Corey Taylor is refreshingly outspoken, almost to a point, about everything. Recently, we’ve been reminded of that from his feud with Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, but he’s opinionated enough to become metal’s Andy Rooney via his own successful series of books. With that said, Alternative Press recently interviewed the great big mouth discussing the new Stone Sour album, Hydrograd out tomorrow (30th) via Roadrunner. During the conversation, Taylor ended up sticking up for Linkin Park’s musical change with their new album One More Light. Chester Bennington has defended his band, threatening to punch fans, “in the fucking mouth,” if they accuse the band of selling out. He’s got a somewhat unlikely friend in Taylor.
AP kicked off the conversation by discussing the Stone Sour song, “Fabuless,” stating Taylor made, “lyrical allusions to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones,” and how it’s one “badass hard rock record,” something very few bands are currently doing. The frontman explained how current bands are now categorizing themselves instead of diving into musical experiments:
“It’s because people are growing up very specifically categorized— there’s a very specific sound for active rock, there’s a very specific sound for alternative, there’s a very specific for this and that and the other one— and everyone is terrified to step outside of that box because there’s no proven way to make money when you step outside of that box. We’ve never given a shit. We’re either thin or flush. That’s just the way we like to run. To a lot of bands, ‘rock’ is a dirty word. They won’t even call themselves a rock band anymore; they’ll call themselves alternative bands all day, and it’s like, ‘No, fuck that. Are you kidding?’ I had a band, who I won’t mention by name, tell me to my face, ‘We’re not rock anymore, we’re alternative.’ And I was like, ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.’ I said, ‘Why? What are you scared of?’ And they wouldn’t answer the correct way, so I just walked away from the conversation. I just think people are too worried about keeping up appearances, about some sort of backlash.”
Following his explanation, Taylor used Linkin Park as an example and ended up defending the group’s new pop direction:
“I tell you what, give him shit for the way he said it, but look at Chester [Bennington]. At least Chester’s standing up for his new shit instead of hiding behind a wall of rhetoric because they’re afraid of not making money. Linkin Park is at least trying to do something different. You may not like it, but who gives a shit? There are people out there who will like it, and they’ve at least got the balls to do it. I understand why the reaction to what he said was what it was, but he’s got a point, man. Fuck you if you don’t like the new shit. People are so afraid of risk, that the only way you really win is if you risk, and that’s all we’ve done our whole career.”
Read the full interview here.
