The coronavirus pandemic has brought live music to a standstill. Resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket-sale losses, and ushering in an era of devastating financial anxiety for artists and industry-adjacent folk. These are dire and uncertain times, but we must continue to look towards the light. Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has opened up about what he predicts the future of live music will look like, and he’s feeling optimistic.
In a new interview with Rock Feed, Taylor mused that once the pandemic has settled and people start getting back into the swing of things, the live entertainment industry will return stronger than ever.
“It’ll probably be in smaller venues — ’cause people are gonna be fucking scared, man,” Taylor shared.
“Or maybe outdoor venues, where people don’t feel like they’re confined, they don’t feel like they’re too stuck together. There’s gonna be a sense of paranoia for a while — even after there’s a fucking medicine developed, or a vaccine. So it’s gonna take time.”
Corey Taylor revealed that he believes it will probably be a year, or a year and a half until bigger, arena-sized shows make their return.
“There is gonna be some acts that have to fall on the sword,” Taylor contined. “If we do it right and we build that enthusiasm, probably within a year, maybe a year and a half, we’ll see the same enthusiasm for live shows that we did before. Because I think once people realize that everything is okay, people are gonna realize that they take for granted the fact that they haven’t been to a live show in a long time, and the live concert experience will be something that people come back to.
“They’ll be tired of watching it on YouTube, tired of watching it on their phone — they’ll want to be in the experience. So I think we’re gonna see a real renaissance and explosion of live entertainment. It’s gonna be great for us.”
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Great news for Maggots, Slipknot have toyed with the idea of returning with special intimate performances. “We’ve actually talked about … doing a throwback show in a way where we wear the old gear, as well,” he remarked. “We’d have to make sure that we could do it in a safe way, obviously.”
We can’t even begin to comprehend the sheer chaos that would be an intimate Slipknot show after such an extensive drought of live music.
You can listen to the full interview below.
Listen: Stuck At Home With Corey Taylor and Alicia Taylor
