In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Mushroomhead’s Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton talked about their feud with Slipknot and how it was overhyped.
“Slipknot, man, amazing,” he said. “One of the biggest heavy metal bands in the world. Holy sh*t, it’s gigantically huge and what they have done is amazing. And I think it opens the doors for other bands as well as my own. People like this masked metal. They like theatrics.”
Back in the nu-metal era, the feud between Slipknot and Mushroomhead was a big deal. Even though Mushroomhead had been using horror-inspired masks before Slipknot hit it big with their 1999 debut, they were often accused of copying Slipknot. This led to some heated exchanges and a well-known incident where Slipknot fans supposedly threw things at the band during a show in Cleveland.
The feud however, as Felton says, was exaggerated by the media and he had heard many different versions of it.
“A bit of it over time has been inflated. I wasn’t there personally and I’ve heard 20 different versions over the years,” the rocker revealed. “And let’s not forget that it was popular in that era to have beefs in bands and stack people against each other. It was huge with the West Coast and East Coast rappers. The media fuelled it and fans bought into it.”
Mushroomhead was the first to release an album, with their self-titled debut coming out in 1995. Slipknot’s demo album, ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.,’ followed a year later in 1996.
Mushroomhead released their first three albums independently before Universal signed them for 2003’s ‘XIII.’ Slipknot got their big break when Roadrunner Records signed them, leading to the release of their self-titled album in 1999.
Both bands have continued to make music with some lineup changes. Mushroomhead has released nine albums, with their latest, ‘Call the Devil,’ coming out earlier this month. Slipknot has released seven albums so far, with ‘The End, So Far’ being their most recent in 2022.