Jim Root Says He Almost Didn’t Join Slipknot: “I Wanted to Feel like I Did It on My Own”

It’s hard to imagine Slipknot without guitarist Jim Root in the mix, but, according to him, he almost didn’t join the band. In a new interview, the guitarist remembers what he was doing when he got a call asking him to join Slipknot.

“After Corey [Taylor] had joined Slipknot, I was in a band called Deadfront, and in Des Moines we had a lot of success. And I had been called by Clown and Joey [Jordison] and [producer] Ross Robinson to join Slipknot.

“And I told guys in my band that I wouldn’t do it, if they ever called me that I would say no. And I think I said that because I didn’t think they would ever call me.

“But I also didn’t wanna feel like anything was ever handed to me; I wanted to feel like I did it on my own, that I did the legwork. I was, like, ‘Yeah, you know, they called me to ask me to join Slipknot.’”

According to Root, he passed on the opportunity and his friends told him that he made the wrong choice. Fortunately, Slipknot hadn’t found a new guitarist yet and the rest is history.

“My buddy Zack’s funny — he was, like, ‘What are you, fucking stupid? What’d say ‘no’ for? Dude, you’ve been working your ass off since you were 16 playing in bands in clubs and you played with these guys in bands in clubs.’ He was, like, ‘Very few times in life do you get a chance to take a huge leap forward. That doesn’t come sometimes ever to anybody.’

“So I immediately got up from the table and got on an actual pay phone and called Clown. ‘Did you guys find a guitar player yet?’ He was, like, ‘Nope.’ And it was a Saturday night.

“I decided, ‘Fuck it,’ so I literally quit my job that Monday and then rehearsed with that band Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday I got in a car with Mick [Thomson] and we drove to L.A. to work on the rest of the first self-titled record.”

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