Joey Jordison’s Slipknot bandmates have led tributes to the late star.
The ‘Before I Forget’ band’s former drummer sadly passed away peacefully in his sleep aged 46 on Monday (26.07.21).
In a statement, Joey’s family said: “Joey’s death has left us with empty hearts and feelings of indescribable sorrow.
“To those that knew Joey, understood his quick wit, his gentle personality, giant heart, and his love for all things family and music.
“The family of Joey have asked that friends, fans, and media understandably respect our need for privacy and peace at this incredibly difficult time.”
A cause of death is not known at this time.
However, tributes continue to flood in for the much-adored musician – who was one of the founding members of the heavy metal band – with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Jim Root and Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan pausing their social media activity following the tragic news by posting a black square on each of their profiles.
Papa Roach tweeted: “S***. RIP to the brother Joey Jordison. Love you brother.”
Skin from Skunk Anansie wrote: “RIP @thejoeyjordison.
“One of the most ferocious and entertaining bands we ever played with. What a drummer! Rock has lost another legend #joeyjordison #slipknot.”
Trivium’s Alex Ben idolised the drummer and admitted he owes “so much” to him.
He said: “I don’t have words, to call him an inspiration would be an understatement. Countless hours studying every move behind the kit . I owe so much to Joey Jordison and could never imagine being where I am today without his influence. RIP.”
Metallica – who Joey had played live with – shared a snap of the rocker and frontman James Hetfield on stage and captioned the Facebook post: “R.I.P. brother.”
Joey was 20 when he became one of the founding members of Slipknot in 1995 alongside Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan and Paul ‘the Pig’ Gray.
Their debut album ‘Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.’ dropped on Halloween 1996 and they rose to become one of the iconic heavy metal groups.
Joey was a writer on a number of Slipknot’s best-remembered songs including ‘Gematria (The Killing Name)’ and ‘My Plague’.
Although the band ultimately grew to include nine members Joey, the Pig and the Clown were part of the group throughout until Paul died of an overdose in 2010.
Outside of his success with Slipknot, Joey was also the guitarist for horror punk band Murderdolls, which also included solo metal star Wednesday 13.
Joey departed from Slipknot in 2013 and went on to form Scar the Martyr for whom he played the drums between 2013 and 2016, when the group disbanded.
Before his death, Joey was playing for the multinational blackened death metal supergroup Sinsaenum, which also included Frédéric Leclercq from DragonForce, Sean Zatorsky of Daath, and Attila Csihar of Mayhem.