While guitarist Jim Root is known primarily as the guitarist of Slipknot, he actually joined Stone Sour four years prior to Slipknot. And while he  sat out Stone Sour shows earlier this year to write the next Slipknot album, it looks like he’s been let go from the former band. Here’s what SS’s Facebook page had to say about it:

As some of you might have heard by now, Stone Sour and Jim Root have indeed parted ways. We were trying to wait until the completion of the new SK album, but in light of recent events, we are going to confirm this information and move on. We feel it’s best for both bands and hope that is reflected in the days to come. We will give you more information when the time comes.

The reason the band had to move more quickly on the announcement came via Root answering a question from a fan on his Instagram account. When asked to comment on the fact that he wouldn’t be playing with the band for some summer shows, Root replied “”I’m not in that band anymore. Not my decision. Not happy about it.” Things might be a little awkward with Slipknot, considering that vocalist Corey Taylor remains in both bands. He stated in a tweet, “Jim and I still working together in Slipknot and the album is almost done.”

 
This is definitely a surprise, given that Root has been a core member of the band. Christian Martucci has been filling in for Root with the tour earlier this year, but while all of Stone Sour’s music is credited to the whole band, it would have to be imagined that their main guitarist would have contributed quite a bit of music to them. This is the second high-profile split from one of Corey Taylor’s bands, as Joey Jordison parted ways with Slipknot last year. It’ll certainly be interesting to hear how Slipknot spins things, and also how stable Root’s position in the band is given that he’s openly expressed that he’s not happy with the way things went down and he forced Stone Sour to admit that he was no longer in the band.