They know I’m not out there trying to toot my own horn or make it The Corey Show.” “I may be the frontman, I may be the leader onstage, but that’s only because I’m trying to run the show, and the guys trust me when it comes to that. “I’m not the leader,” says Corey emphatically. Sitting at the helm of one of the biggest bands in history, he’s now accustomed to the limelight, but is eager to remove himself from the glare with Stone Sour. The masked miscreant might have started off as one of the cogs in Slipknot’s 18-legged killing machine, but he’s increasingly become their mouthpiece. This comes in stark contrast to how we know Corey these days. I do it because I know it’s good for the band, but I enjoy being a part of the collective.” “I get really uncomfortable when I get pulled aside like that. “It’s always been more about the band than me,” insists Corey modestly.

This may be surprising, as many still perceive Stone Sour as a side-project run by Corey – ‘that thing he does when he’s not in Slipknot’. “Everybody contributed, everybody’s voice was heard, everybody worked their ass off.” “It took all five of us to make this record,” confirms Josh. And while Corey admits the pair take care of most business decisions and “boring shit” on behalf of the band, he and Josh are keen to stress that Stone Sour is a team effort, and everybody’s input is important. Throughout our chat, the idea of democracy comes up again and again. The pair are almost overly nice towards each other, keen to point out how much fun they had in the studio this time around. That was really the catalyst for this.”Īnd now, 17 years later, the two friends are closer than ever, laughing and joking constantly in the three hours we spend together.

“Cut to 2000, I was on a break with Slipknot, and he brought over the demo for Get Inside. “He would write stuff and bring it over, I would write lyrics to it – we just wrote songs together,” Corey recalls. Originally named Project X, until they realised it was taken, Josh and Corey were swapping music long before Stone Sour really took shape. Despite starting way back in 1992, Corey believes that 2002 was the definitive origin of the band.

Stone sour discography