"HIS HEART WAS AS BIG AS HIS DRUMMING"
Murderdolls bandmate and dear friend Wednesday 13 opens up on Joey’s impact on him as a musician and as a person
When did you first make contact with Joey? “It was the end of the touring cycle for Iowa and he was going to put this new band together straight afterwards. I was with my daughter, who was three at the time, eating dinner, and then Joey calls me. He said, ‘This is Joey from Slipknot’ and I went, ‘Which one are you? There’s like 20 of you guys!’ He thought that was really funny. I knew Slipknot but I wasn’t a fan - I was a punk rock dude - and I think that made him like me even more. I didn’t know this at the time because I’d never been out of North Carolina, but Iowa and where I am from were pretty much the same kind of place. We had such a bond instantly; when I thought of Slipknot I thought, ‘There is no way I’m gonna get on with the guy from this band’, and he turned out to be one of my best friends.”
How did the horror theme of Murderdolls come about?
“In the beginning it was a collaboration; we’d been doing our own thing and we combined it. The songs we already had, Dawn Of The Dead or whatever, were a nod to horror movies. I’d ask Joey, ‘What are your favourite movies?’ He’d say, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Phantasm, Dawn Of The Dead…’ I’d be like, ‘Did we just become best friends?’ It was an extension of the things we loved and liked to geek out on.”
How did you two work together?
“I’d never worked with a producer! I didn’t really know what they did. I knew Joey was a fan of my music and he liked my voice, but going into the studio with him was different. I went in on the first day and I was confident, I had this line and I was ready to track it, like, ‘I got this.’ I do the line and look into the booth and go, ‘How was that?’ and Joey comes back to me and says, ‘How about try it again… and this time don’t suck!’ It made me go, ‘OK fucker, let’s see what you think of this!’ He had a really good way of getting the best out of me.”
What was the tour for the first album like? “That first tour, I’d just turned 26 years old. I’d been dreaming about this since I was 10 years old. I didn’t drink before Murderdolls toured, but we’d play a show then drink for four hours afterwards and have a good time. The buzz in the UK was huge because of Slipknot. It was people who were sick of nu metal – we were a breath of fresh air. It was as fun for us as it was the audience. We couldn’t believe we had this crazy audience with their eyebrows shaved! We’d send Joey crowdsurfing through the venue and over to the bar. We’d say, ‘OK, we’re gonna send Joey over to you, but you can’t hurt him! Don’t pull his clothes off!’ He’d get to the bar, the barman would have a shot of Jack Daniel’s and he’d neck it and then they’d surf him back. We did it at every show.”
What did Murderdolls give Joey that Slipknot maybe didn’t?
“He got to express his sense of humour. Slipknot are so heavy and he was such a badass drummer that he couldn’t joke about. But Murderdolls was such a non-serious thing; he loved the over-the-top stage show and the fun element, and it actually scared him a bit because he thought people wouldn’t take him seriously anymore. But it was fine, everyone just loved him.”
How would you define Joey as a person? “That is a hard one. Most people look at him as his ability as a musician and a drummer. But that dude had a smile and a personality as big as one of his drum solos. That’s what I’ll miss. He could play music all day, but the bond we had transcended all of that. He’s absolutely the best musician that I ever played with, and he brought out so much in me. His heart was as big as his drumming.”
How much did you keep in contact?
“We kept in contact, it was just kind of texting, Slipknot were playing and I was on tour. But, actually, it was maybe three or four years ago, we had a day off near Iowa and we went to Joey’s for a barbeque and just hung out. That was the first time we had connected in a long time. I could tell he wasn’t the same Joey touring around the world with this huge band, but he was still my friend and I didn’t want to pry too much. I just wanted to reconnect with him. In fact, he was going, ‘We gotta do Murderdolls again!’ and we were talking about doing it. We’d been going back and forth even up until three months ago. I’ve got the last text from him here; he woke up and he was watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and he messaged me, and suddenly it was all back to the old chat. He said, ‘Brother, I love you, keep your horns up.’ That was a month and a half before he passed away, and I keep kicking myself: ‘Should I have contacted him more? Should I have reached out?’ I have a lot of memories and most of them are good. I’ll never have another friend or writing partner like him again. He changed my world and he changed the world of music, and I’ll never have another guy like that again. Anyone that got to know him, they are blessed, believe me.”
“HE WANTED TO DO MURDERDOLLS AGAIN”