Joey Jordison

How I found out is, I landed in Des Moines from a plane ride back from the Rob Zombie tour. I was, like, 'Okay, cool, I'm home. I can finally get some rest.' Once I landed, I turned my phone on, and my manager rang, and I'm, like, 'Oh, what?' He said, 'Paul Gray just died.'

I'd been working on new Slipknot material since the end of the 'All Hope Is Gone' tour cycle, but I ended up with so much stuff, I had to take a step back and stop working on it.

I wasn't worried about flash or persona... It's all about writing a good, solid song.

I'm writing music that people can grasp and hold on to... something that resonates. If you don't have that, then you have nothing.

The doctors said I might not be able to walk again. Today, I can almost run, but back then, I couldn't even stand up. I was bed-ridden. If I wanted to turn over in bed, I had to move my legs with my hands. I was in and out of the hospital for months.

'Master of Reality' rules; it's one of my favorite records of all time. It has some of the most evil riffs on it - and some of the sexiest riffs as well.

What made me want to play drums in the first place was Led Zeppelin and The Who. My parents had their records, and I grew up listening to them with the stereo cranked.

I saw Kiss on 'The Dick Clark Show' in, like, 1980 or something, and 'Kiss Alive!' was the first record of theirs I had.

Without Slipknot, I would not necessarily be where I am today.

What's cool about making music is when you create a record, it comes from somewhere.

My advice always is to start very simple and master your timing and master the most simple beats that you can, and you just keep elevating from that. Trying to go right into playing fast is not necessarily the best way to go about it, because if you don't have your foundation locked in, it's hard to progress.

The simplest beats, on what rock music or any music has been formed on, can be the toughest beats to execute and perform, because it's really easy to not respect a simple 4/4 beat, because people always want to play fast.

I lie more with drums and the more heavy and darker aspects of music.

I have a ton of Slipknot demos that I have at home. Maybe some day they'll surface; maybe they'll never be heard, but I don't translate them to any other band: they still stay in the Slipknot safe. I won't use them for anyone else besides Slipknot, if that ever happens again.

Without Metallica, I wouldn't play the way that I do.

There was a time when I was beat down, and I lost my way.

The heart bleeds music no matter what, and it bleeds different types of music.

Playing drums, for me, is like breathing. It's like thinking. It's like eating. It's like walking.

I suffered from asthma when I was a kid.

I've been using Pearl for so long, ever since I was a kid. Same thing with Paiste. They have both taken such great care of me, and I can't thank them enough.