Dirty Little Rabbits drummer Shawn Crahan is best known for his role in Slipknot, where he goes under the monicker of “The Clown”. There’s been stresses along the way, with it rumoured at one stage a couple of years ago that he’d be leaving the nine-piece metallers, though that never actually occurred.
“I’m only one ninth in my other band, and it’s taken me a long time to even accept that, because I’m the man, you know,” Shawn laughingly explained. “Jokes, jokes, that’s for you guys, relax...
“But no, I learned those guys... there’s some guys in that band that are just... You don’t go around the world a hundred times and not learn something from Joey, you know what I mean.
“I’ve been watching and listening and feeling, and I’m so that I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.
“And don’t get me wrong, I’ve developed my own thing out there too all on my own that no-one can touch, but I really learned a lot, and when I was ready and I had confidence - and knew that it was real, because I don’t like to do anything artistic in this world if it’s contrived or derivative or just basically not real - so that’s it, just a long fairytale.”
Singer Stella Katsoudas added: “I was in LA at the time, I had completely thrown in the towel as an artists and was writing for other people, then he shows up and he’s like: ‘You need to move to Des Moines and be in this band.’ After like - it was more than 10 years, it was closer to 12 years - and I was like: ‘I can’t believe it - Okay.’”
Shawn explained: “It’s been an uphill battle for us, because there’s been a lot of waiting and a lot of tests on your will to believe in your art, and when it comes down to it friends can be made and argue, but we all here because of our love of art, and we can put personal things aside.
“It’s hard to wait for someone - I had to tour for close to 18 months, and it just shows how much in love everybody is in the band, because they waited for me. It wasn’t easy, we did fight, and things got stupid... We just wanted to be together, and now we are it’s Rabbit time, and the whole world’s going to get infected.”
- In case you haven’t already seen it, in the first part of our extended interview Dirty Little Rabbits explain why supporting Lacuna Coil is “like the Twilight Zone”.
- In the third part of our extended interview Shawn talks about how art’s going to “save us from ourselves” and the forthcoming release of their debut album.
