SLIPKNOT's SHAWN 'CLOWN' CRAHAN to miss more European shows due to his wife's “medical situation”
20-06-2023
SLIPKNOT co-founder and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) will once again sit out some of the band’s upcoming shows in order to stay home with his wife, who is suffering from undisclosed health issues.
Shawn took to social media to write: “Hello to all of our fans. Unfortunately I had to return back home to be with my wife due to her medical situation. Thank you for the overwhelming support for the few shows I was able to make. I’m so sorry for missing the remainder of these shows, I was really looking forward to being there. As always, I’m so gracious for your overwhelming support for our family. I will be seeing you all at our shows in July. See you soon and hail SLIPKNOT.”
Earlier in the month, Crahan also missed some of SLIPKNOT‘s shows to be with his wife. But he was able to rejoin his bandmates in time for their appearance at last weekend’s Download festival and several other ensuing dates.
In a 2005 interview with the Des Moines Register, Shawn talked about his wife’s ongoing battle with Crohn’s disease (a chronic inflammatory bowel disease) and her hospitalization which forced him at the time to skip the first SLIPKNOT gigs of his career.
“That’s the thing I fight for most in this biz, is family,” he said. “Family can and is being incorporated into rock ‘n’ roll. You can have a wife, you can have a child or children and be a rock ‘n’ roller.”
“Right now has definitely been the hardest time in my life,” said the father of four children.
Crahan said that “health is the most important thing you have on this planet if you’re gonna have a successful life,” and so he knows it’s ironic that as his wife battles daily for normalcy, he’s slamming his body around the stage each night.
“The older you get, the wiser you get on how to benefit from taking care of yourself in your performance,” Crahan said. “But my performance is to feel uncomfortable, so I’m kind of screwed any way you look at it.”
Last October, Shawn reflected on the loss of his daughter in an interview with U.K.’s Independent, saying it is one of the most horrific pains any parent can go through. Losing a child isn’t something you get over,” he said. “That’s all I can say. It changes you — and that’s it.”
Gabrielle Crahan died in May 2019 in Los Angeles, with Shawn announcing the death the following day. The 22-year-old was one of four children Shawn had with his wife, Chantel, whom he married in June 1992.
SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, “The End, So Far”, which was released last September via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to “We Are Not Your Kind”, it is the band’s final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.
Last week, SLIPKNOT surprise-released a new EP called “Adderall”. The six-song effort contains alternate versions (no intro, rough demo and instrumental) of the title track, which originally appeared on last year’s “The End, So Far” album, along with the 2023 standalone single “Bone Church”, as well as non-album songs “Death March”, “Red Or Redder” and “Hard To Be Here”. Also newly released are music videos for “Memories (Adderall – Rough Demo)” and “Death March”, both directed by SLIPKNOT‘s founding member, percussionist and visual mastermind M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan.
“Adderall” track listing:
01. Death March
02. Adderall(No Intro)
03. Adderall (Rough Demo)
04. Red Or Redder
05. Adderall (Instrumental)
06. Hard To Be Here
Last year, SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor told Rolling Stone about his inspiration for “Adderall”: “Everybody’s comparing it to RADIOHEAD and stuff like that, and I’m like, ‘All right, I don’t listen to RADIOHEAD, so that’s interesting.’ To me, I was kind of leaning into my inner David Gahan. I’m a massive DEPECHE MODE fan. That was just me kind of doing my impression of that, but I’ll take RADIOHEAD as well.”
“Bone Church” was surprise-released in February, along with a video piece titled “Yen – Director’s Cut (Bone Church)”, which found Crahan refreshing footage from the band’s “Yen” music video.
On Wednesday (June 7), SLIPKNOT announced that it had parted ways with longtime keyboardist Craig Jones. However, the post announcing Jones‘s exit from the group was quickly deleted and a photo was shared of the band’s apparent new member. The same unidentified person apparently appeared onstage behind the keyboards at during SLIPKNOT‘s performance at Austria’s Nova Rock festival.
During the Nova Rock concert, SLIPKNOT played two songs — “The Blister Exists” and “Purity” — for the first time in eight years. The band also performed “Liberate” for the first time since 2016 and “Yen”, a song from last year’s “The End, So Far” album, was aired for the very first time.
No reason was given for Jones‘s departure from SLIPKNOT.
Jones joined SLIPKNOT in early 1996, shortly after the band had finished the recording of its demo album “Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.” He was initially brought in to replace Donnie Steele, one of the two original guitarists, though he quickly moved on to the role of sampling and keyboards.
On Wednesday, SLIPKNOT also announced that percussionist Crahan would sit out some of the band’s upcoming tour dates so that he can stay home to support his wife “through some health issues”.
The “Death March” visual features nine dummy humans lined up against a wall before they get their heads get blown off one by one.
SLIPKNOT played their first shows with a mystery new member last week.
SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, “The End, So Far”, which was released on September 30 via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to “We Are Not Your Kind”, it is the band’s final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.
Five months ago, SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor once again shot down the rumor that the band would break up after the release of “The End, So Far”.
Ever since SLIPKNOT announced the title of its new LP in July, speculation had been rife that the name is a reference to the fact that the LP will mark the end of the band’s recording career.
Taylor, who turned 49 in December, addressed the rumor during an appearance on an episode of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”. He said: “People have been talking about the end of SLIPKNOT since 2003, so it doesn’t really matter. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve had to straighten fans out, I’d have a shit-ton of nickels, let’s put it that way.
“Nothing sells albums like drama, let’s put it that way, and even drama that doesn’t even come from us; it just comes from the fans,” he continued. “But at the same time, I kind of started saying onstage… explaining what the title is. It’s the fact that it’s… It’s the end so far, which just means it’s the end of one era and the start of the next.
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