During a recent interview with Knotfest.com’s Mosh Talks, Slipknot percussionist M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan was asked why the band haven’t stage a livestream concert during the pandemic.
Crahan’s long-winded answer ostensibly came down to “You try getting a nine-person band together, along with their entire crew, in the middle of a pandemic.” Which doesn’t quite make sense — film crews have been able to gather to do their jobs, and there’s far more than nine people on a film crew — but whatever, it’s Clown, make sense isn’t in his wheelhouse.
There is one part of Clown’s answer, however, that jumped out at me:
“We can’t fully explain what happened to the White House.”
Under normal circumstances, I’d wonder what the hell Clown is talking about; that statement comes in the middle of a long ramble, with no context, and then he never mentioned the White House again.
But given the times in which we live, it would seem that Clown is questioning the validity of the presidential election, which… just… ugh. I don’t even know what to say at this point. Ugh.
You can read Clown’s entire quote below, and/or check out the entire interview at the bottom of this post.
Clown:
“In my opinion, it’s just too soon. I mean, the vaccine isn’t even available to everyone yet. We can’t fully explain what happened to the White House. We don’t even understand what the hell’s going on with our own problems as humans, let alone try to put together a livestream and make it translate to someone like you who wants it so badly in the room you’re in. I take that very, very, very, very serious… The point is, for Slipknot, being a very visual band, and beyond the art side of it, the music side… I mean, I don’t know how I get together with everybody on lockdown, go through a set to make special for you, where we are convinced that it’s coming through to you absolutely the way you need it. I need time for that. I don’t know if everybody’s got time. We’re not even allowed to get out of the house in some places.
“I do realize many bands have done it, and I realize it works,” he continued. “I realize fans like it. But for Slipknot, I don’t see it being much longer. A live album never even came to mind. A livestream — I have people breathing down my neck about a livestream. I will not waste money on a livestream, because if I am, it’s gotta be wasted on you. I can’t just get with a bunch of people that, all of a sudden, may or may not be working and aren’t used to taking two and a half years off and having to figure out what to do.
“So when you ask me, ‘Why don’t you do it?’, how am I gonna get the time and all these people together to give you the exquisite, beautiful art thing that you’re needing so badly? And if I don’t do it, and you see it, and you’re, like, ‘Man…’ For example, let’s say I don’t use explosives. And I’m, like, ‘But I tried to make it an intimate setting in a theater.’ And you’re, like, ‘It’s not good enough.’ I don’t even know how to approach this, man.”
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