Original Slipknot frontman addressed Mushroomhead feud
The original Slipknot frontman, Anders Colsefni, has discussed the band’s long-running feud with fellow masked outfit Mushroomhead.
Colsefni sang in Slipknot from their inception in 1995 to 1997 and featured on the 1996 demo album Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. He addressed the long-running rumours about a spat between his old group and Mushroomhead after being asked about it when appearing on the Everblack podcast.
“After I was in the band. Because none of us had heard of them. We didn’t have Internet. It’s not, like, a band from another state, unless they come and play shows in our town, which they didn’t, we wouldn’t know about them unless they’re signed and they’re out there,” he said (per Blabbermouth)
He continued: “But at the time, when we were putting our thing together, we were influenced a lot by Mr. Bungle and all the other stage shows that we all loved growing up. We got sick of watching bands just doing their thing. And there’s no problem with doing that, but it’s, like, we wanted to do something.”
Mushroomhead formed in 1993 and released their eponymous debut two years later. It wasn’t until 1999 that Slipknot released their own self-titled full debut album featuring their classic lineup, which catapulted them to fame.
“In Iowa, it’s the hardest fucking place to get noticed in the United States,” Colsefni said. “Pretty much farm fields, corn fields and hog lots all over the place around, and it’s just a terrible place to try to start a band. So you had to do everything you could. We had to get every good musician, the best of the best, get him to join the band. Like, ‘Come on. We’ve already got these guys in there. Come on, give it a try. It’ll be fun.’
He continued: “The first time I saw Mushroomhead, I was in [my post-Slipknot band] Painface and we were in Chicago, Illinois playing a show, and somebody brought a magazine over. He goes, ‘Look at this.’ And I’m looking at it. I’m, like, ‘The bass player has a pig mask. Those fuckers copied me.’ Cause I picked out the pig mask for Paul [Gray, original Slipknot bassist] because he was too lazy to go there and get it. Paul, you know this. So I just ran into the theatrical shop and grabbed the first thing I saw. I was, like, ‘Oh, a pig mask. That’ll work.’ I threw a padlock in the nose and gave it to him. He was, like, ‘That’s work. I can see through it.’ So it was a really weird thing.”
Colsefni is currently on tour in Australia and New Zealand with former Mushroomhead frontman, Waylon Reavis. Discussing their shared inspiration, he added: “Waylon and I have determined that it must have been just we were all influenced by the same shit being we were all in farmlands.”