In the latest episode of his Electric Theater podcast, Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan opens up to Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo about missing live shows during the coronavirus pandemic, and how important playing live is to him.
Reflecting on Slipknot finishing up their UK/European tour in early 2020 and looking ahead to upcoming plans at the time, Clown says he was chatting with frontman Corey Taylor, who informed him that shows likely wouldn’t be going ahead as coronavirus began to sweep over the world.
“I get angry when people take it away – not my livelihood, but my medication,” Clown admits. “I need to perform with the good people of our culture in order to survive; it’s what I need most. So when he’s like, ‘That’s not happening,’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? What in the hell…’ So we got into it a little bit, and he started informing me of all this stuff – he knew it, he had it all down. He’d been watching it. Me? I don’t watch TV. I’m out, man; I’m completely oblivious to anything around me, and that’s how I do what I do, that’s how I maintain who I am with my art.