Slipknot’s Jim Root: I’ve been dreaming about Paul Gray a lot recently

Paul Gray and Jim Root onstage with Slipknot in 2009
Paul Gray and Jim Root onstage with Slipknot in 2009 (Image credit: Gary Miller/FilmMagic - Getty)

Slipknot’s Jim Root says he’s been dreaming about the band’s late bassist Paul Gray a lot recently.

The guitarist was speaking with Vice’s I-D when he was asked if he remembers his dreams.

Root replies: “I’m sort of going through… not a bad break-up, but I’m in a toxic relationship that I’m exiting. I’m kind of ghosting someone right now. It’s just very unhealthy. 

“I don’t wish anything bad or malicious on this person, I just want them to get better and be happy with themselves. So I’ve been having a lot of bizarre dreams about deceased people lately. 

“Paul has been showing up in my dreams a lot.”

When asked if dealing with that has been hard for him, Root says: “It’s a little bit weird. Maybe I haven’t fully grieved Paul being gone, maybe I shoved that somewhere deep down inside. But in the dream, he had come back to life. 

“He had passed on but he was alive and with his wife, his widow, and they were in this blue sports car. He was typical old Paul, but he was a reanimation of himself, like a zombie.

“So it stirs up a bunch of weird emotions and I’m thinking that maybe it ties into the situation I’m in now. Because I know there’s a person inside there, but I think they have some narcissistic, possibly sociopathic tendencies. 

“Maybe that’s what that dream meant… because it’s Paul, but it’s not really Paul, you know?”

Gray died in May 2010 of an accidental overdose, with the band paying tribute to him on their 2014 album .5: The Gray Chapter.

Slipknot are currently on tour across Europe in support of their 2019 album We Are Not Your Kind.

The run will come to an end in Helsinki on February 24, with the band then visiting Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, before their Knotfest Roadshow tour across North America throughout May and June with A Day To Remember, Underoath and Code Orange

Slipknot will return to Europe over the summer for Knotfest UK at The National Bowl in Milton Keynes and Knotfest At Sea.

Slipknot: We Are Not Your Kind

Slipknot: We Are Not Your Kind
Slipknot's new album We Are Not Your Kind was released through Roadrunner Records in 2019. The follow-up to .5: The Gray Chapter features the lead single Unsainted.

Scott Munro
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Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.