The proliferation of artificial intelligence has been one of the most controversial topics of 2025, and Slipknot’s Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan has become one of the few high-profile heavy metal musicians to speak out in favour of the advancing technology.
In a new interview with gaming magazine The Escapist, the co-founder and percussionist for nu metal’s nine-man wrecking crew calls AI “a professor in my pocket who only wants to do what I ask it”. “I’m employing AI 190 percent,” he states.
He also says, “I’ve been using AI my whole life,” viewing it as the latest in the series of tools which have been set up to help musicians over the years. He then claims to have “thousands and thousands” of poems that he’s written since he was young, adding that, through AI, he can transform them into something else without compromising his vision.
“Here are my words,” he says. “Don’t change them. Don’t alter them. But show me some different ways to sing it.”
He continues: “What’s the difference between me pulling out my pocket producer… or me trying to get a famous producer that might not even work with me and could potentially cost me $150,000… who will only give me one or two ways – I’m not mentioning any names!”
The use of AI as a creative tool has been derided by many over the past few years. Content generation programmes such as Suno and ElevenLabs have been criticised for using copyrighted music to generate new songs from users’ prompts, with no financial remuneration for the artists they’ve been ‘inspired’ by.
Some users have employed the technology to create fictitious bands and amass huge listener bases without ever picking up an instrument. During the summer, several publications observed that The Velvet Sundown, an entirely AI-generated psychedelic rock outfit, had more than 320,000 Spotify monthly listeners. In October, Lucas Woodland, singer for Welsh rockers Holding Absence, pointed out that an AI ‘band’ modelled on his group’s music had amassed more monthly listeners than them.
He wrote on X: “So, an AI ‘band’ who cite us as an influence (ie, it’s modelled off our music) have just overtaken us on Spotify, in only TWO months. It’s shocking, it’s disheartening, it’s insulting – most importantly – it’s a wake up call. Oppose AI music, or bands like us stop existing.”
AI has also come under fire for its environmental impact, as data-centres for such chatbots as ChatGPT and Google Gemini require large amounts of water for cooling. This month, it was reported that the use of AI led to the same amount of CO2 emissions as the city of New York.
Other metal musicians to speak out against AI include Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach, who over the weekend took to Instagram and urged fans to stop sending him AI-generated videos of he and his bandmates dancing.
“Ai is not good for artists, it is dumbing us down and truly killing the thing that makes art amazing and crucial, HUMAN EXPRESSION!” he wrote.
Even Clown’s bandmate, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, has criticised AI ‘music’. He told Kerrang! in 2023: “People keep going, ‘Oh, isn’t it cool?’ I’m like, no, it’s not cool. What are you, out of your mind? What? Suddenly now we have no talent? The only thing that we’re gonna get that sounds cool and new is from something that doesn't even exist? Screw you, man!”
Among the artists seemingly in favour of AI-generated ‘art’ are the death metal bands Deicide and Pestilence, both of whom used AI to put together the front covers of their latest albums. When criticised for their use of AI imagery last year, Pestilence doubled down in a Facebook post.
They wrote: “Are we so caught up in the past that that [sic] we do not embrace technology? Is recording with tape better than digital daws. Is taking a polaroid picture better than the newest tech phone? It’s still about the music and lyrics and that’s REAL!!!”
Clown acknowledges the danger of AI in the Escapist interview but argues that “AI is the least of our worries on this planet”: “We currently are the worst of our worries and have always been the worst of our worries.”
Slipknot are currently working on their next album, the follow-up to 2022’s The End, So Far.
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