Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has gushed about his love for Aussie metalheads and his excitement to return to Soundwave for the 2015 instalment.

Speaking to the UK’s Metal Hammer, Taylor didn’t bother trying to conceal his raging emotional boner for the land Down Under. “I remember seeing visions of Australia when I was a kid and thinking ‘Man, that looks fuckin’ rad’,” he says, confessing that the Knot’s first visit to our shores at the turn of the millennium fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams.

“When we finally got there, I remember landing in Sydney and running outside, laying on the ground and looking up at this huge sky – it just looked bigger than the sky does anywhere else – and maybe it’s because I was so fuckin’ sleep deprived, but it was just so gorgeous!”

“It’s like a flight to Mars to get there, but the payoff is so fuckin’ rad.”

Of course, this year’s Soundwave is far from the frontman’s first rodeo, with Slipknot headlining the festival alongside System Of A Down back in 2012, and Taylor flying back over with his other band, Stone Sour, in 2013. But that hasn’t diminished his excitement for this year’s instalment. Taylor says he digs absolutely everything about the festival, and not just the onstage payoff.

“It’s probably one of the most well put together festivals,” he reckons. “Never mind the shows, because the Australian fans have always been fantastic to us, it’s everything behind the scenes, it’s so on point. From the second you get off the plane to the second you get back on the bus and head back to the airport, everything is taken care of, there’s no guesswork. You are led, literally, through it. And it’s so good to feel that sometimes.

“The people at Soundwave are so on it and so in it that you don’t have to wish for anything. Hopefully I can speak for all the other bands too… all the i’s are dotted, all the t’s are crossed and there’s nothing you have to worry about except for the show. And the fans are fucking fantastic over there. I can’t say enough about how well-oiled that machine is and how proficient it is. Hopefully I’m not jinxing it by saying that! But we can’t wait to get back over there.”

The ‘Knot singer’s comments about the festival’s slick organisation seem to come as somewhat of a contrast to the experience of Soundwave punters, especially those in Melbourne, whose transport plans to this year’s festival have been in shambles just days out from kick-off thanks to a dizzying dispute between Soundwave and Public Transport Victoria.

But despite some of the organisational disarray locally, it’s at least good to know that the festival is looking after its bands.

““If you’re in a band and you can afford to get down to Soundwave, you should, because they’ll make it worth every last drop of your time,” Taylor promises.

Gallery: Slipknot @ Soundwave 2012, Sydney