Listen to this charming English pensioner’s gorgeous version of Slipknot’s Snuff

Truthfully, we don’t have a huge amount of biographical information on Mr Frank Watkinson, except that he’s English, from Cambridgeshire, has a lovely dog called Marshall, and is one of the more ‘senior’ YouTubers we’ve come across. But this we do know: the guy has a deeply melancholic voice, excellent finger-picking guitar skills and an uncanny knack of covering classic rock, indie, folk and metal songs in a way that will give you goosebumps and quite possibly bring a tear or two to your eyes.

Credit to the good people at Metal Injection for pulling this beauty from Watkinson’s archive, a haunting version of Slipknot’s Snuff, the original version of which features on the Iowan nontet’s 2008 album All Hope Is Gone. There’s not much more to say other than, ‘Have a listen...’

And if you enjoyed that, here’s Mr Watkinson’s version of Nine Inch Nails’ Hurt.

And a rather lovely version of Pink Floyd classic Wish You Were Here.

We’ve located just one online interview with Frank Watkinson. In it he’s asked, ‘Where would you like to see your music career in 5 years time?’ to which his rather poignant reply is, “At my age I don’t really think about anything that far in the future.”

Frank Watkinson: a cult hero in the making.

Founded in 1983, Metal Hammer is the global home of all things heavy. We have breaking news, exclusive interviews with the biggest bands and names in metal, rock, hardcore, grunge and beyond, expert reviews of the lastest releases and unrivalled insider access to metal's most exciting new scenes and movements. No matter what you're into – be it heavy metal, punk, hardcore, grunge, alternative, goth, industrial, djent or the stuff so bizarre it defies classification – you'll find it all here, backed by the best writers in our game.