Slipknot took shape during night shifts at an Iowa gas station
Much of Slipknot's early planning happened late at night at a Sinclair gas station in Des Moines, where drummer Joey Jordison worked the graveyard shift. There, in late 1995, he proposed naming the band after one of its own songs. Within four years the masked nine-piece had a platinum album.
Des Moines in the early 1990s had a restless metal scene in which musicians hopped between bands. Jordison ran a thrash group, Modifidious; Shawn Crahan played funk metal covers in Heads on the Wall; Paul Gray and Anders Colsefni were in a death metal band that never recorded. By 1993 Crahan, Colsefni and Gray were jamming in Gray's basement and recording a song called Slipknot. In September 1995 they formed a band called the Pale Ones, soon added Jordison on drums, with Crahan shifting to percussion, and made their debut that November under yet another name, Meld.
Without a record deal, they paid an estimated $40,000 themselves to record their first demo, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., released on Halloween 1996. Guitarist Donnie Steele, a Christian, quit during the sessions over the lyrics. The band had layered samples into its recordings that nobody could play live, so Craig Jones became the sampler and Mick Thomson took over guitar. The demo drew some local radio play but no label interest, so the group sought a more melodic voice and brought in Corey Taylor from Stone Sour.
A second, five-song demo aimed at labels changed things. The producer Ross Robinson offered to make their debut after watching rehearsals, DJ Sid Wilson became the ninth member, and Roadrunner Records signed them to a $500,000, seven-album contract in 1998. Their self-titled album arrived on June 29, 1999, after a first tour on Ozzfest, and by early 2000 it had gone platinum, a first for Roadrunner.
Iowa in 2001 was darker yet more popular, reaching number one in the UK. The lineup has churned since Gray's death in 2010, leaving Crahan as the last founder, but the band has sold 30 million records worldwide.
Source: Slipknot (band)
