The Agreement Clown + His Wife Made Before He Started Slipknot

Slipknot percussionist Clown has spoken about the agreement initially made with his wife about the band and the sacrifices that family has continued to make to pursue his career.

"It's hard to talk about the sacrifice like my wife has put in," stated the musician while speaking with The Break Down With Nath and Johnny. "We had an agreement and the agreement was, 'Go ahead and do this thing you think you're gonna do, whatever that is, and as long as it doesn't go backwards…'"

Clown also added for context, "I was married three years before I started Slipknot."

That was just the beginning of a family situation for the musician, who also became a father before the band saw any amount of success.

"We start the band and then a year or so after starting the band, we get pregnant and have our third child, and we have that child before we're signed. So, we have three children and [it's] lots of work raising children," recalls the percussionist.

"I've been married now five, six, seven years — three years before we even started the band, so everybody needs to kind of figure it out about reality of what sacrifice really is," he explains.

Slipknot's Clown Reflects on His Decisions

Yes, Slipknot have become one of the biggest bands in metal, but it's not always been peachy.

"First and foremost, I made a decision to take a pretty selfish path. I can say that," says Clown. "We've lost a child. When something as horrendous and unexplainable as that is, you look back on your path and you realize the decisions you made, and it's not too hard to realize the ones that were bad decisions real quick."

He explains that the hardest things to reflect on are "when you don't get to say goodbye to someone or hello to someone again."

In reflection of the journey through the highs and lows, he concludes, "So moving forward through those sorts of thoughts, making agreements, saying goodbye to kids, buses leaving, these sorts of things, and promising my wife we would always make sure it was moving forward. And here 25 years [later], we're just relevant and it hasn't stopped. It's pretty amazing. I'm blessed."

READ MORE: Clown Reflects on 'Misunderstandings' About Who Started Slipknot

What Slipknot Are Doing in 2024

If Clown's late 2023 revelations play out as expected, it should be a rather busy 2024. In speaking with NME in December, the percussionist served up several proposed plans for the year. The group announced 25th anniversary tour dates for the U.K. and Europe that will take place in late 2024.

He also revealed that a new album is in the works, and he offered a promise that the band's long-shelved Look Outside Your Window album would arrive this year as well.

In other Slipknot doings, Clown revealed he was working on a documentary to celebrate the band's 25th anniversary and that there were also plans to reissue their self-titled 1999 debut album.

“I’ve harvested relics from our whole career," said the percussionist. "I’ve just collected and collected all of it. Let’s call it a documentary, but really it could be a film. I’ve recently signed on with some forces for it and I’m going to get a director too."

“A lot of the footage has already been captured, but there is a lot that still needs to be compiled for it to be what it needs to be. So yes, there’s something like that coming, and there’ll be a DVD which would be behind-the-scenes too. Also footage for the 25-year anniversary, there would likely be a package for that, and there’s going to be a reissue of the album, probably.”

Slipknot's Clown Speaks With The Break Down With Nath and Johnny