'Proud' Slipknot salute seven-year-old English drummer for killer cover of Sulfur

(Image credit: The Ellen Show / YouTube)

Slipknot have paid tribute to seven-year-old English drummer Caleb Hayes after the Cumbrian schoolboy delivered a flawless take on their 2009 single Sulfur on daytime TV in America.

Introduced by comedian-turned-talk show host Ellen DeGeneres as "the cutest heavy metal drummer I have ever seen", Hayes powered through a flawless take on the fourth single from the Iowa metal troupe's All Hope Is Gone album on the March 2 episode of The Ellen Show, delighting his host and her audience in equal measure. Interviewed after his performance drew a standing ovation from the studio audience, young Caleb revealed that he's been drumming since the age of two, and credited his father for his early tuition. He also nominated Slipknot as his favourite band, and looked suitably thrilled when DeGeneres gifted him a Jay Weinberg signature snare drum at the end of his segment on the show.

Watch the clip below:

Post-broadcast, there was another thrill for the young drummer when Jay Weinberg personally saluted his "fantastic performance" on Instagram, and told Hayes that he had "made all your big brothers in Slipknot proud."

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Slipknot are set to begin the first leg of their 40-date North American Knotfest Roadshow tour on March 16 in Fargo, North Dakota. In This Moment and Jinjer have been tapped as support acts for this run.

Frontman Corey Taylor has previously promised “Big Shit Coming” for the Iowa band in 2022. He has also assured Slipknot fans that they’re in for a treat with the group's forthcoming seventh studio album, which he says is set to feature “fucking savage heavy shit”. Percussionist Shawn Crahan has described the album as "a cobra in the market".

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.