Slipknot bassist Gray found dead in Iowa hotel

Brock Landers · 05-24-10, 04:52 PM

Had to be Meth related..

Iowa is LOADED with Meth heads...and Slipknot openly talked about being heavy users...

Brock Landers · 05-24-10, 04:54 PM

Ibanez.com recently conducted an interview with SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray. The question-and-answer session follows below.

Ibanez.com: What originally inspired you to start playing music?

Paul: I've been a music fan as far back as I can remember. I think the band that actually made me pick up an instrument was SLAYER. I saw them on the "Hell Awaits" tour, and I knew I wanted to do that. So I got a guitar. My first guitar ended up getting traded for meth, not by me but by some friends of mine [laughs]. There were other influences, but that show really was what started it all for me.

Ibanez.com: I know that you write a lot of the music in SLIPKNOT. How does that process usually work for you?

Paul: I write a lot of stuff at home during the time off. I'll have a bunch of riffs, full songs, and partial pieces put together. When it's getting close to time to record, Joey [Jordison, drums] and I will meet and put some basic songs together just to get something started. Everybody can come in and put their input in on all the ideas, too. We write on the spot, too. Somebody might just be noodling around, and we'll start putting something together based off of that idea. There's no real set way of doing it.

Ibanez.com: What is the song you're most proud of on "All Hope Is Gone"?

Paul: I really do like them all. I actually listened to the CD yesterday, and I'm very proud of it. It's our heaviest album, and yet it's our most experimental album. We've never done a song like "Snuff" before. If you listen to it, it's still a SLIPKNOT song all the way. It's got that SLIPKNOT feeling to it. I can't think of any songs on the new record that I don't like.

Ibanez.com: Where have some of your favorite places or cities been to play over the years?

Paul: So far, my favorite show on this tour has been Madison Square Garden. I mean hey, we ****in' played Madison Square Garden! [laughs] It was just an amazing show. I just love playing. So the arena shows aren't any better than the club shows or the festival shows to me. I like it all. I like the hot and sweaty little clubs, and we don't get to do those much anymore. When we do, I love them. If we get to play in front of 100,000 people at Download festival, I'm down with that too. I love it just as much. All the crowds have been great everywhere on this tour. I can't believe the amount of support that our fans have given us in enabling us to do this for so long. I bow down to those kids for everything. Without them, we wouldn't be able to do this at all.

Ibanez.com: What things did you originally like about the ATK bass, and what were some of your main goals with the Paul Gray Signature bass?

Paul: My tech found an old Ibanez ATK that was left-handed one time, while we were on tour. So he picked it up for me. I plugged it in, and the tone that came out of that thing was just unbelievable and really versatile. With that one huge pickup, you can get the biggest lows and mids but still get really sharp highs. It's such a well-rounded bass. You could play in the CHILI PEPPERS with that bass or you could play in ANTHRAX from back in the day. I liked the fact that the neck was a little wider, too. The string spacing is really nice. I told Ibanez that I would gladly join up if they brought that bass back, and they did. I love that bass. They look great, and the workmanship is amazing. My inlays are pretty intricate, and they do an amazing job on them. It's like the guys that build the wooden ships inside the bottle. They really put a lot of work into it.

Ibanez.com: How would you describe the sound of the Paul Gray bass, and how it fits into the general sound of SLIPKNOT?

Paul: Well, like I said, it's just so versatile. With nine guys, it's easy to step on each other's toes. I can adjust my sound to fit whatever part it happens to be. If it's a percussion heavy part, I can adjust the bass to have more mids and highs. That way it cuts through, but it never gets over the top or too muddy. On other songs, I can crank the low end and fill everything out. It's a big band, and we could easily make it sound like shit [laughs]. That bass allows me to change a lot of things, so that it never gets muddy on stage. I couldn't be happier with it.

Ibanez.com: Who are you listening to right now?

Paul: You know what? I've been listening to a lot of DAVID BOWIE. I haven't been listening to too much new stuff. This time off, it's been BOWIE. I've also been listening to ALICE COOPER and THE CLASH, and none of that stuff came out anytime within the past few years [laughs].

stealthyburrito · 05-24-10, 04:55 PM

slipknot is a band of arrogant pricks, i remember listening to a local dc station interviewing them in which they said their fans needed them more than they needed their fans. then they were asked why make music then, they responded by telling the interviewers to fukk off and abruptly hung up.

sad to hear a death, but a terrible band.

Brock Landers · 05-24-10, 04:56 PM

SLIPKNOT’s Corey Taylor was once left for dead in a dumpster by friends who thought he’d suffered a fatal drug overdose. The rocker was only 15 years old and living in a trailer park near Waterloo, Iowa at the time. He’s still shocked his pals didn’t take him to a local hospital.
He says, “At a place like that, there are only two things to do, really: you take drugs, and you f##k. Crank (form of methamphetamine) was just starting, and I was a total speed freak and really into coke. I remember waking up one morning in a dumpster. This is all conjecture on my part, because I lost a couple of days, but I think I OD’d at a party.
“Instead of taking me to a hospital, they took me somewhere and dumped me in a trash can, thinking I was dead. So I come to, I’ve got no shoes on, I’ve got no T-shirt, I’ve got blood on my face. I’m 12 miles from my house, and I proceeded to walk from there. The whole way home. I was like, I’ve gotta get out of here.”

Brock Landers · 05-24-10, 04:57 PM

Fish...in Iowa

there are only two things to do, really: you take drugs, and you fukk

BatemanPatrickl · 05-24-10, 04:57 PM

Drugs can destroy a life in a few months. Bad news.

Brock Landers · 05-24-10, 05:02 PM

This is actually a VERY good song to me
Vermillion Part 1

Brock Landers · 05-26-10, 10:15 PM

The hotel employee who discovered the body of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray on Monday told the 911 operator he noticed a hypodermic needle and a bottle of pills in the musician's hotel room when he found the body.

** warning -- the audio contains graphic content **

In the 911 call, obtained by TMZ, the employee -- a maintenance worker at the Iowa hotel -- tells the operator that he suspects Paul died of a "drug overdose" and that it appeared that Paul had been in the room for "a while."

The employee also told the 911 operator that Paul's mother had called the hotel earlier in the day because she couldn't get a hold of her son.

Cops are still investigating Paul's death. Officials have stated that the death doesn't appear to be the result of foul play.

ericthegangster · 05-26-10, 10:29 PM

good. one less idiot in the world.

Ace_of_Spades · 05-26-10, 10:38 PM

Bad music. Its no even music.

stealthyburrito · 05-26-10, 10:41 PM

Originally posted by Ace_of_Spades

Bad music. Its no even music.

yup, just a bunch of angry dudes yelling, kinda like this forum.

JohnGalt2341 · 05-27-10, 11:22 PM

Originally posted by Brock Landers

Fish...in Iowa there are only two things to do, really: you take drugs, and you fukk

You forgot about WRESTLING and MMA training. That's 4 things... and you could also grow corn so... that's 5 things.

Killer_Demo · 05-28-10, 12:43 AM

i got family in iowa...and yes i can see how there aint nothin to do but drink and do some tweak to pass time over there.

Extra Innings · 05-28-10, 12:50 AM

Originally posted by stealthyburrito

yup, just a bunch of angry dudes yelling, kinda like this forum.