Corey Taylor Recalls the Moment He Knew Slipknot Were Getting Big

Believing in your band is an important key on the road to success, but musicians still tend to experience a bit of an "oh sh-t" moment when they realize they are actually becoming successful. Corey Taylor has recalled the moment he knew Slipknot were getting big, and he'll always remember it because of that.

During an interview with Metal Hammer, the vocalist cited their December 1999 concert in London as a pivotal moment in their career because of the audience's behavior. It was a few months after the release of their debut album, and he could tell that it the crowd was into it.

"We had a sense that something was happening was when we played the Astoria... Coming from Des Moines, when do you think you’re ever going to be able to play London, for fuck’s sake? We were just wide-eyed, [like] ‘Oh fuck.’ We came out and it was packed and people were hanging from shit. I’d never seen anything like it," Taylor said, adding that a lot of people he's met over the years have told him that they were at that gig.

"There’s no fucking way, because the capacity of the Astoria would have been 100,000 people, but I love the fact that show has become this legend people talk about."

The frontman admitted he doesn't know how he felt during that time because they were just determined to give everyone the best that they could.

"I went through three relationships in that time," he continued. "They crumbled because I was never at home. It’s one of the few regrets I have, that I didn’t poke my head up and take a second to drink it in. I was fucking gone.”

The Astoria had a capacity of between 1,600 and 2,000, and shut down permanently in 2009 when it was demolished. According to Setlist.fm, Slipknot played a 10-set song the night they played there in December of '99, starting with "(sic)" and ending with "Scissors."

"I think we're the poison for all of the crap bands that are out there right now," Taylor said in a promo interview for the show at the time. "We have the most pure reasons for doing this, and it shows with us. We're a unit when we're in this band, we're an art when we get together and we do this."

You can see the full video from the iconic performance below.