Artist News

Former Slipknot drummer discusses ill-health that forced his departure from the band

By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 15 June 2016

Former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison talked about his departure from the band earlier this week when picking up a prize at Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods awards.

Slipknot announced that Jordison had left the band in 2013 for “personal reasons”, though he subsequently took to Facebook to say that he had been sacked by the metal outfit, and that the news had left him “shocked and blindsided”.

However, when picking up his Golden God award he bigged up his former bandmates. According to Metal Injection he said: “I want you all to give praise to them as well. We accomplished a lot in life, every one of them, and I wish them nothing but luck and the best praises. What we created, in the basements of Des Moines, will never be matched. It’s one thing that’s absolutely unbeatable”.

He then went on to discuss in some detail the circumstances behind his departure from the band, explaining it was ill health that put his music career on hold. “Towards the end of my career in Slipknot, I got really really sick with a horrible disease called transverse myelitis”, he said. “I lost my legs. I couldn’t play anymore. It was a form of multiple sclerosis, which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy”.

Discussing his recovery, he went on: “I got myself back, and I got myself in the gym and I got myself back in therapy, to fucking beat this shit. And, if I could do it, you could do it. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, more than fucking anything. To people with multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis, or anything like that, I am living proof that you can fucking beat that shit. And, fucking metal and all of these fans will do it for you. Thank you so fucking much”.

Now back to music making, Jordison recently started a new band called Vimic.