Corey Taylor Biography

Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973) is an American musician, author, and actor best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the heavy metal band Slipknot and hard rock/alternative metal band Stone Sour.

Taylor is a founding member of Stone Sour, and has released five studio albums with that band. Taylor joined Slipknot in 1997 to replace their original vocalist, Anders Colsefni. He has released five studio albums with them. He has worked with several bands, including Junk Beer Kidnap Band, Apocalyptica, Anthrax, Aaron Lewis of Staind, and Soulfly. Taylor was ranked number 86 in Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time. He was also named 7th greatest heavy metal frontman by NME. Taylor was also found, by VVN Music, to possess the second-highest vocal range of any known singer in popular music with a range of 5 and a half octaves. He was beaten only by Mike Patton (6 octaves).

Personal life

Corey Todd Taylor was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December 8, 1973. Taylor was mostly raised by his mother in Waterloo, Iowa, a place described by Taylor as a "hole in the ground with buildings around it." He is of German and Native American background from his father's side and Irish and Dutch on his mother's side. Taylor was raised by his single mother. He developed a fond feeling toward rock 'n' roll after his grandmother introduced him to Elvis Presley.

In 1979, Taylor and his mother saw the science fiction series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Before the series, there was a trailer for the 1978 horror film Halloween. Taylor said this "developed some sense of Slipknot in [himself]." While Halloween introduced Taylor to masks and horror themes, Taylor's grandmother introduced him to rock music, showing him a collection of Elvis Presley records from the mid-fifties to late seventies. He especially found some songs like "Teddy Bear", "In the Ghetto", and "Suspicious Minds", to appeal to his interests the most, describing them as "good times." Taylor also began listening to Black Sabbath at a young age, beginning with their early work.

Taylor, along with his mother and sister, lived at one point in an "old dilapidated farmhouse," which on days in late autumn would "look like Black Sabbath album covers." By age fifteen, Taylor had developed a drug addiction and had overdosed on cocaine twice. By this time, Taylor was living in Waterloo, Iowa, but later set out on his own and ended up at his grandmother's house in Iowa. She took legal custody of him and helped him buy musical equipment. When Taylor was eighteen, he left his grandmother's home and went to various places, Des Moines being a place to which he frequently returned.

In his early twenties, when Taylor was living with his grandmother, he attempted suicide by way of overdose. Taylor's ex-girlfriend's mother drove him to the hospital in Des Moines and doctors were able to resuscitate him. He describes this as the lowest point in his life.

Taylor and his father first met when Taylor was 30 years old, and now have a relationship, although he said their paths do not cross that often. On September 17, 2002, Taylor's then-fiance, Scarlett Stone, gave birth to their son Griffin Parker. Taylor also has a daughter named Angeline from an earlier relationship. Taylor and Stone married on March 11, 2004, and divorced three years later.

Taylor has also had alcohol abuse problems, which his wife, Scarlett, helped him through as well as keeping him from committing suicide. In 2006, Taylor told MTV that he had attempted to jump off a balcony of the eighth floor of the Hyatt on Sunset Boulevard in 2003, but "somehow [Scarlett] stopped me". This was later recanted by Taylor in an interview with Kerrang! radio and stated that it was, in fact, his friend Thom Hazaert who stopped him from jumping. Scarlett then told him that either he would have to get sober or she would annul their marriage. Before Stone Sour started recording Come What(ever) May in January 2006, Taylor was sober.

On August 3, 2009, he co-hosted the 2009 Kerrang! Awards alongside Scott Ian of Anthrax. The following year, they both once again co-hosted The Kerrang Awards, where Corey collected the K! Services to Metal award on behalf of Paul Gray who died after an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl.

In early September 2010, Taylor announced that his book, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling The Argument Between Born Bad And Damaged Good would be released on July 12, 2011 through Da Capo Press.

On November 13, 2009, Taylor married Stephanie Luby at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.

Music career

Slipknot

In Des Moines, Iowa, Joey Jordison, Shawn Crahan, and Mick Thomson approached him asking him to join Slipknot. He agreed to go to one of their practices, and ended up singing in front of them. Of Slipknot's nine members, Corey was the sixth to join the band. Performing with Slipknot, he would also come to be known as "Number Eight", being that the band follows a numbering scheme for its members, ranging from 0-8. According to Shawn Crahan, Corey wanted number eight, because it symbolizes infinity.

Feeling he could expand more inside Slipknot than in Stone Sour, Taylor temporarily quit Stone Sour, even though they were recording an album with Sean McMahon. Taylor's first gig with Slipknot was on August 22, 1997, which according to band members did not go well. During his first gig, Taylor did not perform wearing a mask; however, for his second show nearly a month later, Corey wore a mask that resembles his debut album mask. Taylor's current mask was described by MTV's Chris Harris as looking "as though it were made of dried, human flesh"?like Leatherface, if only he used moisturizer."

Taylor has recorded with Slipknot since the release of their second demo album, a self-titled demo used to promote the band to prospective labels and producers. As permanent vocalist, he recorded with Slipknot at Indigo Ranch in Malibu, California and released Slipknot, the band's debut album that peaked number one on the Top Heatseekers chart, went 2 Platinum in the United States, and was included in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Taylor was accused of copyright infringement, regarding the lyrics of the song "Purity", but no action was taken. Taylor began recording for their second studio album, Iowa, in 2001 at Sound City and Sound Image in Van Nuys, Los Angeles. It was released August 28, 2001 and peaked number one on the UK Albums Chart, as well as number three on the Billboard 200. While writing Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses), Taylor decided to write lyrics that would not warrant an explicit label. It peaked number two on the Billboard 200. All Hope Is Gone was the first Slipknot album to peak number one on the Billboard 200.

Stone Sour

Taylor is a founding member of the American hard rock band Stone Sour. After he formed the band with drummer Joel Ekman, Shawn Economaki joined filling in the bass position, leaving the electric guitar position to be filled by Josh Rand. Stone Sour recorded a demo album in 1993, and another in 1994. In 1997, Taylor was approached by the metal band, Slipknot, resulting in him abandoning Stone Sour while they were recording a demo album with Sean McMahon at SR studios. Taylor did not return until five years later to record their debut album, Stone Sour in 2002. Both Taylor and guitarist Josh Rand contacted Jim Root, Slipknot's guitarist, and Shawn Economaki, Stone Sour's original bassist, to begin writing songs for their debut album. Drummer Joel Ekman came back on board as well. This "reformation" later resulted in Stone Sour recording at Catamount Studios in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Their self-titled debut album was released August 27, 2002, and it debuted at number 46 on the Billboard 200. Their second album, Come What(ever) May debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. It was released August 1, 2006, and charted on several different charts. Live in Moscow is currently their only album specifically released only for music download. During the recording of the album, drummer Joel Ekman left the band for personal reasons. As a result, drummer Roy Mayorga was recruited, taking his place. The group released their third studio album, Audio Secrecy, on September 7, 2010.

Later, Corey Taylor has announced the release of a concept double album with Stone Sour. The albums are titled "House of Gold And Bones". During the process of making the double album, bassist Shawn Economaki left the band. He was temporarily replaced for touring purposes by Johny Chow. The first part was released in October 2012 and the second part in April 2013. There are 23 songs in total, 11 on the first part and 12 on the second. In addition to these two albums is a four-part comic book series written by Taylor and published by Dark Horse Comics. They are set to go on sale in 2013. With these albums came a story that was written by Taylor that coincide with the album. Fans can also construct a miniature "house of gold and bones" from the packaging design of the physical versions of the two albums. Taylor has also said that he would like to finish off the project by making the story into a movie but nothing has come of this yet.

Other work

Taylor has appeared as a guest musician on albums by Soulfly, Apocalyptica and Damageplan. At one point, he was heavily involved in the recording of thrash metal band Anthrax's album, Worship Music, but the sessions remain unreleased. He also contributed to the Roadrunner United all-star album in 2005, providing vocals for the song "Rich Man". Taylor has also made a brief appearance in Steel Panther's singles "Death to All but Metal", "Eyes of a Panther", and "Asian Hooker". In 2006, Taylor founded the record company Great Big Mouth Records. Taylor has produced two albums: Face Cage's self-titled album and Walls of Jericho's Redemption. Taylor provided guest narration on the track "Repentance" for Dream Theater's 2007 album Systematic Chaos. In an interview with Billboard magazine, Taylor confirmed that on January 13, 2009, he was planning on making a solo album, as well as returning to his side project Stone Sour after Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone World Tour. Taylor has stated that he was writing songs that "don't fit either of his main bands." He describes them as a cross between Foo Fighters, Johnny Cash, and Social Distortion, saying that there's "a country background that comes built-in with living in Iowa".

On March 30, 2009, it was confirmed that Taylor and the Junk Beer Kidnap Band would be performing at Rockfest in 2009. The group performed on April 24, 2009 at People's Court in Des Moines, Iowa, marking Taylor's first official solo show. Taylor performs with his band the Dum Fux, who make covers for 1970s punk rock and 1980s hair metal. Taylor also performs with Audacious P, a band that is primarily a Tenacious D cover band. Rapper Tech N9ne confirmed that Taylor was to perform on his album K.O.D., but was removed because Taylor did not submit his vocals in time. Taylor recently admitted that he tried out for the vacant singer spot in the band Velvet Revolver, but said that it just did not work out. However, according to a recent Billboard article, it seems likely that he may in fact become the vocalist for Velvet Revolver, though no official confirmation has been made. Duff McKagan added that they can neither "confirm or deny" Taylor's membership in the band but believes that Taylor is the "real deal". Slash has since ruled Corey out as the possible new vocalist explaining that "[it] just wasn't right" although he does love him. He however, has recorded 10 new songs with the band, drummer Matt Sorum stated it's unlikely it will ever be released. Taylor explained to Mark Hoppus on Hoppus on Music that McKagan and he were writing new music for a possible new supergroup.

In July 2011 Taylor collaborated with Aaron Lewis while promoting Lewis' solo album, Town Line for a one night only acoustic duet show covering songs such as, Pearl Jam's "Black", Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb, and Alice in Chains' Down in a Hole, videos from this show with Taylor and Lewis can be found on YouTube. Taylor also shared the stage with Aaron Lewis on August 16, 2009 during the Ride For Dime memorial concert. They performed Pantera covers with a variety of other musicians.

As a solo artist he recorded a song, "X-M@$", for The Teenage Cancer Trust. The single was made available to digital retailers on December 12, 2010. It debuted at number thirty-seven in the UK. Taylor clarified on YouTube that the song was just a joke about people who don't enjoy Christmas. He personally loves Christmas especially due to the fact he gets to see his extended family but finds the frustration of people who don't like it to be hilarious.

In 2011, Taylor collaborated with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker on Barker's solo album Give the Drummer Some on the song "On My Own".

Acting career

On December 4, 2013, Corey Taylor joined the cast of Fear Clinic with Robert Englund. He played Bauer, one of the employees of the clinic who struggles to keep things under control when all hell breaks loose. He played in a horror movie called Bullied that came out in 2013. In October 2015. Taylor provided the roars for The Fisher King in the Doctor Who episode "Before the Flood".

Style and influence

The first two Slipknot albums with Taylor's vocals, Slipknot and Iowa, both contain gratuitous explicit content. Many critics claimed Taylor relied on the profanity, which is why Slipknot's third album, Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) is profanity-free, (with the exceptions of the word bitch on the song "Duality" and bastard on the spoken intro of "Pulse of the Maggots"), and did not warrant the explicit label. Compared with the previous vocalist for Slipknot, Anders Colsefni, Taylor has a vocal style that was characterized by drummer Joey Jordison as "really good melodic singing". Taylor's vocal style, which contains at times melodic singing, growling, screaming, shouting, and rapping, led him to place at number 86 on the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time and is often compared to other vocalists such as Ivan L. Moody, John Bush, Phil Anselmo and Jamey Jasta.

Taylor's two major projects have contrasting temperaments. Slipknot is considered to be heavy metal, nu metal and alternative metal, and expresses moods such as depression, hostility, anger, misanthropy, and rebellion. Stone Sour is classified as alternative metal, expressing moods of bleakness and somberness as well as anger and rebellion. Taylor cites Mtley Cre, AC/DC, The Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Faith No More, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Rush, Motrhead, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Alice in Chains, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Dokken, Misfits, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Queen, Anthrax, Black Flag, Slayer, Def Leppard, The Stooges, Sex Pistols, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Neil Young, Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam, The Damned, The Cramps, Soundgarden, Mr. Bungle, Megadeth, Nirvana, Journey, Bob Dylan, Kiss, ZZ Top, White Zombie, Pantera and Korn as influences.

Discography as featured artist

Year	Artist	Album	Track(s)	Position	Ref
1998	Sister Soleil	Soularium	"Liar"	Backing vocals
1998	Smakdab	Smakdab	"Shadowed"	Vocals
2000	Soulfly	Primitive	"Jumpdafuckup"	Vocals
2000	Snot	Strait Up	"Requiem"	Vocals
2001	Biohazard	Uncivilization	"Domination"	Backing vocals
2001	Slitheryn	Snake Slitheryn	"Lost", "Get Up", "Come + Go", The Same	Vocals, backing vocals, producer
2002	Rollins Band	Rise Above	"Rise Above", "Room 13", "TV Party", "Six Pack", "Annihilate This Week"	Vocals, backing vocals
2004	Damageplan	New Found Power	"Fuck You"	Vocals
2005	Roadrunner United	The All-Star Sessions	"The Rich Man"	Vocals
2006	Korn	Family Values Tour 2006	"Freak on a Leash (Live)"	Backing vocals
2006	FaceCage	III	"?	Producer
2007	Dream Theater	Systematic Chaos	"Repentance"	Spoken word contribution
2007	Apocalyptica	Worlds Collide	"I'm Not Jesus"	Vocals
2008	Walls of Jericho	Redemption	"Ember Drive", "My Last Stand", "Addicted"	Backing vocals, producer
2009	Steel Panther	Feel the Steel	"Death to All But Metal", "Asian Hooker", "Eyes of a Panther"	Vocals, backing vocals
2010	Johnny Aloha	Lavapalooza (Tiki Music Versions of Rock And Rap Hits!)	Almost Paradise	Vocals
2010	Corey Taylor	X-M@$	X-M@$	Vocals, guitars, bass, drums, producer
2011	Travis Barker	Give the Drummer Some	"On My Own"	Vocals, guitars, producer
2013	Corey Taylor, Dave Grohl, Rick Nielsen, Scott Reeder	Sound City: Real to Reel	"From Can to Can't"	Vocals
2014	Corey Taylor, Jason Christopher, Christian Martucci, Roy Mayorga, Satchel	This Is Your Life - A Tribute to Ronnie James Dio	"Rainbow in the Dark"	Vocals
2015	Tech N9ne	Special Effects	"Wither"	Vocals
2015	Teenage Time Killers	Greatest Hits Vol. 1	"Egobomb"	Vocals
""?" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Filmography

Year	Film	Character	Director
2001	We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n Roll	Himself	Penelope Spheeris
2002	Rollerball		John McTiernan
2006	Voliminal: Inside the Nine		Shawn Crahan
2008	Nine: The Making Of All Hope Is Gone
	Get Thrashed		Rick Ernst
2009	Of the (sic): Your Nightmares, Our Dreams		Shawn Crahan
2010	Audible Visions of (sic)nesses
2011	Goat
2013	Sound City		Dave Grohl
2014	Fear Clinic	Bauer	Robert Green Hall
2015	Doctor Who - Before the Flood	Fisher King (roar only)	Daniel O'Hara

Books and other writings

Unknown	"The Tiger" : "I have been writing since I was nine years old, my first published piece being 'The Tiger', which was featured on the front page of the Jackson Journal (to be fair, the Jackson Journal was the leaflet handed out at myold elementary school, and it was only two pages"). source : Seven Deadly Sins (book), page 70.
2001-Present	Monthly column for the british publication called "Rock Sound". source : Seven Deadly Sins (book), page 69.
2010	Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good
2013	A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Heaven (Or How I Made Peace With The Paranormal And Stigmatized Zealots & Cynics In The Process)
2015	You're Making Me Hate You: A Cantankerous Look at the Common Misconception That Humans Have Any Common Sense Left

Equipment

Instrument	Years used	Ref
Audio-Technica AEW-T6100 Wireless Handheld Microphone	2000-
Shure Wireless system	2004-2005
Ibanez Voice Chorus	1999-2000
Gibson Guitars	2009 -	Chodz Guitar|2015
Ibanez Custom Artcore Talman Semi-Hollow Body	2003-2005

Awards

Revolver Golden Gods Awards

|- | 2010 || Corey Taylor || Best Vocalist || |- | 2013 || Corey Taylor || Best Vocalist ||

Loudwire Music Awards

|- | 2015 || Corey Taylor || Rock Titan ||