As a rule, not much happens in Des Moines, Iowa. Corn grows. Kids knock down mailboxes. Cows moo. But something happened there in 1982 that would change nine lives. One Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat during his January 20th concert. For Joey, later to be known as #1, aka Slipknot's drummer, it's a legend that has fueled his life. "When we were little, we kept hearing about this guy named Ozzy biting the head off a bat. That was here [Des Moines], and we've had a little bit of the bat in us ever since."

Slipknot have a "little bit" of the everything in them, musically and visually, as evidenced on the band's 1999 self-titled platinum debut.
Lurking under the masks and coveralls that instantly became a trademark, the Slipknotters--#0, DJ Sid; #2, bassist Paul; #3, percussionist Chris; #4, guitarist Jim; #5 sampler Craig; #6, percussionist Shawn; #7 guitarist Mick; and #8, vocalist Corey--have characters that prevail through the disguises.

"The masks are an extension of our personalities," explains Shawn of the band that formed in 1995. "Everybody's got a tweaked, demented way about themselves." And, no, it's not an attention-getting ploy. "We never put on the shit we wear to try to get people into us," explains Joey. Rather, after being ignored in Des Moines, "we were an anonymous entity. No one cared, so we were never about our names or faces, we're just about music."

That was fine with Ross Robinson, the super-producer who signed the band to Roadrunner via his I Am label. Is he surprised by Slipknot's success? "It's art first and everything else is a bonus," replies the softspoken producer. "Everybody is starving for something that will move them so much, that it shines beyond the radio, and then radio accepts it because it's too powerful [to deny]."



Indeed, the underground band's surprisingly mainstream success--including a cover story in Alternative Press, a performance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and unprecedented radio airplay for a band of Slipknot's extreme aggro-ness, was fueled by their appearance on Ozzfest '99 even before their debut disc hit stores.

Back on Ozzfest, their second record ready to drop, expect more intensity from these Midwestern maniacs, who espouse a family credo. "Our music is so reliant on each other that if one guy is gone, it just wouldn't be our songs. Everybody has to be present. Even the littlest things," Shawn concludes, "make our songs magical."