Watch: Mushroomhead Fans Clash with Slipknot in 1999 Show
Footage from a heated performance shows on-stage confrontations and a post-show brawl.
- Footage from a 1999 Cleveland show reveals the height of the Slipknot vs. Mushroomhead feud, complete with heckling, object-throwing, and Clown diving into the crowd.
- Mick confronted hecklers during the performance, calling them out with lines like ‘Step up, pussy!’ and refusing to let them ruin the show.
- Taylor later explained the feud was never with Mushroomhead, but with their fans, recalling incidents of violence and a post-show brawl involving Slipknot, Machine Head, and Amen.
Back in 1999, the tension between Slipknot and Mushroomhead wasn’t just gossip—it was a full-on warzone. A recently resurfaced video from a Cleveland Slipknot show captures this beautiful disaster in all its chaotic glory. Spoiler: it involved flying objects, insults, and at least one percussionist launching himself into the crowd like a heat-seeking missile.
The footage shows Mushroomhead fans heckling Slipknot and tossing whatever wasn’t bolted down at the stage. Guitarist Mick, unsurprisingly, wasn’t about to let it slide. Before kicking off “(sic),” he lobbed some choice words: “Step up, pussy! Step up, bitch!” Enter M. Shawn “Clown” Crahan, who took those words to heart, diving headfirst into the sea of unruly fans. Security eventually dragged Clown out, but the “peace talks” were short-lived.
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Corey Taylor didn’t hold back on the mic either. Addressing the instigators, he laid it all out: “Do you guys want to see a fight or do you want to see a f… show, man?” Later, he doubled down with: “All petty f… bullshit aside, are you ready to have a good f… time tonight? Because over my f… dead body will I have anybody ruin this f… night for anybody here!” If motivational speaking gigs were a thing for metal frontmen, Corey just earned himself a side hustle.
Despite his efforts, the bad blood in the room didn’t exactly evaporate. You could practically taste the animosity lingering in the air.
Years later, in a 2012 Q&A, Corey revisited the feud, clarifying his beef wasn’t with Mushroomhead but their fans. “The first time we played Cleveland, their fans came down, mind you we didn’t f… say shit, their fans came down and threw everything but rocks at us,” he recalled. One fan apparently decided to go full medieval, chucking a padlock the size of a small planet at bassist Paul Gray, leaving him with more than a bad mood.
And because no rock feud is complete without a little backstage justice, Corey confirmed what many suspected: the fight didn’t stop when the music did. “When we got done playing, we took all of our shit off and went into the audience,” he shared. The nine members of Slipknot, joined by their pals from Machine Head and Amen, confronted the hecklers. His summary? “Let’s just say we f… handled it right there.” Translation: it probably didn’t end with a group hug.
Today the feud is water under the bridge—or maybe more like sludge under the stage. Still, this glimpse into the mayhem of 1999 is a stark reminder of when metal rivalries were less about cryptic tweets and more about actual fists flying. Ah the good old days. Slipknot didn’t just talk the talk—they threw themselves, literally, into the fire, haha.
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