Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor has joined the lengthy list of musicians who have spoken out against the recent trend of concertgoers throwing objects on stage. Artists like Pink, Kelsea Ballerini, and most infamously, Bebe Rexha, have all experienced instances of fans throwing objects at them from the crowd, with the latter being injured after being struck in the face with a phone.
Videos by American Songwriter
While speaking with Loudwire, Taylor blamed social media for the occurrences and explained that he feels as though some fans take part in the dangerous trend because they don’t have much respect for artists anymore. “Oh, it’s fucking ridiculous,” Taylor told the outlet. “This is one of the problems with social media. Now artists aren’t regarded as people anymore.
“Even if they never were, they were still regarded as something that is flesh and bone,” Taylor continued. “They were something to obsess about, but at least they were a person. Now, because of the feeling of being even more removed from the human experience, now, you might as well just be a fucking soda machine or a phone booth for fuck sake. You’re an object, and you’re going to be treated as such.”
RELATED: Jelly Roll Wants to Collab with Slipknot’s Corey Taylor
As the interview continued, Taylor further expressed his outrage over the way some audience members treat musicians like they are not even human. “The fact that people can’t understand how utterly dangerous it is to do shit like that, how utterly rude it is to treat people like that, how utterly incredible it is to think that you are so special that the show is just about you and not about anybody else around you… the level of entitlement that is being brought out in people is fucking disgusting,” Taylor said.
“Everybody wants to just talk about how wrong it is, but nobody wants to talk about why. It’s because nobody’s looking at anyone as a human being anymore. They’re not looking at the artist anymore. They’re not looking at each other anymore like that,” Taylor continued. “And until we bring the human element back into it, there will be no boundaries. That’s what it is. It’s a destruction of boundaries.”
Taylor will release his sophomore solo album, CMFT2, on September 15. To promote the album, Taylor will embark on a U.S. tour that begins with a show in Denver, Colorado, on August 25. He will also headline a U.K. and European tour that will begin on November 8 with a concert at Leeds’ O2 Academy.
Photo by Jo Hale/Redferns
