Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor emotionally paid tribute to the late great Paul Gray in a new Kerrang article. He said that Gray would frequently show up late, and while the band would get angry, his lovable personality would make the band forgive him by shortly after he showed up.
“Just when you thought that you’d heard everything from Paul, he’d hit you with a curveball, like the blended melodies on Dead Memories. Just when it’d feel like we had no more ideas in the tank, he’d come in with the chorus riff for All Hope Is Gone. He had his own style and his own way, and there was nothing that anyone could say about it that would make him feel like he was wrong. I remember when he and I were writing Virus Of Life together. He said to me, ‘It’s gotta feel gross, so that when the riff comes in, you want to destroy something.’ I’ve never forgotten that.
I don’t want to deify Paul. He was a man; a human with very human problems. He had a terrible temper and it would take a long time to calm him down. He was almost compulsively late – you could set your watch to the fact that Paul wasn’t going to be there on time. There were times when we were left waiting for him, each of us getting angrier and angrier to the point where we knew that we were going to scream at him. Then he’d show up, right when it felt like he would never get there, give us a laugh, pull on his mask – only after chaining a full cigarette – and we’d get on with it. Afterwards, most of us would feel so good that we’d forget we were mad.”
Paul Gray died on May 24, 2010 from a drug overdose in a hotel room. If you are struggling with addiction, you can find a local Narcotics Anonymous meeting at NA.org.
