The well-known Slipknot guitarist, Mick Thomson, and his bandmate, Jim Root, had a new interview with Guitar World and revealed the reason why they changed their masks with each album they released.
Here is what Mick said:
“I am who I am, you know what I mean? But my newest one is trying to get back to what my [2004’s] ‘Vol. 3’ one, the silver one, was.
I kept that mask all the way up until the last record and it was just falling apart – the latex is all fucked up and shrinking and it’s just kind of shot. I only ever had two of them made, and I gave one away to a kid once. And so I just have the one.
So I got with an artist this time and tried to recreate that mask. And it’s pretty close, but it’s not really going to change too much because I haven’t changed. I couldn’t imagine having anything else on and being out there on stage.”
And here’s the explanation of Jim Root:
“You know, I didn’t even start working on my mask until we were tracking the record. I was way more interested in the songwriting process and inputting these arrangements together. And because of that, that side of my part in the band kind of lacks a little bit.
Some of the guys have these extravagant things going on – Sid’s outfit is insane for this record. It’s crazy. He’s got this mask that has all these moving parts and it’s on a remote control… it’s bananas.
But for me, I kind of had to let that slide a little bit because I was in the studio and I’m answering questions, and then there are mixes that are coming through and everything else. I couldn’t really attend to that part of it as deeply as I would’ve liked to.
That’s part of the reason I just kind of let my mask evolve a little bit rather than drastically changing it every time. I just have to make sure the bottom is cut out so my beard can stick out. Stupid shit like that. [Laughs]”