Slipknot: Death, Destruction, and Des Moines

Slipknot was the most extreme thing to come out of Iowa since taco pizza was invented there in 1974. Their sound was massive: nine masked members played with brutal force, propelling their fans, affectionally known as "maggots," to a cathartic release of destructive energy at every show. But when two teenage fans claimed that the band's songs inspired them to commit murder, the destructive energy Slipknot had so far controlled began to tear the band apart. This episode was originally published on March 27, 2025. Sign up for our newsletter and get the inside dirt on events, merch and other awesomeness - GET THE NEWSLETTER Follow Jake and DISGRACELAND: Instagram YouTube X (formerly Twitter) Facebook Fan Group TikTok See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This is exactly right.

• 0:13Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans, up to $400,000, help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of 5-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 0:43Jake Brennan?

  Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis.

• 0:58Jake Brennan?

  This is a story about death. The smell of it, the feel of it, the finality of it. It's a story about being bored to death, about being beaten to death. It's about sudden death, and a death by a thousand cuts. Most importantly, it's a story about death metal. Because this is also the story of a band. A band whose music was so dark that one of their members quit rather than risk eternal damnation. A band whose live shows were so intense, they nearly left one band member dead.

• 1:38Jake Brennan?

  A band whose music was so disturbing, so evil, that some would say it led to a murder. This is the story of Slipknot. The most extreme thing to come out of Iowa since the taco pizza was invented there in 1974. A band known for their stage mass as much as their music. Great music. Unlike that loop I played for you at the top of the show, that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called Ozempic Face MK1. I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to "Get Busy" by Sean Paul.

• 2:21Jake Brennan?

  And why would I play you that specific slice of "Down in Dirty Cheese Could I Afford It"? Because that was the number one song in America on May 23rd, 2003. And that was the day two California teenagers committed a brutal murder. A murder they claimed was inspired by Slipknot.

• 2:45Jake Brennan?

  On this episode, death, metal, "Down in Dirty Cheese", and the dark world of Slipknot. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.

• 3:28Jake Brennan?

  He was screaming as he hit the water. Instantly, he knew he made a terrible mistake. The water was swirling all around him, flooding into his mouth and filling his throat and pushing into his lungs. Panicking, he tried to wriggle his arms free, but they were pinned tightly to his side. He couldn't move them an inch as his body sunk deeper and deeper into the murky water. His legs were in the air, kicking frantically, and he prayed that someone, anyone, would help him. But no one noticed, or if they did, they were probably laughing. He was a clown, after all. Well, he was wearing a clown mask, at least. The man currently drowning in a metal barrel was Sean Cran,

• 4:14Jake Brennan?

  aka Number Six, aka Clown, the founder of Slipknot. And he was about to die tragically, choking to death in 18 inches of water, stuck upside down in a trash can, in front of thousands of metalheads at Ozfest 1999.

• 4:37Jake Brennan?

  That summer, the band broke out on their first nationwide tour as part of the Ozfest lineup. But even among bands like Slayer, Godsmack, and System of a Down, Slipknot stood out. First, there were the sheer numbers. There were nine of them, like some kind of heavy metal Wu-Tang Clan. Then, there was the way they looked, like nine psychos wearing matching jumpsuits and creepy rubber masks covering their faces. But none of that would have mattered if this band didn't bring it onstage. And that's exactly what they did. Their sound was massive. Multiple percussionists, singers, a DJ, a sampler, two guitars, and a big, driving rhythm section.

• 5:21Jake Brennan?

  And they played with sheer force, brutal force. The band leapt around the stage like animals, jumping onto and over each other, leaping into the crowd, and routinely pushing themselves until they left blood, puke, or any number of other bodily fluids dripping from their masks by the end of the show. As clown, Sean Kran pushed it further than anyone. He would buy whole cow's heads from the butcher and toss them onstage or into the crowd. He stuffed dead birds into jars and left them to rot so the band could get the smell of death on them before a show, just like Mayhem did back in Norway in the early days of black metal. Kran from Slipknot would do anything to work the crowd into a frenzy when it became his time in the late 90s.

• 6:07Jake Brennan?

  And now, it looked like he was gonna pay the ultimate price.

• 6:13Jake Brennan?

  The trash can stunt was one of his usual moves. He would find a trash can near the stage, dive into it, and go rolling into the mosh pit, causing mayhem. It always made the crowd go crazy. Only this time, when he jumped face-first into the barrel, it was half-full of water, whatever disgusting liquid might be floating around inside an Ozfest trash can. Kran's entire face was underwater. His arms were stuck tight, and darkness was gathering all around him. He could see black rings in the corner of his vision, and they were growing larger and larger. His legs quit kicking, preparing for the inevitable. And he hoped that dying at Ozfest would at least make him a legend. And just when he was on the verge of blacking out,

• 6:59Jake Brennan?

  the crowd surged forward, and someone slammed into the barrel and tipped it over. Water went pouring everywhere, and Sean Cran finally crawled free, gasping for breath and puking up mouthfuls of the foul smelling water. After a few seconds to catch his breath, he jumped to his feet and sprinted back to the stage, and there was no time to recover. He started pounding on a metal beer keg as the next song kicked in. It was all in a day's work for one of the biggest metal bands in America. Four years before that, when Cran pulled into an empty gas station parking lot in the middle of the night, it would have been impossible to imagine that it would lead here.

• 7:40Jake Brennan?

  It was one of those cold Des Moines winter nights, 1995. A pair of twenty-something metalheads pushed their way into an empty Sinclair gas station. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead. Sean looked around the empty store at the aisles of candy, beer, and porno magazines. And standing beside him was a friend and fellow musician, Paul Gray. Paul nodded at the short teenager with the long hair working the counter, and they bumped fists with a grin. That was how Paul was. Everybody knew him in Des Moines, and everybody loved him, including the guy behind the counter. His name was Joey Jordison, and although he was only 5'3", he was a ferocious drummer. And Paul thought he would be the perfect addition to the new metal band they were putting

• 8:25Jake Brennan?

  together. Because Paul lived and breathed metal, unlike Sean. As a teenager, Sean was into punk. He loved that it had something to say, and the way the music raged against bigotry and conformity and equality. Metal to Sean was nothing more than the hairspray bands that got played on MTV, bands like Warrant and Poison. But Paul showed him a different side of heavy metal, music that was raw, angry, music with a message. Soon Sean was slamming around to bands like Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel. He and Paul were determined to invade the Des Moines metal scene with a band every bit as heavy, over the top, and outrageous as their heroes.

• 9:08Jake Brennan?

  And once Joey, the little dude behind the counter, agreed to join them on drums, the pieces slowly began to come together. It was Joey who suggested that they name the band Slipknot, after a song they had been working on with the same name. And not long after, Sean wore a creepy clown mask he bought at a Halloween store to band practice as a joke. But there was something so sinister that the idea stuck, and soon, everyone had a mask and a number in place of their name. It was so dark, so disturbing, and it was perfect.

• 9:41Jake Brennan?

  Because right from the start, the music of Slipknot was some of the most dark and disturbing music anyone in Iowa had ever heard. It was so dark, that even though they were filling clubs, they still couldn't find even a tiny little indie label willing to take on the band. It was so dark that the band's first guitarist, Donny Steele, a practicing Christian, quit the band, rather than subject himself to that kind of darkness. Not that Sean cared. If he was running people off, he figured their music might be touching a nerve. Besides, when he looked out into the crowd and saw a mass of kids writhing to the music like maggots, in fact, that's what he nicknamed their fans, the maggots, he didn't think it was dark at all. Darkness was already out there in the world, and people needed something to release that

• 10:26Jake Brennan?

  darkness inside of them, something to vent their frustrations.

• 10:31Jake Brennan?

  And that was the beauty of a heavy metal show. The kids and the crowd went nuts on each other for two hours, but they left that darkness behind, and then they went home in peace. At least, that's what Sean tried to explain to Donny. Placing Donny on guitar, though, didn't worry Sean. And that was the easy part. What worried him, was that after the band spent forty grand of their own money to record a proper demo, he could hear that their sound wasn't right.

• 11:01Jake Brennan?

  Sure, the sound was big, but it needed to be bigger. It was also missing something. For all the grunting, growling, and unhinged screaming, sometimes they just needed someone who could, well, sing. Just that tiny bit of sugar to help all the darkness go down. Because they had fans. Every show seemed to bring out more and more of the maggots. And they had an image, and they had the drive. But if they're ever gonna break out of Des Moines, they're gonna need a new lead singer.

• 11:58Speaker 03

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• 12:27Jake Brennan?

  The smell of death was everywhere. Sure, maybe not to a human, but the rats, they could smell it. And they were closing in. From the shadows, they crept closer, scurrying through the parking lot, trailing the scent past gas pumps and around piles of old tires. People think of rats as a city problem, but the truth is that they multiply everywhere. Rural areas mean farmland, and farmland means food, and food means survival. Of course, country rats don't have it quite as easy as rats in the city. While you might catch a New York City rat dragging a slice of pepperoni pizza across the subway platform,

• 13:10Jake Brennan?

  out in Waterloo, Iowa in 1988, these rats had to scratch and claw and kill each other just to stay alive. So when the smell of fresh death hit their noses, they knew they would have to act fast. There would be competition. Some of the boldest rats weren't going to wait for death to overtake the body lying in the dumpster. The smell of blood was driving them into a frenzy. So they began to climb onto the dumpster. And they tested the lids and their claws. Made a tapping noise as they scurried across the thick black plastic, looking for a way in. Suddenly, the lid flew open, sending rats flying in every direction. A fifteen-year-old, Cory Taylor, sat up with a shock. He let out a blood-curdling scream.

• 13:56Jake Brennan?

  And speaking of blood, it was everywhere. Soaked into his t-shirt, caked onto his nose, covering his lips. And his shoes were missing. He had no idea what day it was. He had no idea where he was. All he knew was that his friends, his so-called friends, had left him for dead.

• 14:18Jake Brennan?

  Not that he was too surprised. Even though he was only fifteen years old, he was already living like somebody on borrowed time. First, there was his birthday. December eighth. The date was seriously cursed. Jim Morrison, born on December eighth, died young. Sam Kinison, born on December eighth, died young. Frank Sinatra Jr., kidnapped on December eighth. John Lennon, shot on December eighth. You remember that Vince Neil car crash where he killed the guy from Hanoi Rocks? Want to guess what day that happened on? You got it. December eighth. Cory's problem only began with his birthday, though. He was born in Iowa, but his mom dragged him and his sister across the country looking for a man, a payday, or perhaps both.

• 15:02Jake Brennan?

  But by the time he was ten, Cory had lived in twenty-five different states. And the paydays were hard to come by. But his mom always seemed to find a certain type of man. Guys with thick mustaches and cheap turquoise rings. The kind who wouldn't hesitate to backhand a nine-year-old boy with a big mouth. Grown-up bullies. Cory hated bullies. The kind who shackled up with his mom and put scars on his face. The kind that roamed the halls at school looking for victims to torment. And the kind that lured him in before taking advantage. Like the kid who lived next door when Cory's mom dragged him down to Florida. He was five years older, and he had a great record collection. So he started inviting Cory over to listen to music.

• 15:46Jake Brennan?

  Public Enemy, Slayer, Metallica. The music blew Cory's mind. He started dreaming about being a singer. And the listening sessions also gave him a safe place to be away from the chaos at home. Or so he thought. One day, while they were listening to music, the older boy pounced on him. He pinned him to the ground and took advantage of a ten-year-old Cory. And then he made Cory swear to keep it a secret or else he would kill Cory and his family. So Cory kept quiet. But by the time his family moved back to Iowa, the rage inside of him was burning out of control. He fought with his mom. He got in trouble at school. He stayed out late, ran with a wild crowd, and took every drug that he could get his hands on.

• 16:31Jake Brennan?

  But getting tossed in a dumpster and left for dead was too big of a wake-up call to ignore. Cory knew that something had to change. So he left Waterloo to move in with his grandma in Des Moines. And she gave him love and stability. And she supported his musical ambitions even though Elvis Presley was the heaviest thing that she had ever listened to. And in Des Moines, Cory Taylor found a thriving metal scene. More kids like him, fed up and looking for a place to vent their feelings. And where they could slam into each other and bang their heads and find something sort of like a family. Cory started a band called Stone Sour and began packing clubs locally, but he was on the lookout for something bigger. Something heavier.

• 17:15Jake Brennan?

  Something that could incorporate his love for both Slayer and Public Enemy. Something that could take over the world. That's why he was standing in the front row of a tiny Des Moines club called The Safari in April of 1996. He was there to check out the debut performance from a band of heavy hitters on the local metal scene. It included Paul Gray on bass, Sean Kran on percussion, and Joey Jordison on drums. And they were called Slipknot. While 200 people were stomping their feet and waiting for the band to emerge from backstage, Corey watched in awe as a group of masked men emerged from the back of the room and

• 17:56Jake Brennan?

  ran through the crowd like a marauding gang on their way to the stage. Once they were there, the tall bass player, who Corey figured was Paul Gray even with the pig mask covering his face, hit a thunderous low note. The drummer pounded out a fill, and then everyone—the band, the crowd, and Corey in the front row—went off. Ninety minutes later, Corey was sure of it. This band could take over the world. They were only missing one thing: him.

• 18:31Jake Brennan?

  It took a year, but eventually Paul, Sean, Joey, and guitarist Mick Thompson officially invited Corey to join Slipknot as a lead singer. And Corey agreed. He picked out a mask and adopted the number eight, AKA Infinity, AKA Forever. Because that's how long you wanted his songs to be remembered. It may have seemed like a big brag at first, but soon it was becoming reality because with Corey in the mix, suddenly the band had a totally new dimension. They had a singer who could growl, who could scream, who could rap, and yes, sing an honest-to-God melody when the time came. And with Corey Taylor as lead singer, the band's sound expanded dramatically. They added a DJ, bringing their number to nine.

• 19:14Jake Brennan?

  Death metal, rap, punk, thrash—they were throwing it all into the mix, and all of it worked. Their self-titled album became the fastest-selling debut in heavy metal history. Their pulverizing sets at Ausfest in 1999 cemented their status as one of the heaviest bands on the scene. The pressure to go even further on their follow-up was huge, so Corey dug deep into painful memories from growing up to harness lyrics for the second album. He spilled out grotesque revenge fantasies against the bullies who tormented him. Dark stories of his homeless years as a teenager. He also laid down withering critiques of the fame-hungry coattail riders and clueless record executives who were beginning to circle the band. It all made for haunting material.

• 19:58Jake Brennan?

  But it also took its toll. Corey began drinking more and more as he dug deeper and deeper into the worst memories of his life. And the alcohol made him feel numb. In the recording studio, he would drink till he puked in order to take away the pain. But then he would resort to cutting himself with shards of broken glass, just to feel something so he could make it through a song. The recording process was as brutal as the record itself. But it all seemed worth it when "Iowa" was released in 2001. The album went all the way to number three on the Billboard charts. But after several years of intense touring and recording, the band was coming apart at the seams. And the darkness that they harnessed in the recording studio was leaking out into the

• 20:43Jake Brennan?

  real world. Because Corey Taylor's dream of having his music remembered forever was about to come true, in the worst possible way.

• 21:00Speaker 04

  We'll be right back after this word, word, word.

• 21:06Speaker 04

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• 21:41Jake Brennan?

  Darkness stretched out like a blanket. It covered the baseball fields, the playgrounds too, and also the palm and pepper trees. In the late night hour, that darkness covered every inch of Paris Hill Park in San Bernardino. It was a warm May night, and the wind rustled through the leaves of the trees. Everything else was silent. And from the walking path high up on the hill, everything seemed still down below. Everything except two barely visible human outlines leaning against a tree. They were Jason Harris, age 20, and Amber Riley, age 16.

• 22:23Jake Brennan?

  From the path, they wouldn't have looked too suspicious. Maybe a young couple out for a clandestine late-night mina, or just some friends sneaking a smoke and sharing a pair of headphones hooked up to a CD Walkman. And that was the problem for Jason. Were he and Amber friends, or were they something more? Amber knew he was obsessed with her, but she toyed with him. She acted like his girlfriend, and then she would flirt with their friend Terry. And it drove Jason fucking mad. Besides, he and Amber had so much in common. They both loved horror movies, death metal, horrorcore rap. The more gruesome, the better. And they couldn't get enough of that shit.

• 23:07Jake Brennan?

  And Amber talked all the time about wanting to see a dead body. Jason had practiced on a few neighborhood pets. But tonight, they're gonna go further. Because Jason had a plan that would bind him and Amber together forever. They were gonna find out what it was like to kill someone. As a lone figure emerged on the walking path far in the distance, Jason hit the back button on the CD player. Instantly, a squealing guitar riff kicked the song to life. He and Amber locked eyes, and they started chanting along with the singer. Words about vengeance and brutal violence.

• 23:47Jake Brennan?

  Jason pulled the knife out, and the blade glinted in the moonlight as he set it down behind his back. A moment later, their friend Terry emerged from the shadows. He nodded to Jason, but his face lit up with a smile when he saw Amber. Jason could tell Terry had a thing for Amber. Fucking Terry.

• 24:06Jake Brennan?

  Terry sat down next to Amber and began to chat without a care in the world. Jason laid back for a few moments, waiting. Then he started having second thoughts. Maybe they should call it off. But Amber locked eyes with him, and he couldn't resist. He could hear the song playing on repeat in his mind. Then he picked up the knife and plunged it down into his friend Terry's chest, again and again. The next morning, police found the body of Terry Taylor with his throat slashed and more than 20 stab wounds in his body. Jason's mother called the police when he and Amber asked her for help getting bloodstains out of their clothes. When the police questioned them, the song the pair said they were listening to on repeat

• 24:51Jake Brennan?

  was Disaster Peace by Slipknot. It was 2003, and darkness was everywhere, as the members of Slipknot were moving into Rick Rubin's house and studio to begin working on their third album. Corey Taylor may have written Disaster Peace as a fuck you to the bullies of his childhood, but in 2003, no one wanted to hear it in the media firestorm that followed. Radio stations quit playing the band's music. High schools banned kids from wearing their shirts. Paul Gray was concerned. Darkness was starting to engulf the band from the inside. The pressure from their success, the media frenzy from the murders, all combined with

• 25:34Jake Brennan?

  the physical toll of constant touring and recording, it was driving the band apart. They canceled a European tour citing tensions within the band, and then they announced a hiatus. Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root reformed Stone Sour and had an immediate alternative rock hit. Joey Jordison started his own band Murder Dolls. Sean Cran was busy with a new record label he was starting. But Paul Gray didn't take on any side projects. As one of the founders of Slipknot, Paul had been there since the beginning. And ever since he put on the mask, Paul knew that Slipknot was his band for life.

• 26:14Jake Brennan?

  So he tried to hold the rest of the band together. And as the rest of the band slid further apart, Paul slid further and further into heroin. Because for a band with big appetites, Paul Gray, AKA Number Two, AKA Pig, had the biggest appetite of them all. He loved the maggots. After shows and anywhere he would come across them, he would always find time to chat with fans. And he loved to write songs. In fact, he and Joey had recorded dozens of demos for the new Slipknot album. And he loved heroin, especially when he had nothing to do. Which is exactly what Paul had been doing at Rick Rubin's Laurel Canyon mansion

• 26:57Jake Brennan?

  for the last three months: nothing. When he arrived in LA, Paul was eager to get to work. So he was disappointed when he pulled up to the mansion and everyone was gone. Corey split for the rainbow on the Sunset Strip almost as soon as he dropped his bags. And Sean was still finalizing details for a band on his label. And Rick Rubin, well, nobody knew where Rick Rubin was. Paul woke up every day hoping the band would start recording. But with all that goes around, it became impossible. So he spent his days sitting on a couch in the recording studio with nothing to do, except heroin.

• 27:37Jake Brennan?

  After three months of shooting dope and sitting on a couch, things were trending in a seriously bad direction for Paul when Rick Rubin finally made his appearance. It was a normal day, and Paul stumbled out of bed at 2:00 in the afternoon. He grabbed his bag and headed down to the bathroom, fully prepared to get high and to zone out for another pointless day while the band he loved fell apart around him. But just as he reached the bathroom door, Rick Rubin stepped in front of his path. "Calling a band meeting," that was all he said. And then he handed Paul a cup of tea. Downstairs, Paul was shocked to see the rest of the band all in the same room for the first time in weeks. He had to give Rick Rubin credit for that much, at least. There was no equipment, no microphones,

• 28:22Jake Brennan?

  and nothing set up at all, except nine chairs. Paul is expecting a recording session, but instead he got a group therapy session with Rick Rubin as counselor. It never should have worked. It was so predictable. And they were a metal band after all, but no matter how awkward it was, Rick Rubin stuck with it. He got them talking, and he got them venting. And soon, they were releasing all that darkness that they had been holding inside. The grudges, the resentments, the anger, the guilt. No one pulled any punches. For hours, they went at it, bashing each other like the kids in the mosh pit. It was exhausting, but it was also cathartic. And whatever it was, it worked.

• 29:05Jake Brennan?

  Paul swore that he only saw Rick Rubin five more times during the making of the album, but he'd done the producer's most important job. He got them making music again. And then, he was gone. But not before he helped the band stage an intervention with Paul. And they'd given him an ultimatum: go to rehab or quit the band. Paul chose rehab. He would do anything to stay in Slipknot. He even finished his bass parts while living in a halfway house. And it worked. Paul managed to get off drugs. And after a few close calls of his own, Corey Taylor was sober as well when Volume 3: The Subliminal Verses came out to rave reviews in 2004.

• 29:47Jake Brennan?

  It seemed like the band was locked and loaded for their second era when 2008's All Hope Is Lost debuted at number one on the Billboard charts. But after that album, came another grueling world tour. And Joey was starting to complain about pains in his legs, and Corey was eager to take off the mask and get Stone Sour back on the road. And Sean had a million different projects that he was diving into. And by 2010, it seemed once again like Paul's makeshift family was scattering in every direction. He was the bass player for Slipknot, and no more, and no less. And his calendar looked empty, maybe forever. All he could see again was endless boredom.

• 30:28Jake Brennan?

  Paul knew about one cure for boredom, but sometimes, unfortunately, the cure is worse than the disease.

• 30:59Jake Brennan?

  It was a beautiful summer day at England's Nebworth Park.

• 31:04Jake Brennan?

  A hundred thousand metal fans stretched out as far as the eye could see. Everything looked just like it should. And there was a massive tower of speakers stretching up into the sky, and the sponsors' banners flapping in the breeze, and, of course, the inescapable smell of middle-grade grass floating through the air. Still, something was strange, and something was off, something was wrong.

• 31:28Jake Brennan?

  Because despite the beautiful weather, despite the massive festival crowd, despite the decent bud and the overpriced beers, despite all the bands on the bill, the park was dead silent.

• 31:40Jake Brennan?

  Someone walked toward the front of the stage. On a stand, they placed a red jumpsuit and a mask, a bass guitar rested in a stand nearby. And the crowd stood in silence as the seconds ticked on for two full minutes before they finally let out a deafening roar.

• 31:57Jake Brennan?

  From the wings of the stage, the members of the band Slipknot stood unmasked, waving to the crowd with tears in their eyes. All eight of them. Because Paul Gray... was dead.

• 32:11Jake Brennan?

  Many people believed that Paul Gray had been able to stay clean after his stint in rehab in 2003. Unfortunately, many people were wrong. It turned out that as far back as 2005, Paul's personal physician was writing him prescriptions for heavy doses of morphine and Xanax. His doctor did this despite knowing Paul's history with drug addiction. In fact, the doctor would be tried for manslaughter in 2012, although he was eventually found not guilty. For Paul Gray, once Slipknot's 2009 world tour ended, he quickly spiraled out of control. His wife, who was pregnant with their first child, attempted to stage an intervention with their immediate family on May 23rd, 2010. Rather than submit to another round of detox, Paul fled in his car,

• 32:56Jake Brennan?

  and he drove to a hotel room in Urbendale, Iowa. The next day, the hotel manager discovered him in his room with a needle in his arm. The members of Slipknot, a band that had been together for more than 15 years, had been growing apart before Paul's death. But the tragedy reinforced their bond with each other and with their fans. Every show became an outpouring of rage, of grief, of frustration. And just like it had been when the band was playing Tiny Clubs in Des Moines, it was incredibly cathartic. For the next year, the band took the stage with eight members, leaving Paul's jumpsuit and mask onstage as a tribute. As for the basslines themselves, the band kept it in the family. Original guitarist Donny Steele, the one who had been scared off

• 33:41Jake Brennan?

  by the darkness of the band's material in the beginning, returned to the fold to fill in the gap on bass, although he played offstage to better help the band and the fans grieve. In 2014, the band released "Five", the great chapter, in tribute to their fallen bandmate. The album once again topped the Billboard charts. But troubles continued to follow the band. Original drummer Joey Jordison was forced to leave the group after a rare neurological disease robbed him of the use of his legs. Guitarist Mick Thompson was nearly killed when his brother stabbed him in the back of the head in 2015. That's how crazy the stories are about this band, alright? The guitarist got stabbed in the back of his head by his brother, and it only got one line in this episode.

• 34:25Jake Brennan?

  Joey Jordison died in 2021 as a result of transverse myelitis, the disease that took the use of his legs, which left Sean Cran as the only founding member of the band left as of this recording.

• 34:39Jake Brennan?

  That's the thing about a band like Slipknot. The faces can change, but the masks remain. And so Slipknot keeps thrashing their way into the future. Taking on the darkness, embracing it, owning it, and then destroying it. Because metal is all about release, and almost everyone knows that. But some people take the darkness way too literally. And that's a disgrace.

• 35:09Jake Brennan?

  I'm Jake Brennan, and this is DisgraceLand. DisgraceLand was created by yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on the show notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a DisgraceLand All Access member, thank you for supporting the show, we really appreciate it. And if not, you can become a member right now by going to disgracelandpod.com/membership. Members can listen to every episode of DisgraceLand ad-free.

• 35:52Jake Brennan?

  Plus, you'll get one brand-new exclusive episode every month, weekly unscripted bonus episodes, special audio collections, and early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelandpod.com/membership for details. Rate and review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook @disgracelandpod, and on YouTube at youtube.com-at-disgracelandpod. Rockerola.

• 36:22Speaker 00

  He's a bad, bad man.

• 36:25Speaker 05

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 36:38Speaker 06

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair.

• 37:21Speaker 06

  This is an advertisement for Zolair paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

• 37:25Speaker 04

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• 37:55Jake Brennan?

  Hey guys, time to dust off your detective skills while unwinding in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyages. Back by popular demand, this five-night, adults-only escape set sail March 20, 2027, to Grand Turk in the Beach Club at Bimini. The difference between this year and last will be that I will be on the cruise this year, along with Zeph, and he and I will be taping a live version of Disgrace Land, along with podcast hosts from Exactly Right's Buried Bones, Podcast of the Year Award winners, Wyscrack, and other fan favorites. Get on this cruise with us, guys, and enjoy live podcast recordings, behind-the-scenes storytelling, exclusive meet-and-greets, and immersive true crime programming throughout this one-of-a-kind voyage.

• 38:40Jake Brennan?

  Head over to www.virginvoyages.com/trucrime to secure your spot.