Corey Taylor Speaks on Slipknot’s New Mystery Member

July 20, 2023

A few weeks after Slipknot announced they were parting ways with longtime member Craig Jones, frontman Corey Taylor has spoken on the band’s new mystery member who’s since taken the keyboardist’s place.

Earlier this month, the ‘Knot released a since-deleted statement announcing that Jones was departing from the band, and the next day, they shared a photo of a new member on their social media channels. As with all other members in the past, their identity is currently a secret, though fans have come up with some theories as to who the new musician may be, and we’ve also compiled a list of keyboardists who have ties to the group.

Prior to the band’s performance at Denmark’s Copenhell festival on June 16, Taylor sat down with Chaoszine, where he touched a bit upon the band’s newest member.

“Obviously any time you have a change like that, it makes you kind of have to lean into adversity a little bit. We took a little more time to figure things out, and obviously [find a] new guy. [He’s] good, really good — a total musician,” Taylor said. “But it took him a second to kind of find his way. But now he’s killing it. He’s really, really good.”

Check out the full interview below.

After the death of Paul Gray in 2010 and the departure of Joey Jordison in 2013, Slipknot recruited two new members, whose identities they kept hidden for a bit of time. Eventually, they were revealed to be Alessandro “V-Man” Venturella and Jay Weinberg. Then in 2019, after Chris Fehn left the group, a new member, affectionately named by their fanbase as “Tortilla Man” (which he uses as his moniker on his social media) joined on percussion. The band managed to maintain his identity for quite some time, and in 2022, the member was revealed to be Michael Pfaff.

So we’ll see how long it takes before the Maggot sleuths figure this guy out.

Slipknot have a variety of upcoming festival performances in Europe and North America over the next few months, which you can check out on their website. Taylor, on the other hand, will embark on a North American solo tour starting in late August in support of his forthcoming album CMF2, which will be out Sept. 15 and can be pre-ordered here.