Slipknot star in BBC exploration of masks

Slipknot will feature on a BBC television programme exploring why artists wear masks.

Frontman Corey Taylor and percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan appear on tonight’s (Friday) Artsnight episode, which airs at 11pm on BBC2, where they discuss the origins of their masks and why they wear them as part of their art.

Taylor describes seeing the band before he joined and how he was captivated by the visual element of their show.

He says: “I was there for the first Slipknot show. I was in the audience, it was before I’d even joined the band. It was so many different things all at once. It was visual, it was visceral, it was antagonistic, it was dangerous, it was powerful.

“I’d never seen a band like that before. It was taking everything that had been done creatively, artistically, visually and taking it to such a different realm.

“I loved the fact that every mask was different because it represented a different person, it wasn’t all linear and just thrown together.

“I felt that everyone put a lot of time and thought into what they were doing. So when I did join, after some trial and error, it came to emboss that theory onto the mask that I was wearing.”

Crahan, the man behind much of the visual side of Slipknot, talks about the day a mask changed his life.

He says: “I had gotten a version of this mask when I was 14. I was drawn to it, it was awesome. I just never knew why it was in my world and it was always round me.

“Then one day there was this moment of clarity about what I wanted to project. I’m being taught something, more and more, and I haven’t even figured it out yet. This thing has no fucking limits.”

Artsnight is presented by Nina Conti. Tonight’s episode also explores artist Mark Wardel’s David Bowie masks.

Slipknot launch a UK arena tour next week. They released latest album .5: The Gray Chapter in 2014.

The Definitive History Of Every Slipknot Mask

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.