(SLIPKNOT) Mick Thomson (Guitarist presents 100 guitar heroes : 100 of the world's greatest guitar players interviewed and profiled)

2009

Bath : Future Pub. Ltd

Master technicians or drop-tuned buffoons? We ask their axe hero Mick Thomson if the real Slipknot will please stand up. 

Are Slipknot tours getting harder?

"It's never felt good - doesn't matter if I was 24 or 34. The inside of my right thigh used to be black and blue all the time from the point on my BC (Rich) Warlock. Now I use Schaller strap locks and the little button gets me. It's a hazardous show. Especially when it's really hot. Then my hands get saturated, soften up and up on the high strings it's like you've got a cheese slicer. Between songs I'll pull the cuts open, have my tech put in superglue, then go back out."

All Hope Is Gone debuted at number one - does that mean Slipknot has finally been accepted? 

"We're not accepted. I was just at the MTV Video Awards, and no, we're definitely not accepted. We were in a room where we were the only band that actually plays their own music. Everybody else is a pretty face with a producer who tells them what to do. We're in a totally different world." 

Is Iowa proud of you yet? (Slipknot is from the state, and it's the title of their second album from 2001...)

"Individually, we've got plenty of fans in Iowa. But we just got nominated for our seventh Grammy and the local news doesn't mention it, but they will run a story about a squirrel caught in a tree! They're too chicken-shit to talk about it, because it might upset the Christian viewers. It's pretty gutless." 

Are you starting to get the credit you deserve as guitarists? 

"I don't know and I don't pay attention. I don't read the shit they print about me in magazines and I don't read my interviews, because I have quotes around something that I never actually said. Then I get pissed off and stop doing interviews for a year. So I have no idea. I can't allow myself to be shaped by what somebody else's opinion might be. I know who I am and it's gotten me this far."

You once said that anything less than technical perfection is a hindrance - is that still how you feel about making music with a guitar? 

"Anything else, you're just fighting it. Some people have physical limitations where they'll never get beyond a certain point; some people just need practice. I spent years in my bedroom making my hands as efficient as possible. I started when I was 10 and that was all I did. When I was 12, I'd come home from school and play for five hours. I was playing crazy amounts by high school. I finally figured theory out around 21. I'd taught myself by ear and I knew the advanced things, I just didn't know what they were called. I knew scales and shit - I just didn't know I was playing E. Phrygian". 

Do you have any influences that you think might surprise us?

"I never had influences per se. "Influences" usually means you hear something and then try to copy it. I was never that way. Listening to The Beatles made me want to write my own shit. I have a crazy music collection. When Abbey Road is done playing. I might put on Cannibal Corpse."

What caused you to change from BC Rich to Ibanez guitars?

"I was tired if them making me irritated. It doesn't matter why I changed, actually. I just did. It's like asking, why did you break up with your last girlfriend? None of your business - 'cos she farted in her sleep!' So BC Rich farted in their sleep, I guess, and that's why we broke up. No, I decided it was time for a change. I talked to Ibanez, and they made me something amazing, so I switched. People always talk about BC Rich, but I've been with Ibanez longer."

So what's so great about your MTM1 signature model guitar? 

"I'd never say why it's 'so great'. You like it or not. But it serves a purpose. Everything they did was purpose-driven. I've experimented with everything you can imagine and, for what I do, this is what sounds best. When you're drop tuned with high gain, a mahogany neck with mahogany body and an ebony fretboard, gives you the mid-range you need to punch through, while still having a nice big bottom-end. And I have a hardtail bridge because I don't like to knock out a giant chunk of wood."

How about your backline? 

"I don't really use pedals. A lot of kids think that to get this sound you need some kind of distortion pedal, but I plug straight into my Rivera KR7 signature amps with the gain on five-and-a-half to six. I don't have any pedals in front apart from an Ibanez TS808 that my tech modded for me. 

 "I use a gain boost for solos. I use a BOSS NS-2 Noise Suppressor. I used a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Octave Fuzz for the beginning of Duality. I've got my Dunlop wah that I use in different spots, and that's pretty much it. I've got a ton of pedals at home, but live I'm plugged straight into my f*ckin KR-7 head and 400-watt-cab. Pick real hard and you've got plenty of distortion."

Some people were surprised when you launched a signature Ovation acoustic...

"There are narrow-minded people everywhere. Negativity makes the world go round. I've been asked that question before, and in a tone of voice that made me want to knock their teeth out. You show me a professional player thar doesn't also own an acoustic - it opens up your playing. You don't write the same way. It also helps if you're caught in a rut; if you've been playing electric and you aren't inspired, which has happened many times in the past 25 years I've been playing." 

What guitar parts are you most proud of? 

"I guess I'm pleased with the way my solo in All Hope Is Gone turned out. I did some stuff on there that I should have done on the first record - and I was doing on the first record, until it all disappeared (Thomson's solos were edited from 1999's Slipknot by producer Ross Robinson)

What tunings were you using?

"It's just both the ones we've used in the past: some are C# drop B, some are B drop A. In dropped tunings I tend to go for more riff-orientated things using power chords, whereas if I have a standard tuned guitar I play a lot more technical things." 

What are the practical difficulties of playing gigs in a mask?

"With my mask the way it is, I can see okay, but there's a certain way I have to look to see my guitar neck. If you see a picture of me with my chin pinned to my f*ckin' chest, I'm probably looking at my fretboard!

Essentials

Born: November 3 1973, Des Moines, Iowa. 

Guitars: BC Rich Warlock, Ibanez MTM1 signature, Ovation MT37 signature. 

Did you know? Neither Thomson nor his fellow guitarist Jim Root played on Slipknot's famous indie-demo Mate Feed Kill Repeat (1996)

Classic albums: The self-titled official debut album (1999) remains the fan's favorite for it's raw ferocity but Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses (2004) shows more versatility from the two guitarists especially in the solos. Other notable Slipknot albums include Iowa (2001), 9.0 Live (2005) and All Hope Is Gone (2008). There's also a collectors box set dating from 2006.