Do you remember the first time Slipknot got together for Iowa in pre-production or rehearsal?

It was a lot different than the first record. A lot of people had brought ideas to the table, but there was a lot of separation happening on the Iowa album. It was really dark. For the pre-production, we usually come prepared with it first and then sit down with the producer—Ross Robinson this time. He's got a really good approach. He brings you all right together in each other's faces and pushes you farther than you're willing to go. His approach is always, "Take it farther." When you think you can't give anymore, go ahead and give that extra even if it means giving everything up to commit to it. At that point in time, all that's important is the music and what you're trying to get across to people. It's brutal. Joey's hands would be bleeding at the end of the day. Every day, his hands would be bandaged up from how hard he was pushing and trying to open the envelope even bigger. That was a really cool thing with Paul. He always brought that to the table big time. We'd be like, "This is it right here," and he'd say, "No, there's something missing. That could be done a different way. There's another angle." He would play the part forward, backward, upside down, and in reverse. He'd change, add, and take away and do every solitary thing you can think of to alter it so he knew every single possibility of executing a part. His modem was open to so many different planets. I'm not really sure how many transmissions he was getting, but the way he would dissect a piece of music was unreal. His doing that kept everyone's minds open. It helped us stay true to what we felt was the real deal and not everybody else's opinion of it. We were giving truly what was part of ourselves.


Interview by Sid Wilson-Slipknot