In a recent interview the Arizona radio station 98 KUPD, SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor revealed that he is planning to embark on a “social-distanced” tour with his solo band “in the next couple of months.” He stated (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “[It will be a] short tour — probably about three weeks. Some of the places we’ll be doing two nights in one city. It’ll be completely social-distanced, which means there’ll be pods with space around it, and the only people allowed in the pod are the people who came with that group. [There will be] temp checks at the door, and you have to have proof of a negative test within 48 hours [of the show], or you won’t be let in at all.
“So, I’m looking at ways to kind of get the cobs going — not only for myself but for people I care about,” he continued. “My crew needs work; my wife [Alicia Taylor, a professional dancer and a member of the all-girl dance group CHERRY BOMBS], her dancers, they wanna get back out there. So this is the test to see if we can start to kind of inch back towards reality with these in place — at least until the vaccine has had a chance to kind of do its thing.”
According to Taylor, the tour will kick off in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. “The bulk of [the dates are] in the Midwest and then kind of working our way back to Vegas,” he said. “It’ll be April-May. And we’re actually hammering the details out right now.”
Corey also stressed the importance of finding ways to return to live performances while also prioritizing safety for everyone involved. “The only way this happens is if we learn to do it,” he said. “We have to get on with it. President Biden was talking about the fact that it’s a national emergency that there’s been no school — real school — and a real plan in place, because there was really nobody running the boat for God knows how long, and that’s been a national emergency. And a lot of people feel like that about what they do for a living. I’m not gonna put what I do as important as education. However, what I do is responsible for a lot of people’s livelihoods. And the faster I can find a way to get us all back doing that in a way that doesn’t endanger people, the better. Instead of just kind of using it as a crutch and waiting for it to go away… Guess what? This may never go away. We need to learn to adapt — we need to adapt and move on and find ways to do this. Like I said, once the vaccine’s had a chance to really kind of do its thing, we will really start to have those tentative steps back towards normalcy as best we can.”
Taylor also expressed his optimism that large gatherings as we knew them will most likely return in the not-too-distant future.
“This isn’t forever,” he said. “I know a lot of doomsayers out there who are, like, ‘Oh, this is it.’ I’m, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ You can’t even keep people from storming into the Super Bowl. You’re telling me that people are gonna stay behind closed doors forever? We can’t, as a species, do that. We cannot do that; we are not built for that. And people are going to encourage each other to find ways to get together and have fun. It’s just a matter of time. And the more positive we can be about it, the better it’s gonna be, man. Especially now that we have people who are actually looking around, going, ‘Okay, we’re not ignoring this. We’re not denying this. This isn’t a political thing. This is a safety thing. Let’s just get rid of that. And now, this is how we’re gonna reopen things. But we’re gonna get this going.’ And that should be encouraging people.”
Taylor‘s debut solo album, “CMFT”, was released in October. Corey recorded the effort with his band consisting of Jason Christopher on bass, Dustin Schoenhofer on drums, and Zach Throne and Christian Martucci (STONE SOUR) on guitar. The LP was completed at Kevin Churko‘s The Hideout Recording Studio in Las Vegas with producer Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER and STONE SOUR, among others.
Taylor recently made history as he reached No. 1 at Active Rock Radio with his powerful single “Black Eyes Blue”. The achievement put Taylor in a class all his own, making him the first artist in the history of the format to reach No. 1 with three separate projects, following chart-topping efforts from SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR.
“CMFT” made impressive debuts on charts around the world in October, entering at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Current Hard Rock Albums chart, while claiming No. 2 on Current Rock Albums, No. 6 on Vinyl Albums, and No. 9 on the Top Albums charts. Furthermore, “CMFT” landed Top 10 on the official album charts in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with Top 20 debuts in the United Kingdom, Finland and Japan (international chart).
