Slipknot’s Shawn Crahan Talks ‘Iowa,’ Remembers Fallen Comrade

Slipknot's Corey Taylor recently spoke out about the band's breakthrough 2001 album 'Iowa,' admitting that it was "to this day the darkest period of my f—ing life." Now Shawn "Clown" Crahan is sharing his own tales of the woes that surrounded the disc, which is being reissued in a three-disc 10th anniversary edition next month.

"The first record [1999's self-titled debut] cut me open to being a full-fledged lunatic in my own right," the percussionist tells Terrorizer. "When ‘Iowa’ came around 'cos of all the things that were interfering -- the business, the chemicals, the women, money, the fame, all the s--- that came into play -- it really took me to a whole another level of darkness."

He continues, "We will never recreate ‘Iowa.' We can always make a heavy record, we can always make a dark record. I don’t like to think we would do it to ‘out-do’ that record because there would be no progress, and the reason why a record like that hasn’t been written is because we haven’t been in those circumstances."

Another reason why another 'Iowa' will never be made? The loss of Slipknot bassist Paul Gray, who died of a tragic drug overdose in 2010 (Crahan is pictured above, right side, with Taylor and a press conference following Gray's death).

“That album is his; that’s his greatest accomplishment; that’s his tombstone; that’s his baby; that’s his pain," Crahan says of Gray. "He got peace 'cause he got that out. He didn’t do it alone, I’m not discrediting everyone else, but [‘Iowa’s] Paul f---ing Gray, that’s just the way it is. Don’t let anyone tell you any f---ing different.”