The estate of Joey Jordison has sued Slipknot, accusing the band of profiting from his death and not returning his equipment.
Filed in June by Steamroller, LLC, the lawsuit claims Slipknot failed to give back about 22 of Jordison’s items, even though he ‘promised to return all of Jordison’s belongings.’ The lawsuit names Corey Taylor and Michael Shawn Crahan.
The lawsuit also says Slipknot used Jordison’s items in a traveling museum called Knotfest and made money off his loyal fans.
“After abruptly kicking Jordison out of Slipknot in 2013, Taylor and Crahan expressly promised in a written agreement to return all of Jordison’s belongings in exchange for Jordison’s promise to release certain claims against them,” reads a part of the complaint.
“The agreement contained a non-exclusive list of broad categories of items that [Taylor and Crahan] represented were in their possession and that they would return to Jordison. [Taylor and Crahan] purported to comply with the agreement by returning certain items to Jordison but, unbeknownst to Jordison, [they] had executed the agreement with no intention of performing their obligations thereunder, and knowingly concealed from Jordison that they possessed numerous other items belonging to Jordison that they never returned to him,” the complaint continued.
The lawsuit mentions Jordison starting Slipknot with Crahan and the late bassist Paul Gray in 1995. It describes his firing as ‘callous’ because of his health issues and claims that Crahan and Taylor treated him poorly. It also criticizes Slipknot for using Jordison’s name to promote their 2022 album ‘The End, So Far,’ and alleges that they falsely claimed to have contacted his family after his death.
After the complaint was filed, Slipknot’s legal team responded in court documents, asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed and stating, “Defendants generally deny each and every allegation and purported claim set forth in Plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint and further deny that Plaintiff is entitled to any relief whatsoever.”
Slipknot announced their split with Jordison in December 2013 but did not provide reasons for his exit. The drummer later issued a statement saying that he did not quit the band.