Corey Taylor, vocalist of Slipknot and Stonesour, recently spoke to Tina Smash from Rock 105.5 about Slipknot’s recent Knofest experience, the new album and his recent video released by ‘The You Rock Foundation‘ in which he spoke about coping with depression in his teenage years.
In the interview Smash asked Taylor what the premises behind ‘The You Rock Foundation‘ and the video. Taylor replied;
‘I didn’t really set out to (make a video that was so heartwrenching); I just wanted to be honest. I knew that this message was gonna get out to kids who struggle with depression and who struggle with suicidal thoughts.’
‘Whether people like it or not, more times than most, a lot of teenagers deal with that, even if they’re not depressed, they don’t suffer from depression, just because it’s such a gnarly time in their lives. It’s that threshold between children and adults. And there’s so much going on that they don’t know how to handle it. So, for me, I knew that if I was gonna be able to try and get through to them, I had to be completely honest. And that’s stuff I had never really talked about before. But at the same time, if you want people to hear what you’re trying to say, you can’t come off saccharine, you can’t come off fake, you have to offer that kind of honesty, especially in this day and age. And the people who think that they can just kind of get away with just a schmaltzy PSA are sadly mistaken. People want honesty, because everyone feels like everyone is lying to them these days.’
Taylor continues;
‘I am the world’s worst liar, and my wife will tell you that right out of the gate. I can’t even keep fucking surprises away from her. So I’m the worst. But that’s just the way to roll; it’s the only way I know how to communicate.’
‘I read a statistic recently where the level of empathy that people show towards one another is actually 20 points down from what it was when they kind of did the same type of poll in 1986. So the fact that people can’t empathize with one another is one of the reasons why bullying is so prevailing, one of the reasons why online what they call ‘trolling,’ basically, is so prevailing is because people can’t relate to one another and I think that’s one of the side effects of such a high quality of technology that we do. People are cocooning inside these electronic boxes and thinking that there’s no consequences for what they do, and yet they’re destroying people’s feelings, especially people with such precarious grips on reality, because they’re so young. It’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to anybody else. So I basically decided that I’m just gonna dedicate myself to fighting that as hard as I can and making sure that, if nobody else has their back, I’m gonna have their back. ‘Cause, you know, you wanna bully someone? Try and fucking bully me? Go ahead. ‘Cause I’ll rip you to shreds.’
‘It’s just about honesty. If you know yourself, you can do whatever you want. And I was able to go through my weird rock and roll bullshit when I was younger, and I just realized, man, I don’t like it. It feels fake on me. I’d rather be myself 24/7 than feel like I have to put on an airs when people are looking or if I’m on TV or anything like that. I’d rather just be myself, and this is just who I am.’
You can listen to the full interview with Smash below.
For more information on The You Rock Foundation visit their website here.
For more information about depression and getting support there are many good resources online including Mind.org.uk, Depression Alliance and The National Institute of Mental Health.
Related: A full list of the best guitar songs for kids.