Corey Taylor: ‘I’m Almost In Constant Pain’

Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman and solo artist Corey Taylor has opened up about the ailments that come with decades of touring (and screaming), revealing that he’s “almost in constant pain” in a new interview.

Speaking with Rock Feed, the Dead Memories singer recalled, “I've already said that physically, I maybe have five years left, but at the same time, I go out of my way to really try to take care of myself.” Taylor turns 50 in December.

“Now I have a lot of fucking miles on me. It's hard for me.” Taylor went on to explain that people won’t realise that “when I walk, I'm almost in constant pain.

“It's the knees; it's my feet. I have a broken toe on this foot. I have gout across my feet. It gets up into my joints and shit. Yeah, it's tough. I'm not as nimble as I used to be. I'm not 35 anymore. It's hard. But there are ways to do shows that don't require being that crazy now.”

Expressing the difficulties behind touring continuously, Taylor said, “The travel doesn’t lend itself to being healthy because, at that point, it’s not like being home.” Explaining that he’s often at the “mercy of what’s there for you”, he admitted that life on the road often leads to eating, sleeping and feeling bad.

“Even a guy at my level, it’s not always laid-out catering and the best food and the best people,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it’s a soggy sandwich at 12:30 in the morning, and you’re looking at it, going, ‘If I put this in my body, I’m gonna throw up.’

“People don’t fucking get that,” Taylor continued. “You know why they think that? It’s because that’s all they see on Instagram, on TikTok, on this and that, and you’re seeing the commercials. There have been times we’ve gotten off stage; we’ve gone right to the airport, flown out. We don’t sleep until seven the next day. And now we’re just all [exhausted].

“Our crew gets it even worse ’cause they have to fucking go in, make sure everything’s good, and then they can go fucking take a nap. So it’s not gravy all the time, man. It’s tough. It’s hard fucking work. Even at our level, it’s hard work.” You can watch the entire interview below.

Corey Taylor will appear at Good Things Festival in December. Before he touches down in Australia, though, he’ll drop his new album, CMF2, this Friday, 15 September. We’ve already heard three great singles: Talk Sick, Post-Traumatic Blues and Beyond. You can pre-order CMF2 here.

Taylor will perform at Good Things alongside headliners Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit and Devo, with the latter appearing as part of their joint farewell and 50th anniversary tour. He will also be joined by heavyweights like I Prevail, Bullet For My Valentine, Enter Shikari, PVRIS, Behemoth, Spiderbait, Slowly Slowly, Frenzal Rhomb, and many more.