'Stop Booking Tours, Dude' - Jim Root Wants Slipknot to Focus on New Album

Slipknot guitarist Jim Root is ready for the band's touring to wind down, primarily because he's anxious to get back in the creative headspace of making a new album.

Root, who had spoken last December in a recently published interview with Guitar Interactive, had shared at that point that he had "nearly zero" creative inspiration because the band had been so heavily touring. He also revealed that much of the music they had worked on during the pandemic was something he wasn't exactly excited to revisit.

But some time has passed since that interview was given and the guitarist has apparently reignited some of that creative spark. While appearing on the Turning Wrenches podcast, Root revealed that he actually has six song ideas ready to share with the band and another four that are currently in the works.

Why Slipknot Has Toured So Much

Within the chat, Root revealed that if things go as he hopes, Slipknot will be winding down their current touring soon and will focus on a new album.

"We have been doing a lot of touring, and we've kind of had to do it because of our drummer swap situation. And once we got Eloy [Casagrande] in the band, we needed to get out there and get in front of people and show people why Eloy is part of Slipknot. And that was extremely important to us. And that leads to now that Eloy is in the band, we need to write a record," explained Root.

The guitarist shared that it's personally hard for him to be in the creative headspace when a tour is looming and he's anxious for the time off to dedicate his focus to new music.

"After this European run — I told our manager, I'm, like, 'Stop booking tours, dude. Stop it.' I get it. It's Slipknot, so there's always offers coming in. And it's hard to say no, because there's guys in the band that in some ways ... We always love playing shows, love playing live shows, but there's some guys in the band, some of the newer guys, that they need the money 'cause they're family guys and they have families. And they're hired members of the band, and we don't wanna have to have them go back to work when we get off tour," shared the guitarist.

He added, "But I kind of put my foot down and was, like, 'We need to stop, man. We just need to stop.' 'Cause I wanna write a record, and we owe it to Eloy to write a record. We need to get Eloy in a room and start jamming and getting creative and get all the rest of the guys in the band and start riffing out and then building them into songs. Plus I need the time for myself just to sit here at this desk and be creative. And it's coming back."

Jim Root's Recording Update

So where do things currently stand with Slipknot? "I've got, like, six new arrangements that I think are worthy of giving to the rest of the guys. I won't give the guys stuff that I don't think is worthy of being on a Slipknot record," says the guitarist. "There's enough room there that everybody can put their input on and we can take it to that level. And right now I'm looking at six [songs] and I have four more that I'm working on."

He adds, "I'd like to have 20 or 25 before we actually start doing pre-production and rewriting and rearranging and Corey [Taylor] putting lyrics on everything. So, no tours coming up. It's probably gonna be a while before we do another U.S. run or a European run."

When asked if a new single might be coming, Root shared his desire for the band to possibly put out something sooner than later. "I would really like to release something before we start working on a [full] record, 'cause it's gonna take us… I think we need to be able to take our time to write and do pre-production, and that's gonna take a while. So I would like to get something out sooner," said the guitarist. "But of these six [songs] that I have done now, I'm willing to throw those out to the rest of the guys and see if any of them grab their attention. And we could very easily, after we get back from Europe, get out to Clown's studio and then start working on one and put one out."

Slipknot's most recent album was The End, So Far, which arrived in 2022. Their next recordings will be the first to feature Casagrande as well as the mystery band member that has taken over the role once filled by Craig Jones.

At present, Slipknot are booked for a European tour that runs through June 29 in Lisbon, Portugal and they will be the headliner at the InkCarceration Festival in Mansfield, Ohio on July 19. All Slipknot ticketing information can be found through their website.