Joey Jordison: I didn't deserve cowardly Slipknot sacking

Joey Jordison
Joey Jordison (Image credit: Travis Shinn)

Joey Jordison has recalled feeling that he “didn’t deserve” the “cowardly” way he was fired by Slipknot.

The drummer was fired in 2013 and both he and the band remained silent on the reasons for his dismissal. But last week, he told Metal Hammer he had been diagnosed with a rare disease of the nervous system.

It left him unable to play the drums properly and he had to be carried to the stage during his final run of shows with Slipknot.

In an in-depth interview with Metal Hammer, he opens up on his condition and recalls the “hurtful” way he was dismissed – in a “stupid fucking email.”

Jordison says: “No band meeting? None. Anything from management? No, nothing. All I got was a stupid fucking email saying I was out of the band that I busted my ass my whole life to fucking create.

“That’s exactly what happened and it was hurtful. I didn’t deserve that shit after what I’d done and everything I’d been through.”

The drummer – who recently launched two new bands, Vimic and Sinsaenum – was angry that some people assumed his health problems were linked to drugs or booze and says even his bandmates thought that was the case.

But despite his complaints over how he was fired, Jordison insists he still loves the guys in Slipknot.

He adds: “They got confused about my health issues and obviously even I didn’t know what it was at first. They thought I was fucked up on drugs, which I wasn’t at all.

“I’ve been through so many things with those guys and I love them very much. What’s hurtful is the way it went down was not fucking right.

“That’s all I want to say. They way they did it was fucking cowardly. It was fucked up.”

In the same interview, Jordison admits that he’d be open to meeting with Slipknot to discuss a reunion and that he enjoyed their latest album .5: The Gray Chapter, which features Jay Weinberg on drums.

Jordison is the cover star of issue 285 of Metal Hammer, out today in print and also available digitally to TeamRock+ members now – sign up here.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.