Top 60 Jim Root Quotes

I use Pro Tools version 9 LE at home and I take that on the road with me.

I feel weird talking about it, because how can I, as the guitar player of Slipknot, sit here and say, ‘Oh, I have trouble.’ You know what I mean?

You know, unfortunately I’m only one person. I can’t really be in two places at one time and the amount of focus that I need to put into Slipknot makes it really difficult for me to be on tour with Stone Sour.

I don’t consciously think of any certain direction when I’m writing. I only try not to be repetitive or redundant.

We’re closer friends in Stone Sour than I am with the guys in Slipknot and that makes life a lot easier. I’m not trying to take anything away from Slipknot.

A&E eggnog, there’s nothing like it anywhere on Earth. It’s the best liquid ever made.

Iowa,’ for me, I hated doing that album – it wasn’t a good experience for me.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m still way into the metal, but I’ve been listening to different things like Radiohead, Portishead, Bjork, and Queens of the Stone Age.

We’re a unique band, so why have a generic producer lumping you in a box with other bands that sound the same?

It’s probably a lot cooler than wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Once I put on the mask, I don’t even realize that it’s there. They’re molded off of our faces, so they fit really well.

Slipknot’s the kind of band you need to step away from and kind of take a break from and let it heal, so to speak.

I was spreading myself too thin. That was making me unhappy and that, in turn, was making the rest of Stone Sour unhappy.

With all the different guys in the band and all the different ideas of what’s what, it’s hard to get everybody on the same page sometimes. We are a very tight brotherhood, but we never know what we’re going to do.

It became apparent to me near the end of the album cycle for ‘House Of Gold & Bones’ that it had basically run its course. But the band kept pushing for more dates, and I was just, like, ‘It’s time to stop!’

We’re just kind of dark as humans, generally.

To have a No. 1 with 130,000 copies sold is, you know, I remember when we first started selling records, in order to have a No. 1, you’d have to sell at least a half a million if not more, for the rock side of things.

I’m my own worst critic.

Every experience you have in life can be applied to different things.

The future of Slipknot is always in doubt. I always prepare for each album as if it’s gonna be the last.

There are many different artforms that are just being lost because the whole digital revolution has homogenized everything, turned it all into Walmart.

As a person, I think you’re always kind of searching for something or going through a hardship, whether it’s your parents splitting up or anything like that. I mean, my parents stuck together, for whatever reason, until I was about 23, and then they decided to call it quits.

It’s the best thing, me leaving Stone Sour.

We’re still evolving as a band. I think that’s really important for a band to do, especially after being around for so many years.

You know, ‘Mad Max’ and ‘The Road Warrior’ was part of my childhood, and that’s why I’m so close to it. I remember seeing those movies at a drive-in theater with my parents when I was very young.

Every time we go into the studio and use a different engineer or producer I try to look, listen and learn their approach. That has helped with the gear I look for to use live and in the studio.

You spend 20 years doing something and when you’re not doing it, it’s hard to figure out what it is you’re made of. Am I the guitarist in Slipknot and that is it, or do I have more dimensions than that?

I love ‘Mad Max’ and ‘The Road Warrior,’ in particular – those movies are very close to my soul, you know what I mean?!

It’s easy to get a good amp that might not be the right amp for you. When you go to a music store, really turn the amps on and turn ’em up – hopefully they’ll let you – and work through the sounds. This is an important decision, so take your time and be methodical.

Some of the guys in Stone Sour, I think they just want to be a radio band and write strictly for radio and try to be more of a poppy rock band. And that’s not really what I’m into.

I’m definitely a lot more reserved without the mask on. And with the mask on, all those inhibitions kinda go out the window. I can act like Keith Richards, I guess!

For Slipknot, I’d say drumming is only 50 or 60 percent of the job. The rest of it is who you are and what your personality is.

There is a solo on ‘Spiders,’ albeit a kind of a non-traditional solo, but that’s what I love.

I like to improvise so much live because I get bored playing the same thing over again. It’s like the kid at school that already knows all the answers so doodles all over the paper. I do that a lot live.

So many bands play to tracks – what’s the point in coming to see them live if they’re playing to a CD?

The thing that scares me about the way the music industry has changed so much is that I’m afraid that the record, the album, will disappear, and it’ll go back to the way it was in the ’50s where everything is single-based.

I don’t like to really dive too deep into politics.

I want to see the guitar in a non-linear sense that encompasses tones, arrangements, songwriting, audio production, and everything else – you have to do it all.

It’s hard to chase a vibe and catch a vibe.

There’s a lot for us to achieve and a lot more music to explore. I’m not saying we want to start doing experimental prog or something, where it turns into elevator music after a few records, but I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface.

Sometimes, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it takes another situation to kind of make you look back at a different situation and really see how good you had it, you know?

One of the downfalls of not being in Stone Sour was I sat at home for two and a half years, and I hadn’t ever done that since we started touring in 1999. I was really nervous and freaked out.

In my opinion, I would still like to go into a studio – because I love the environment of being in a studio – and record a great album beginning to end, but then maybe not release it as an album. Maybe put singles out there, put songs out there – either give some away or release some the traditional way.

We considered all sorts of names – everything from Tarantula Bomb to Superego to Section 8. Some of them were already taken, and some of them were kind of campy sounding. So we just decided to stick with Stone Sour. After all, what’s in a name?

When we recorded ‘Iowa,’ we jammed, we went through the songs, we played as a band and we recorded as a band.

For one reason or another, a lot of guys wind up with a guitar that isn’t really right for them.

Music is like wine, it ages beautifully – and if you spend enough time you can just sit there and listen to it entirely differently.

Well, basically Corey and I were in Stone Sour before we joined Slipknot.

As you’re touring there are so many layers to a live show, it has always been important for me to have a guitar that I can use live and in the studio.

I don’t like to try to put, like, ‘Let’s do this type of record,’ ’cause it never turns out that way anyways.

The masks, for us, are more of a way to present ourselves live, you know?

I’d rather be creative and be artistic and be able to play intricate music that moves and really takes you on a journey.

The culture of buying an album on CD or vinyl has gone out of the window. A lot of kids don’t really understand that, they just hop onto Limewire, or find a BitTorrent, or even just go onto iTunes if they’re going to pay for something. It’s just right there, there’s no searching about.

My first real real guitar I had was a Charvel, model 1 and that was when I was 15, I think, I got that.

I’ve started to look at guitar playing from more than just a standpoint of using certain modes and techniques.

I like to keep my world positive. There’s enough negativity kicking around.

Sometimes I can be a little bit I don’t know, stubborn or something. Maybe to a fault.

I can never look at anything I do subjectively – whether it’s a Stone Sour record or a Slipknot record, I can never really have my own opinion of it, ‘cos in my opinion it’s all crap.

You could say, ‘Oh, we’re gonna write the heaviest album of all time’ or ‘We’re gonna write an album that sounds like ‘Iowa.” Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare. We’re not those people anymore, we’re not that band anymore.

I’m always living at least a year ahead of where I’m really at, and that can really lead you to some negative thoughts and some bad vibes.

All my racks are the same between Slipknot and Stone Sour. The only thing I’ll do is switch out pedals in the GCX system. But it’s the same heads, same wireless, same GCX.