Nirvana’s legendary album Nevermind turns 30 years old on September 24th, 2021. In celebration of the groundbreaking LP, we asked a number of prominent musicians to reflect on the album. Here, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor discusses the album’s influence on him and its impact on the music world.
As a young aspiring musician, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor was profoundly impacted by Nirvana’s Nevermind album. On the surface, the influence of Nirvana can be heard more in Taylor’s rock band Stone Sour and on his solo material than in Slipknot’s music, but as he told us, Nevermind explored a number of different genres.
In speaking with Heavy Consequence (in the video above), Taylor remembered discovering Nirvana before the release of Nevermind in 1991.
“I had heard some dubbed copies of some of the Sub Pop 7-inches that they had released, so I was aware of Nirvana before they set off their nuclear bomb,” recalled Taylor. “[Nevermind] wasn’t as sludgy as Bleach was, but the songs were so refined at that point. And the production — Butch [Vig] did an incredible job on that album. It changed the way people thought about songwriting.”
He added, “The first time I got [the album], I must have worn it out for six months. I literally sat down and learned how to play every song on the guitar. I learned how to sing every song on that damn album.”
Taylor went on to talk about how he his often drawn more to the deep cuts on Nevermind than the hits, particularly songs like “Drain You” and “Lounge Act.” Of the album closer “Something in the Way,” Taylor said, “It’s one of those dark tunes you can put on and you’re just like, “Wow, where was [Kurt Cobain] when he was writing this?'”
All told, Taylor summed up Nevermind as “one of the best hard-punk-fusion-pop albums of all time.”
Watch Corey Taylor speak about Nirvana’s Nevermind on its 30th anniversary in the video above.
Trouble viewing the video above? Watch on YouTube.
