In a recent conversation with Guitar World, Mick Thomson talked about having all his solos taken out of Slipknot’s debut album.
“I actually had some solos in songs, but they all got cut out. Because between Ross and Joey, guitar solos are stupid now,” he said, blaming producer Ross Robinson and Joey Jordison, the band’s late drummer.
The guitarist continued, “I mean, I get it… but it sucked. Because it was one of those things where I’m like, ‘I’ve spent my whole life playing, and now f*cking here I am, and… nope! Never mind! It’s all gone!’ You know?”
“Like, ‘Just take it all away from me. That’s cool! Never mind that I sat in my room for years obsessing and trying to f*cking do whatever, and then here I am and… nope!’” Thomson also shared.
Slipknot’s ‘We Are Not Your Kind’ also received comments from people saying the album doesn’t have any guitar solos. Jim Root reacted to criticism in an interview with The Art and Span Show.
He said, “Well, obviously, Mick (Thomson) and I are very into guitar, we love playing guitar, loving doing solos over every song, but that didn’t occur to me. I was more concerned about the arrangements and making a good song top to bottom.”
“The point I’m trying to make is I get to think outside of the box and approach guitar playing in a way that I would never approach it with a song like ‘Spiders’ because Clown wrote that song and it didn’t come from my mind, so it’s hard for me to process it,” Root also added.
“Music is art and art is opinion and everyone has a different take on it but we live in a different day-and-age now where anybody can put their unneeded opinions out,” he referred to people who are commenting online.
Slipknot is currently on tour across North and South America to celebrate the anniversary of their self-titled debut album. Then, they will head towards Europe for more shows.