Slipknot’s Sid Wilson Dishes on His ‘What Was I Thinking?’ Stage Dives
When it comes to stage diving, crowd surfing and general in-crowd debauchery, there is no one more notorious than Slipknot’s very own DJ Starscream, Sid Wilson.
Wilson has been jumping from rafters, railings and venue pinnacles since the band’s inception and hasn’t slowed down much since. His injury list is long and painful, including his 2008 mishap where he broke both of his heels on the first date of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival on a misdirected jump leaving him with casts on both legs. The injury rendered him unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair, however, #0 pledged to continue the tour, and that he did.
This week, Slipknot celebrated the reissue of their iconic album ‘Iowa’ and we caught up with Wilson to talk historic stage dives, and in particular, Loudwire’s 10 Most Epic Stage Dives Ever. Wilson clocked in at No. 7 on our list, a commendable position to most, but Wilson was none too pleased, telling Loudwire, “I only made No. 7; I thought that was kind of bulls--t!” He continued to school us saying, “There was one guy who made a 15 foot jump and I’ve done 30-foot dives, that’s total horses--t!” Wilson did admit that many of his monumental jumps occurred before the days of YouTube and everyone videotaping the band’s every move, but he still thinks he's earned a higher spot than No. 7.
(Editor's note: You make a really good argument, Sid. As punishment, our writer of the 10 Most Epic Stage Dives Ever list will be forced to make a 30-foot stage dive himself when Slipknot tour the U.S. next year.)
As for the No. 1 spot secured by Boy Hits Car singer Craig Rondell, Wilson was in awe, giving credit where credit was due, “He did a big f---ing jump. I can’t top that guy.” Really Sid, you can’t top him, are you sure you don’t want to try? “I could try to top that but I’ve got nothing to say about that. He’s definitely cut from the same cloth!”
Given his many years of plummeting into the crowd, there’s got to be some favorite moments. Sid told us, “Man I don’t know. There’s so many. Any venue you go to there’s a balcony or some kind of high railing, you can probably pretty much bet that I’ve jumped off of it.” In recalling some of his epic jumps Sid said, “I’ll go back to some of these places and see them today and I’m like ‘What the f--- was I thinking?” He continued to say, "It’s not like I was all hopped up on a bunch of drugs or anything either. This was like coherent Sid Wilson jumping."
We don’t know what he was thinking but we sure love to see it all come together! All of this reminiscing hasn't slowed him down a bit either, check out some of Sid’s latest crowd work in the video below from the Sonisphere UK festival. Perhaps a Top 10 list of Sid's jumps are in order?
(Editor's Note No. 2: That would be a good list. If you have video of Sid stage diving please submit it in the 'Tip Us' section on the upper right of Loudwire's page.)
Tune in soon for our full interview with Sid Wilson, where he talks about ‘Iowa,’ the man behind his mask and the late, great Paul Gray.