SLIPKNOT’s SID WILSON says ‘Iowa’ literally melted PAPA ROACH drummer’s face

For many headbangers, Slipknot’s Iowa was either their gateway to even more extreme music, or the one that made them recoil because the thing was just too damn brutal. The ‘Knot’s 2001 second LP represents a very rare example of a popular metal band actually getting heavier after their breakthrough debut, and before it was unleashed upon the world, there was nothing else like it.

In fact, the album’s unparalleled aggression – especially for a nu-metal band – and nightmarish lyrical themes made it such a powerful force that it could literally melt faces, according to Sid Wilson. The Slipknot DJ recalls in vivid detail, there was one instance when he and his bandmates played Iowa for then-Papa Roach drummer Dave Buckner, and his face reportedly began to collapse from the sheer horror of the music coming out of the speakers .

During a recent conversation with Revolver, Wilson recalled that producer Ross Robinson handed the final Iowa mixes to Slipknot while they were on tour before the album’s release. “Be careful with this,” Robinson warned when Wilson and his bandmates got hold of the recordings. Of course, the masked maniacs didn’t heed Robinson’s ominous advice, and when they decided to play Buckner’s album on their bus during a tour with Papa Roach, Wilson quickly realized the full power of the music they were making. was about to unleash on the world.

“We had the Iowa album when we were on tour with Papa Roach,” explains Wilson. “And to Dave, the original drummer, we were like, ‘Hey man, you wanna listen to the new album?’ I don’t think it was out yet. And he was like, ‘Yeah.’

“He gets on the bus and I think we were maybe in the third lane. And I just watched his face and he started getting restless, and he’s looking around at the ground and stuff. And then he looks up and I looked at him, and his face collapsed. One whole side of his face. And it hung out like when you have a seizure.

“His whole face collapsed and it just stayed down there,” Wilson described as he demonstrated the facial disfigurement by pulling off his cheeks. “His eye, everything. The music collapsed his face. It destroyed his whole world right in front of me. I was like, ‘Are you OK?’ And he’s like, ‘I gotta go.’ And he stood up and [we were like]’What the hell?’

“And I’m not lying. It wasn’t just him making a face. This thing [pointing to his face] lost all will to live. One whole side of his face. He left, I looked at the guys, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, did we just screw him up? I hope he’s okay.’ I don’t even really know what happened that day. He was still out there the rest of the tour and stuff… I think he saw a doctor or something. But that’s how dangerous that shit was.”

After this story was published, Buckner himself reached out to Rewolver with a slightly different but equally bad recollection of the event. In both versions of the story, the core remains the same: Slipknot’s Iowa melts faces.

“The real story is that I, Jacoby [Shaddix, Papa Roach singer]and Tobin [Esperance, bassist] went up to Houdini Mansion [Robinson’s studio] with the Slipknot guys while they were there recording Iowa,” Buckner recalls. “They played us the album in the mixing room with the volume cranked up to 11. I left the room with my ears ringing, and when I woke up the next day the left side of my face was hanging off my skull, totally paralyzed!

“I thought I had a stroke during the night! I immediately saw a doctor, and it turns out I had Bells Palsey, which is caused by trauma to the facial nerve that runs through the ear canal in the skull. Causes can include blunt force trauma. , extremely loud noise, and, apparently, Slipknot! Slipknot music literally melts faces.”