Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has shared his thoughts on the debate surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement, in a personal video message published by The You Rock Foundation.
In his video message, which you can catch below, Taylor says that using the phrase “black lives matter” doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter, which some people appear to have forgotten. He warns, in fact, that some people are “taking various unifying messages and ripping them to shreds beneath the minutiae of pretentious ignorance”.
“To me, it’s very simple — we all matter,” Taylor says. “We are seeing that our black friends, our black family, there’s a lot of violence going against them.
“So what we need to do is band together with them and say, ‘Yes, black lives do matter, because we all matter.’
“And to fight for those black lives does not mean that you’re saying anything against anybody else. You can back up ‘black lives matter’ and say that cops’ lives matter; it’s all the same thing.
“And you can have those different ideas in the same thought, and there’s nothing wrong with that, because we do all matter.”
Taylor also suggests that music can help bring people together during difficult times. “Music and life bring us all together, and for a few seconds at a time we don’t feel different, we feel the same,” he says.
Closing out his video message, Taylor encourages people to make their own “I matter because…” posters and share photos of them on social media.
Taylor’s comments come after five police officers were fatally shot in Dallas last week, after a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest was hijacked by armed individuals.
The likes of Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Drake have also called for action after the recent deaths of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police in the US.
The You Rock Foundation uses music to support those suffering from depression and other related conditions. Corey Taylor featured in a video for the foundation in 2014, in which he spoke about his struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, as well as how music helped him recover.
Watch Corey Taylor’s full video message about the Black Lives Matter movement, below.
For help or information regarding mental health, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
Watch: Corey Taylor Discusses ‘Black Lives Matter’ In Video Message
