Lunchbox and Promo Brady of the Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station KMOD recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR front man Corey Taylor for the "DOMKcast" podcast. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): On Taylor's latest book, "America 51: A Probe Into The Realities That Are Hiding Inside 'The Greatest Country In The World'": Corey: "It's me kind of staying right in the middle, telling either side to figure it out. I'm tired of listening to it... it's so stupid. Nobody's listening to each other. Everybody's just screaming at each other. Nobody's making any sense. Nobody knows how to have a conversation anymore. All they want to do is be argumentative, and they're just waiting for their turn to prove you wrong, and that's not how a conversation happens, you know? A conversation comes with a debate, and going back and forth and trying to get each other on the same page. It doesn't mean you have to give up your point, or your position — you're just trying to get people to listen and see reason. Nobody's doing that right now, so it's me basically staying in the middle going, 'You're all screwed, and everybody in the middle, we just need to talk to each other,' because I feel like ninety-eight percent of the country is that — us in the middle. That two percent is out on the fringe — they're getting all the coverage, they're getting all the media and they're the ones screaming the loudest, and we're all kind of stuck in the middle, going, 'Uh...' "I got really tired of not being represented. I have a little bit in the liberal and a little bit in the conservative, and I always have. I feel like everybody's like that. I think if more people admitted that, the stronger that voice would get, and the more we would stand up, and the more we would start talking to each other, and just cutting all that crap out. All they really try to do is wind us up instead of really focusing on the issues that need to be fixed." On SLIPKNOT being mentioned by television personality John Oliver: Corey: "That was weird, man. I loved it. It's little stuff like that that reminds us, 'Oh, people know who we are. This is insane.' It was really cool, man. I loved it." On the inspiration behind the title of STONE SOUR's new album, "Hydrograd": Corey: "I was running through an airport — I wanna say it was in Eastern Europe — and I was trying to find my gate, and the gate info there, they hadn't really updated anything. This was about eight-nine years ago. I'm trucking through, and it was like, those, block LED-like, really rigid, you know, the Timex letters — it was pretty brutal — and I was running and running and running, I'm looking, and your brain is processing everything at, like, a million miles an hour, and I looked up, and I saw the name Hydrograd. I went, 'Oh, that's kind of... [what] the hell is Hydrograd?' I stopped, and I turned around and went back to that gate, [and it] wasn't even close — nothing, it didn't even look like Hydrograd. I think it was Milan, or something. Didn't even start with an H. I was like, 'What the hell is wrong with my brain?' Then I just walked away, and I was like, 'Oh, that's a cool name,' you know — I tucked it away, and the rest is history, really. The time came to make this album, that name came up, I was like, 'Man, it's such a really, it's just a really good name. We should use it.' It just fit." On the inspiration behind the "Hydrograd" song "Whiplash Pants": Corey: "The great thing about that is it's actually extrapolated from the much longer title 'Whiplash From The Pants', which was a name that my son came up with. I told him to go down and clean his room; he comes running back upstairs, and he's all messed up. I was like, 'What the hell's wrong with you?' He goes, 'I was getting changed, just trying to take my clothes off, and I think I just got whiplash from the pants.' I said, 'Well, that's a name — that's going in the books.' Shortened it, and that whole song is honestly about my kids. It's so brutal — it's just basically me telling them to get their collective crap together." On the band's goals for "Hydrograd": Corey: "We've always tried to make sure that we're as diverse and as... I don't know... as different as we can be, while also trying to be us. And I think this album really shows that — this album really shows off the dimensions and the talent and all of the areas that we've always been really, really good at, but maybe we didn't get a chance to do it. And it has a lighter vibe. It's heavy, but it's got a lighter vibe, and I think that some music, rock, is missing that. Everything's so moody... God, lighten up. Let's have a party. VAN HALEN wasn't trying to change shit." On how STONE SOUR's conceptual double album "House Of Gold & Bones" influenced "Hydrograd": Corey: "To me, being able to make ['House of Gold & Bones'] really freed us up to be able to do ['Hydrograd'], because it established the fact that there were no boundaries for us. There were no restrictions. We could put something like 'RU486' up against 'Taciturn', and it all made sense, and it really reestablished this band as one that has no rules. Doing that and then coming into this one, where we really kind of took everything that we did well on the 'House of Gold & Bones' albums, and getting it down and really just distilling it into the pure, like... I don't want to say something stupid like 'rock fury,' but, you know, something, like, [roars] — just that kick-asteroid feeling, you know? The songs felt great; recording it the way we did live in the studio felt great. I challenge anybody to do be able to do that today. That was a good confidence builder for us." On the status of a potential "House of Gold & Bones" movie: Corey: "Man, I've been threatening to do that. I just don't have the time. I would do it all in one movie — put it all together in one — and kind of see what would happen. There are no stable plans to do it right now. If we do, it will be in the future — maybe when interest kind of comes back for it, but we'll see. You never say never. That's the best way to make God laugh out loud." STONE SOUR recently wrapped up an American tour with STEEL PANTHER. The group will perform live at two Knotfest festivals in the coming weeks — in Toluca, Mexico on October 28, and in San Bernardino, California on November 5.
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