I’m a very lucky guy. I get to write music that I love, and lo and behold, people seem to really like it. I know how fortunate I am.

Mistakes you can learn from; sins stay with you forever.

I’m kind of lucky in the fact that I can take something that’s in my head and write it down, or I can listen to a piece of music that somebody else has written and...

I didn’t have the worst childhood, but I didn’t have the best, and when you grow up like that, you have certain limitations invariably stuck inside you. Slipknot was a way to work it out.

To be honest, and this comes out of left field, but I would love to do something with Jay-Z or Eminem. I have no limitations when it comes to the stuff I want to do...

The mind is left bereft when it is nothing more than a tool of regurgitation.

You don’t break ground by doing the same thing over and over and over. That’s like standing in place. You have to risk to gain it all.

A song is only as strong as its foundation, and when it comes so naturally in any setting, those are the songs that will hopefully outlive you, maybe even outlive the next generation of You.

If you are too overwhelmed, then when you sit down and try to write something, it feels forced. There’s nothing worse than forced music. I mean, this world has enough of that right now, where...

My grandmother is a huge Hawkeyes fan, so I, by proxy, have to be one. I’m more of a professional sports fan, and I’ve never been a huge college fan, but because of my grandmother,...

Too many people chase dreams that they don’t understand. Too many people try to go for things that they’d like to do, but they’re not realistic enough to know they don’t have the talent.

I have several books I can read over and over. With fiction, it’s ‘The Stand’ by Stephen King, which is my favorite all time. I read that at least once a year, the version which...

Things can get tough out there. I am in no way saying life is easy and we should breeze through it like a fart through silk filter; we are going to take our lumps and...

I’m such a horror geek, comic geek and action figure geek. I’m inspired by so much – from Hunter S. Thompson and Quentin Tarantino to ‘The Dark Knight’ and ‘Halloween’. Just show me something that...

I’m the guy that gets up at three in the morning to jot down an entire sheet of lyrics for something that won’t be recorded for six months. You have to get it down when...

Everyone knows Spiderman is my favorite superhero of all time. My favorite supervillain? George W. Bush.

People can talk about punk all they want, but after new wave put that down, metal is the voice of the disenfranchised and that need to become unhinged. That’s why it appeals to so many...

If you want to be taken seriously, always check your fly.

I’ve never tried to be anything but me. Even with Slipknot, where it can almost feel like a roll sometimes, it’s still a part of who I am. It’s a very strong and passionate part...

You gotta remember: we’re musicians… we’re just crazy people who can’t get along sometimes. I’ve definitely come to the table with my knife in my pocket a couple of times; you know how it is....

My biggest influences were 1980s punk and metal. Metallica were my biggest influence because they were good at everything – riffs, energy – but with such an ear for melody, it was hard not to...

Everyone one-on-one will be completely honest about the music that they listen to. But then you get into a group situation, and then it’s the cool/uncool debate. I have really done my very best to...

I don’t mean to be overly sensitive or anything like that, but you just have to take a minute in every day, and just reflect on where you are, and just realise what you’ve got,...

The first year I was sober was probably the worst year of my life. My immune system was screwed. I completely isolated myself. I was weak all the time. I didn’t know who I was.