Ozzy Osbourne asked to join his band, he heard the world’s dirtiest joke from Lemmy, hung out with Björk at the Astoria, battled Dave Grohl at table tennis, raided Metallica’s fridge, talked ‘weirdness’ with Mike Patton and almost joined Anthrax. He’s also one of 21st-century rock’s biggest stars. This is Corey Taylor.
As the singer with Iowa wrecking crew Slipknot and on-off alt.metallers Stone Sour, Corey Taylor is one of the most recognisable rock-star names of the 21st century. But despite his success, the 49-year-old remains a fanboy to his bones. “I’ve been very fortunate in that the ratio of awesome heroes to shit heroes that I’ve met is very much in the awesome heroes’ favour,” says Taylor, who is about to release his second solo album, CMF2. “I’m privileged to be able say that I can call so many people whose music I grew up listening to friends. That’s a big fucking deal to me.” He’s too young to have met Hendrix, but he has heard Lemmy’s filthiest joke and been thrashed at table tennis by Dave Grohl. Here are some of the people he’s been starstruck by.
LEMMY
I’d spoken to Lemmy in passing, but never really hung out with him until I met him in the kitchenette of [guitar company] Gibson Germany. We were back there, smoking out of the window like highschoolers, just being dicks. At one point he proceeds to tell me one of the filthiest jokes I’ve ever heard in my life. It goes [adopts passable Lemmy voice]: “A grandson and a grandad are watching the news, and the grandad says: ‘Ach, you know the world’s going down the toilet.’ The grandson says: ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’ The grandad thinks for a second and [mimes fisting motion]: ‘Your nan can take it up the ass to me elbow.’” To this day, it’s one of the greatest moments I’ve ever had with a famous person.
DAVE VANIAN (THE DAMNED)
I was a punk kid before I got into metal. My old babysitter would come over and play punk 45s all night – Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Damned. I was at the Kerrang! awards a few years ago, and Dave Vanian walked in. It’s the one time in my life I was speechless. I’m not the sort of person who goes up to people and introduces myself, but [Taylor’s PR] Michelle grabbed me and said: “You are not not going over to meet him” and marched me over. It was very quick. I said: “You probably don’t even know who I am, but I want you to know how much your music touched me. I just wanted to say thank you for inspiring me.” And he was so lovely. He said: “Thank you, you’re welcome”, and he gave me a hug. I ended up going on stage and getting an award. And he was probably: “Okay, so he’s the dude with the mask and the hair.”
DIMEBAG DARRELL (PANTERA)
He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. The first time we played Da
