Anders Colsefni Talks About Slipknot's Feud With Mushroomhead

Slipknot (Instagram @slipknot)

Anders Colsefni discussed Slipknot's old feud with Mushroomhead. Colsefni is the original vocalist of the Iowa band.

Appearing as a special guest on the Everblack podcast, Colsefni was asked about the rivalry between Slipknot and Mushroomhead.

After I was in the band (Slipknot). Because none of us have ever heard of this band. We don't have the internet," he said through Blabbermouth.

"It's not a band from another state, unless they come and appear in our city, even though they don't, we won't know about them unless they sign a contract and they're out there."

"But when we were compiling everything, we were influenced a lot by Mr. Bule and all the other stage shows we all liked growing up. We were tired of watching the band just doing their thing. And there was no problem doing that, but it looks like we wanted to do something."

In 1995, Mushroomhead released their self-titled debut album. Four years later, Iowa-based Slipknot also released their self-titled debut. After the last LP was released, they exploded into the music world, overshadowing everything that Mushroomhead had achieved.

"In Iowa, this is the most difficult place to pay attention to in the United States," said Colsefni.

"Almost a lot of farmry, corn fields, and pigland everywhere, and it's a bad place to try to start a band. So you have to do everything you can. We have to get every good musician, the best of the best, to invite him to join the band. Like, 'Come on. We already have these people there. Let's do it, try it first. It's going to be fun.

The first time I saw a Mushroomhead, I was on the Painface [post-Slipknot band] and we were in Chicago, Illinois playing a show, and someone brought a magazine. He said, 'Look at this.' And I was looking at it. I was like, 'A bass player has a pig mask. The guy imitated me.' Because I chose a pig mask for Paul [Gray, the original bassist of Slipknot] because he was too lazy to go there and pick it up. Paul, you know this. So I ran to the theater shop and took the first thing I saw. I was like, 'Oh, pig mask. It will work.' I threw the lock on his nose and gave it to him. He was like, 'It worked. I can see it.' So this is a very strange thing.'

Uniquely, currently, Colsefni is on tour in Australia and New Zealand with Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis.

When discussing inspiration for the two bands, the former Slipknot vocalist said Waylon and he had decided "of course we were all influenced by the same thing because we were all on agricultural land."