Corey Taylor Slags Soundwave Festival, Says Slipknot Got “Dicked Over” By AJ Maddah

Almost a year on from the tragic demise of Soundwave Festival (RIP), festival boss AJ Maddah and frontman of two-time headlining act Slipknot, Corey Taylor, have become embroiled in a shade-throwing match.

Their war of the words began when Taylor slagged off the now-defunct festival while speaking about its downfall in a new interview with News Corp Australia, claiming its demise was “a long time coming” due to “mismanagement”.

According to documents from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission which were obtained by Music Feeds earlier this year, at the time of its cancellation, Soundwave owed more than $10 million to a long list of acts, including a tab of $1.6 million to Slipknot.

But Taylor claims that wasn’t the first time he’d been “dicked over” by the heavy metal extravaganza.

“It was one of the coolest festivals to be a part of and yet so many bands got dicked over,” he says.

“And this is coming from a guy who got doubly dicked over because when we were down there with Stone Sour we got dicked as well and that was years before the Slipknot debacle so this was kind of a long time coming, without getting into too many specifics.

“A lot of bands suffered because of the mismanagement and it’s a bummer because if it was handled right — that festival would still be going.

“It sucks doing business with those guys … but it was an absolute fucking pleasure to play.”

Maddah has returned fire, arguing that he did all he could for the headlining act and “lost everything” after the festival went under.

“It’s disappointing (to hear that from Slipknot),” he tells News Corp Australia. “They know we did our best for them at all times and over many successful tours. At the end of the day they still went home with millions of dollars from Soundwave and I lost everything.”

But despite the minor mud-slinging sesh, Maddah still has plenty of praise for the metal maggot-leaders, despite taking a slight dig at flagging ticket sales for their forthcoming Australian tour.

“I still think they’re a great band … I wish them the best and I am proud to have contributed to their success in Australia for over 14 years,” he says.

“It is sad that for the first time ever they can’t sell tickets to their Australian tour. But I think that reflects more on the market than on the band. Selling half-price tickets, however, will have a very negative impact on their career here as next time everyone will wait for discount tickets. It also tends to piss off the most ardent fans who rush out and buy tickets on the first day of sales.”

While Slipknot have “[found] a way to get reimbursed” for the $1.6 million that Soundwave reportedly owes them, Taylor says he feels sorry for the smaller bands who haven’t been so lucky. “That to me is the real tragedy of Soundwave and really that’s what story is,” he says.

Taylor also went on to reiterate Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan’s earlier comments to Music Feeds that Slipknot are scoping out the possibility of bring Knotfest to Australia.

“There’s a reason we’ve only done Knottfest shows in certain territories and it’s because of respect,” Taylor says.

“We’re not going to disrespect people who we’ve worked with in the past who gave us spots on their festivals… In Australia there’s a void open and there’s no festivals where we would be stepping on toes — we could come in and maybe do one or two shows and see what happens.”

You can catch Slipknot touring Australia alongside Lamb Of God later this month.

Gallery: Slipknot – Soundwave 2015, Melbourne / Photos By Brett Schewitz