I think rock 'n' roll, in a way, has been dead for a long time.

It's easy to get a good amp that might not be the right amp for you. When you go to a music store, really turn the amps on and turn 'em up - hopefully they'll let you - and work through the sounds. This is an important decision, so take your time and be methodical.

I was spreading myself too thin. That was making me unhappy and that, in turn, was making the rest of Stone Sour unhappy.

No, I would never in a million years compare anything we've done to anything we've previously done. I don't believe in it - I think it's bad.

It became apparent to me near the end of the album cycle for 'House Of Gold & Bones' that it had basically run its course. But the band kept pushing for more dates, and I was just, like, 'It's time to stop!'

People that like Slipknot that could care less about Stone Sour, people that like Stone Sour that don't know a lot of Slipknot.

We're still evolving as a band. I think that's really important for a band to do, especially after being around for so many years.

There's such an energy and emotion to rock music, which is a lot of the reason I go back to '60s and '70s bands and look at some of the fire they had.

If you have a sickness, you gotta fix that sickness, but you can't keep putting somebody into treatment over and over and over again.

I don't consciously think of any certain direction when I'm writing. I only try not to be repetitive or redundant.

So many bands play to tracks - what's the point in coming to see them live if they're playing to a CD?

There's a lot for us to achieve and a lot more music to explore. I'm not saying we want to start doing experimental prog or something, where it turns into elevator music after a few records, but I don't think we've even scratched the surface.

That's why I don't necessarily enjoy it when bands cover other songs. You'll never recreate what has been done, especially if it's something that's legendary and classic.

It's always been about the live show for us. We're having Halloween onstage every night.

It's the best thing, me leaving Stone Sour.

I'm definitely a lot more reserved without the mask on. And with the mask on, all those inhibitions kinda go out the window. I can act like Keith Richards, I guess!

For Slipknot, I'd say drumming is only 50 or 60 percent of the job. The rest of it is who you are and what your personality is.

When we recorded 'Iowa,' we jammed, we went through the songs, we played as a band and we recorded as a band.

I plan for the best and expect the worst.

You know, unfortunately I'm only one person. I can't really be in two places at one time and the amount of focus that I need to put into Slipknot makes it really difficult for me to be on tour with Stone Sour.

There are many different artforms that are just being lost because the whole digital revolution has homogenized everything, turned it all into Walmart.

People need to go back and figure out why it is that Slipknot plays the way it is. That way, maybe, you know, maybe every band doesn't start sounding the same anymore.

I like to keep my world positive. There's enough negativity kicking around.

I've started to look at guitar playing from more than just a standpoint of using certain modes and techniques.

I wanna buy vinyl and I want to listen to records on it. I want to put on 'Dark Side of the Moon' in the dining room while I'm eating pasta or whatever. You know what I mean.

We're a unique band, so why have a generic producer lumping you in a box with other bands that sound the same?

Everything happens for a reason.

We're just kind of dark as humans, generally.

Iowa,' for me, I hated doing that album - it wasn't a good experience for me.

The masks, for us, are more of a way to present ourselves live, you know?

Sometimes, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it takes another situation to kind of make you look back at a different situation and really see how good you had it, you know?

Every time we go into the studio and use a different engineer or producer I try to look, listen and learn their approach. That has helped with the gear I look for to use live and in the studio.

My approach in 1999 was basically to play what I had, that was all I could do. At the time I was broke. I think I only had one guitar, a flametop green Jackson and I had these DC-10 Mesa Boogie heads. I think I had a cheap Shure wireless.

Well that's probably what'll end up happening: a load of really good musicians who can't afford to be in bands, who have to have day jobs, you know what I mean? And then that's when you start losing a lot of the live touring bands.

With all the different guys in the band and all the different ideas of what's what, it's hard to get everybody on the same page sometimes. We are a very tight brotherhood, but we never know what we're going to do.

I love Stone Sour. I love the music that we created. and it was a fun ride. But if I'm going to sacrifice all of my free time and my life for something, it has to be something that I a thousand-percent believe in, and something where I have a thousand-percent communication with everyone involved. And that something is Slipknot.

I can never look at anything I do subjectively - whether it's a Stone Sour record or a Slipknot record, I can never really have my own opinion of it, 'cos in my opinion it's all crap.

I've seen the Tortilla Guy hashtag when I'm going through my Instagram and all of that and I think it's pretty funny. It's weird because I've met this guy before, I know who he is, but he's really kind of elusive, even around our camp. I've had some people tell me, 'Don't tell us who he is. We're having fun trying to figure it out!'

I'll admit that I don't have a lot of discipline when it comes to practicing. I'm not the type of guy who sits at home with a metronome and runs through scales and stuff like that. But I do go through phases when I'll be more diligent, and I notice that warming up and working on some patterns will make my playing cleaner.

You spend 20 years doing something and when you're not doing it, it's hard to figure out what it is you're made of. Am I the guitarist in Slipknot and that is it, or do I have more dimensions than that?

You know, 'Mad Max' and 'The Road Warrior' was part of my childhood, and that's why I'm so close to it. I remember seeing those movies at a drive-in theater with my parents when I was very young.

I love 'Mad Max' and 'The Road Warrior,' in particular - those movies are very close to my soul, you know what I mean?!

We considered all sorts of names - everything from Tarantula Bomb to Superego to Section 8. Some of them were already taken, and some of them were kind of campy sounding. So we just decided to stick with Stone Sour. After all, what's in a name?

Well, basically Corey and I were in Stone Sour before we joined Slipknot.

Don't get me wrong - I'm still way into the metal, but I've been listening to different things like Radiohead, Portishead, Bjork, and Queens of the Stone Age.

You could say, 'Oh, we're gonna write the heaviest album of all time' or 'We're gonna write an album that sounds like 'Iowa.'' Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare. We're not those people anymore, we're not that band anymore.

I think that the only goals that we try to set for ourselves is to evolve musically.

I'd rather be creative and be artistic and be able to play intricate music that moves and really takes you on a journey.

Music is like wine, it ages beautifully - and if you spend enough time you can just sit there and listen to it entirely differently.

I'm just kind of more, like, I'm gonna take every day as it comes and that's gonna be good enough for me.