Corey Taylor Recalls First Time Seeing Slipknot, Before He Became the Singer

Long before he became the voice of Slipknot, Corey Taylor was standing in a crowd, watching the band play an early show. Speaking in a recent interview, he described the moment with striking clarity. “I remember distinctly having the thought, ‘I’m going to be the singer in this band,’” Taylor said.

The remark wasn’t framed as mystical foresight, but as a concrete thing—a reaction formed in the presence of something that already felt like it belonged to him. The band was still local, still rough, still inventing itself onstage. Taylor was on the outside looking in, but not for long.

He joined Slipknot in 1997, stepping into a lineup that was still shifting and far from the global enterprise it would eventually become. The years that followed turned a chaotic Des Moines unit into one of metal’s most recognisable acts, and Taylor’s arrival marked a definitive turn. That first encounter, though, stands apart: not a starting point, but a moment of recognition before anyone else could confirm it.