Feel free to recommend similar pieces if you liked this piece, or alternatives if you didn't.Are you a beginner who started playing last month? Do you usually like this style of music? Consider writing about your experience and musical tastes.Do you like the artist? Is the transcription accurate? Is it a good teaching tool? Explain exactly why you liked or disliked the product.But his music lives on, much like the band he was fundamental in creating. Tragically – after writing, recording and touring four albums in the greatest metal band of a generation – Paul passed away on May 24, 2010. Then, of course, there are the two tracks he performed on as part of the Roadrunner United project, enlisting the crème de la crème from the legendary label’s roster to collaborate for its 25th anniversary.
There was, however, a lot more to the man than extreme noise – Paul cited names like Flea and Bootsy Collins alongside more audible influences such as Cliff Burton and Steve Harris, describing the latter as “an idol” for his ability to play all over the bass and leave no fret untouched.Īs well as his work in Slipknot, he also filled in on bass for desert rockers Unida – fronted by Kyuss singer John Garcia – and other projects like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and Reggie And The Full Effect. Early producer Ross Robinson, who worked on the group’s self-titled debut and its Iowa follow-up, went as far as labelling him the band’s secret weapon, blessed with absolute integrity and a talent for coming out with the most unbelievable ideas. His knack for finger-twisting, down-tuned riffs including extreme slides and bends is what made their assault all the more bludgeoning, a skill which he’d undoubtedly sharpened as a death metal-obsessed teenager. The bass player often partnered with ex-drummer Joey Jordison, fleshing out early anthems such as Surfacing and Spit It Out, the former including riffs he’d written back in his Body Pit years. They thought it was cool… that’s how I got playing bass.”Īs one of the three founding members of Slipknot, Paul Gray fast became one of their key songwriters – his name more often than not found in the credits for the tracks that weren’t assigned to the group as a whole. I didn’t know any of the bass lines but I knew all the guitar parts, so I faked it. One of my brother’s friends had a weird right-handed bass, which I strung left-handed, and a practice amp. “So, not knowing anybody and wanting to meet people, I told them I could play bass – even though I had never played one in my life. I went into the local music store and heard some guys talking about needing a bass player for their band, they did covers of Slayer and Metallica songs…
“When I moved to Iowa, I didn’t have any friends or know anybody. “There’s a funny story about how I got playing bass,” he explained in his Behind The Player instructional DVD. It would prove to be a life-changing decision, as was his switch from guitar to bass… But the novelty of freedom at such a young age soon wore off and he called his mum, now living in Des Moines, to see if he would able to sleep on her couch and start a new life in Iowa – where, while playing in death metal bands Anal Blast and Body Pit, he would eventually meet the other original members of Slipknot. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”īy the age of 16, Paul was living in an apartment with his friends Frank and Chris, jamming Danzig songs in the living room under the moniker Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Just seeing them up there with the red lights and smoke… it was all evil. “I saw Slayer on the Hell Awaits album and that changed my world,” he once said. Before his teenage years had even begun, his two greatest musical revelations had arrived in the form of Suicidal Tendencies’ 1983 debut and, not long after, experiencing Slayer live in the flesh.
He took up an interest in music early on thanks to some guidance from his older brother William ‘Jay’ Matthews, who introduced him to bands like Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper and KISS. “I will miss him with every fibre of my heart, as will everybody at this table and everyone who knew him… he was the best of us.”īorn in Los Angeles on April 8, 1972, Paul Dedrick Gray was in many ways the beating heart of Slipknot. “The only way I can sum up Paul Gray is love,” said Corey Taylor in a tearful emergency conference held the day after his bandmate has passed.