“They would tell us directly to our faces, ‘You’re not going to last’”: Other bands hated Slipknot on their first Ozzfest tour

Slipknot’s appearance on the 1999 Ozzfest is the stuff of legend. Making their debut on the travelling festival’s second stage a full month before their self-titled 1999 album was unleased on an unsuspecting world, the Iowa nine-piece’s full-on performances were a taster for their impending greatness. But not everyone was so impressed with them.

Speaking in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer magazine, guitarist Jim Root and percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan recall how their unexpected impact made other bands jealous, prompting them to “shit talk” the Iowa nine-piece. “They’d tell us directly to our faces, ‘You’re not going to last’ or ‘You’ll be lucky if you sell 6,000 records’,” Jim tells Hammer. “It was kind of a mental headfuck, and it shows you how competitive it could be at that time.

” The same unnamed bands would also object to Slipknot and their street team distributing free two-song cassette samplers in the crowd in an attempt to whip up some pre-album buzz, claiming it was proving a distraction by drawing people away from their own shows. These petty complaints resulted in Slipknot being told to stop handing out the cassettes, which they did out of respect for Ozzfest organiser Sharon Osbourne, who had been “so supportive”. Clown tells that he eventually became so frustrated that he decided to break the ban on handing out the tapes.

“I said, ‘Screw this, I can’t let these tapes go to waste anymore’,” he says. “I thought, ‘We’re not gonna get kicked off the tour, and if I have to apologise later, I will.’ And wherever I went, all I could hear was our tape being played on hundreds of car stereos.

” The jealousy wasn’t confined to Ozzfest either. Slipknot’s first national tour in 1999 saw them supporting Coal Chamber, who were being managed by Sharon Osbourne at the time. “We were fucking unhinged, and I think there were moves to kick us off the tour more than once,” says Jim.

“But Sharon Osbourne would be like, ‘The reason you have people at these shows is because of that band. Shut your fucking mouths and play your shows.’ It was a very interesting time.

” Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! You can read the full story of the making of Slipknot’s debut album and more in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door. Founded in 1983, Metal Hammer is the global home of all things heavy.

We have breaking news, exclusive interviews with the biggest bands and names in metal, rock, hardcore, grunge and beyond, expert reviews of the lastest releases and unrivalled insider access to metal's most exciting new scenes and movements. No matter what you're into – be it heavy metal, punk, hardcore, grunge, alternative, goth, industrial, djent or the stuff so bizarre it defies classification – you'll find it all here, backed by the best writers in our game. "I want people to have sex in the moshpit.

" How Mimi Barks went from Berlin fetish clubs to leading her own nu gen revolution “Our practice room was a church. The vicar used to let us in and then leave. We ransacked the place, basically”: How Venom made their unholy masterpiece Black Metal and changed the course of metal “It gets tiring doing the same thing.

In this life, you gotta do what you want, you gotta let your mind and fancy flow free”: The epic story of Jimi Hendrix’s Axis: Bold As Love, the heart of the guitarist‘s Holy Trinity.