Corey Todd Taylor (born December 8, 1973)[2] is an American musician, songwriter, author and actor.

[4] Taylor co-founded Stone Sour with drummer Joel Ekman in 1992, playing in the Des Moines, Iowa area, and working on a demo.

He joined Slipknot in late 1997 to replace their original lead singer Anders Colsefni and has subsequently released seven studio albums with them.

Taylor has also worked with several other acts, including Junk Beer Kidnap Band, Korn, Disturbed, Apocalyptica, Code Orange, Anthrax, Steel Panther, Tonight Alive, Falling in Reverse, Soulfly, Damageplan, Tech N9ne, and the Clay People.

He especially found songs like "Teddy Bear", "In the Ghetto", and "Suspicious Minds" to appeal to his interests the most, describing them as "good times".

[6] Taylor also began listening to Black Sabbath at a young age, beginning with their early work.

[9] In 1983, when he was nine years old, his mother and her boyfriend moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to become security guards for Burt Reynolds' ranch.

In 1997, Taylor was approached by the metal band, Slipknot, resulting in him abandoning Stone Sour while they were recording a demo album with Sean McMahon at SR studios.

Fans can also construct a miniature "house of gold and bones" from the packaging design of the physical versions of the two albums.

[31][32][33] In Des Moines, Iowa, Joey Jordison, Shawn Crahan, and Mick Thomson approached him asking him to join Slipknot.

[37] As their permanent vocalist, he recorded with Slipknot at Indigo Ranch in Malibu, California, and released Slipknot, the band's debut album that peaked at number one on the Top Heatseekers chart,[38][39] went double platinum in the United States,[40] and was included in the 2006 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

[48] Taylor has appeared as a guest musician on albums by Soulfly, Apocalyptica, Damageplan, Steel Panther, and Code Orange.

At one point, he was heavily involved in the recording of thrash metal band Anthrax's album, Worship Music, but the sessions remain unreleased.

[53][54] Taylor provided guest narration on the track "Repentance" for Dream Theater's 2007 album Systematic Chaos.

In an interview with Billboard, Taylor confirmed that on January 13, 2009, he was planning on making a solo album, as well as returning to his side project Stone Sour after Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone World Tour.

"[55] He describes them as a cross between Foo Fighters, Johnny Cash, and Social Distortion, saying that there's "a country background that comes built-in with living in Iowa".

[56] The group performed on April 24, 2009, at People's Court in Des Moines, Iowa, marking Taylor's first official solo show.

[57] Taylor performs with his band the Dum Fux with Denny Harvey, who make covers for 1970s punk rock and 1980s hair metal.

Taylor recently admitted that he tried out for the vacant singer spot in the band Velvet Revolver, but said that it just did not work out.

In September 2019, he was featured on Nostalgia Critic's parody album of Pink Floyd's The Wall on a cover of the opening theme for SpongeBob SquarePants.

[72] Taylor mentioned in an October 3, 2020, interview about a followup album entitled CMF2, which would be completed prior to a tour supporting both it and CMFT.

[1] He has also stated that Pearl Jam had hugely influenced and inspired his music, saying that the group was "one of the biggest and best rock bands of all time".

[46] Compared with the previous vocalist for Slipknot, Anders Colsefni, Taylor has a vocal style that was characterized by the late, ex-drummer Joey Jordison as "really good melodic singing".

[80] Taylor's vocal style, which contains at times melodic singing, growling, screaming, shouting, and rapping, led him to place at number 86 on the Hit Parader's Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time and is often compared to other vocalists such as Ivan Moody, John Bush, Phil Anselmo, and Jamey Jasta.

[84] On April 7, 2019, it was announced on his Instagram page that he became engaged to Alicia Dove, creator of the dance and performance group "Cherry Bombs".

[87] In 2006, Taylor told MTV that he had attempted to jump off a balcony of the eighth floor of The Hyatt on Sunset Boulevard in 2003, but "somehow [Scarlett] stopped me".

Services to Metal award on behalf of Paul Gray, who died after an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl.

[92][93] In early September 2010, Taylor announced that his book, Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, would be released on July 12, 2011, through Da Capo Press.