Slipknot Guitarist Jim Root: ‘We Don’t See a Penny Off of Record Sales’
While Slipknot topped the Billboard 200 chart back in October with their latest album ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’ selling over 130,000 copies in its first week, guitarist Jim Root says the group hasn’t seen “a penny off of record sales” and they “never have,” adding they make their money on the road.
Root spoke with The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., recently and opened up about the state of the record industry and how much has changed since Slipknot released their last album 2008’s ‘All Hope Is Gone.’ "You don't even know are we going to have a career," Root said. "Are we going to be able to sell records? Are we going to have a label? I mean, labels are shutting down all the time. It takes like pop and rap to keep these labels going because those are the only people that are buying records anymore."
The guitarist added that even though the group debuted at No. 1 with ‘.5: The Gray Chapter,’ the sales are not what they used to be. “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.” Root added, "And now it's a fraction of that. So it kind of really shows you the state of where everything's at. I don't put too much into that anyway because we don't see a penny off of record sales and we never have. For us it's all about touring."
While the identities of Slipknot’s touring bassist and drummer have apparently been revealed as Jay Weinberg and Alessandro Venturella, Root did not name names. He did address the situation saying, “It's a little bit of a confusing part of our lives. I'm just going to say we have drummer X and bass player Y helping us out for the time being, and who knows what the future will hold?”
Slipknot will kick off a European tour on Jan. 14 in Dublin, Ireland, with Korn and King 810. See all their tour dates here. The band was recently nominated for the Grammy for Best Metal Performance for 'The Negative One.' The 57th Annual Grammy Awards will take place Feb. 8 in Los Angeles.
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