Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Slipknot down two members as European tour begins

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 9 June 2023

Slipknot are two members down on their European tour, which started this week. Percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan announced earlier this week that he would be sitting out the tour in order to care for his sick wife. Meanwhile, yesterday, the band announced that they had “parted ways” with sampler and keyboardist Craig Jones.

Jones originally joined the band in 1996 during the making of their demo album ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat’, first as a guitarist before moving to samples and keyboards. In a post on social media, which was subsequently deleted, the band said: “To our fans, Slipknot is announcing that we have parted ways with Craig Jones. We wish Jones all the best for the future”.

A previously unseen member of the band appeared on stage with them for the first night of their European tour on Wednesday and, following that performance, the band shared a picture of said new member, hooded and masked, on their Instagram profile without further comment.

Band founder Crahan’s departure from the stage, meanwhile, is only temporary. In a post on his own Instagram profile earlier this week, he told fans: “I would like to take a moment to tell everyone that I’m back home supporting my wife through some health issues, and I’ll be back on the road as soon as I can”.

“We’ve been through this before”, he added, “and as always, we appreciate the love and support. See all of you very soon”.

The band return to the US for more shows in July and August. It is not yet clear if Crahan will rejoin the band for those dates. They are due to play Download Festival in the UK this Sunday.

Elsewhere in Slipknot news, the band have today released surprise new EP ‘Adderall’, featuring a number of new tracks, including three versions of the ambient title track. From it, this is ‘Adderall (Rough Demo)’: