Slipknot's Corey Taylor talks fighting racism in metal

Down singer Phil Anselmo recently addressed a festival crowd with a Nazi salute, but Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor says his fans don’t ever have to worry about his own band doing something similar.

“I don’t ever want our fans to feel like we’re judging them because of color, religion, culture, upbringing, etc.,” he told The Guardian when asked about what Anselmo did. “We welcome everyone, we always have and we always will.”

He went on to call racism in metal a “bigger problem than what happened that night.” “Slipknot has dedicated itself to bringing people together, to fighting racism, to fighting hate in general since the day we were started,” he said. “I don’t have time for people who judge other people by the color of their skin. If that in itself offends some of my fans, then I’m sorry, you’re wrong.”

Anselmo later apologized for his actions on his official website, where he called his “over-induldging in the booze and blurting out spiteful, ignorant, reductions of the human spirit iself” his biggest obstacles.

“I’m repulsed by my own actions, and the self-loathing I’m going through right now is justified by the hurt I’ve caused,” he said. “From the bottom of my heart, and with all sincerity, I once again am truly sorry for the pain I have caused.” In the same note, he revealed that he’d suggested to his bandmates that “they move on” without him.

Read more from Taylor’s Guardian interview here.