Why I ❤️ Slipknot, by Rick Astley

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-definitive-history-of-every-slipknot-mask

(Image credit: Michael Putland/Getty Images/Mick Hutson/Redferns)

Rick Astley is a legend. Even if you don't love his music - and anyone who doesn't have at least a sneaking admiration for his 80s pop blockbuster Never Gonna Give You Up is a lost cause – you've got to admit that he's a diamond geezer with impeccable taste in music.

What’s that you’re saying? He’s not metal? Wrong, Jürgen Darkthrone! Rick Astley is so metal that he’s been known to bust out AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Touch Too Much onstage (while playing drums, no less!).

But he excelled himself recently, taking to TikTok – or RickTok as he renamed it – to rock out to Slipknot’s Duality. This was no freak accident or aging pop star showing-off-in-front-of-their-mates rubbish. It turns out Rick is an honest-to-god fan of Des Moines’ finest.

So we did what any self-respecting music website would do, and asked him what in the name of Corey Taylor’s knacker-sack is going in?

“This is a bit of a weird one, because obviously a lot of people’s perception of Slipknot if you’re not really aware of them is ‘Oh, it’s those guys who wear the masks,’” Rick tells us. “Which is very, very true; that is a lot about what they’re about, their identities being hidden all these years and all the rest of it – even though we kind of know what the singer Corey looks like. Or I do anyway, because I’ve seen stuff of him on YouTube going out doing his acoustic gigs and all the rest of it, which is a bit weird after all these years.

“The thing with them is they actually write really great melodies, it’s just sometimes the thing that comes out for a lot of people who aren’t into [metal] – and it’s not my genre, I’m not saying that – but I’m saying of various things that I’ve looked at that they’ve done on YouTube and what have you, this one just stands out to me as being a great song. They’re quite unconventional [in] the way they write songs sometimes, but it’s just a brilliant track. When I’m in my room thrashing about on my drum kit with my headphones on, it’s one of the tracks I like to play. I forget what their drummer’s called, but he’s just a ridiculous drummer as well.”

If that’s not enough, he’s also named Rammstein’s Sonne among his favourite songs. We can’t wait for the TikTok of him waving a dildo around while setting himself on fire. Come on Rick. You know it makes sense.

@rickastleyofficial
On this last day of Christmas, I bring you, Slipknot! ##slipknot ##ricktok ##rickastley ##fyp
♬ Duality - Slipknot

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