Slipknot’s Eloy Casagrande has revealed that his white mask with a symbolic bullet wound on his forehead is a homage to the culture of his home country of Brazil. At the same time it is intended to commemorate the late Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison.
“I designed the mask together with Clown (Shawn Crahan, editor’s note),” said the drummer in the “Modern Drummer” podcast. “The first thing he asked me in the beginning was, ‘Can we have a white mask for you?’ It should remember Joey, preserve his legacy.”
Casagrande continued: “I suggested using these black lines to commemorate the Brazilian natives. (…) But my facial expression was designed by Clown. He was watching me play without a mask and he said something like, ‘This is what you look like when you play Slipknot music. So we’re going to put that in your mask.”
Slipknot drummer Casagrande was almost shot
The question that remains is what the bullet hole is all about. “Two years ago I was robbed in São Paulo,” explained the 33-year-old. “I was walking in my neighborhood, it was 9 a.m., I was on my way to the gym, and two guys on motorcycles stopped me, put a gun to my head and demanded that I give them my phone and my backpack give. That was something that changed me a lot. Luckily he decided not to shoot. So I was lucky.”
For him, the indicated gunshot wound in the mask was also a kind of philosophy of life, explained Casagrande. He just has nothing left to lose, he’s somehow already dead. “It’s a kind of feeling that gives me a certain freedom when I go on stage. It’s also very inspiring.”
Joey Jordison was a founding member of Slipknot and played with the band until 2013. He had a strong influence on the sound of the metal band, especially live. Jordison died in July 2021 at the age of 46. He was initially replaced by Jay Weinberg until he left the band in 2023. Eloy Casagrande came from Sepultura to set the rhythm for Slipknot.