Clown Reveals Who ‘A Lot’ of Slipknot’s Long Lost Album Is About

In a new interview, Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan talked a bit more about the band’s long-shelved album Look Outside Your Window and who “a lot” of the album is about.

The album was recorded by a handful of Slipknot’s members as a therapeutic outlet during the tense All Hope Is Gone studio sessions. There has been so much chatter over the years as to when — or even if — the album will ever come out.

Last year, Clown promised it would arrive in 2024. Now, Slipknot have their sights set on a 25th anniversary, so who knows? Clown and Jim Root seem pretty uncertain right now, too.

Revolver spoke with Clown, Root and Corey Taylor about the new band dynamic with Eloy Casagrande publicly unveiled as Slipknot’s new drummer earlier this year. There’s the aforementioned 25th anniversary of the band’s self-titled debut going on, that elusive Look Outside Your Window and free agent territory as they continue to operate without a record label.

Clown on Look Outside Your Window — “A Lot” Is About Paul Gray

In the interview, Clown vows that new music is coming soon, but did not elaborate on whether that could be the new material recording with Casagrande or this long lost record everyone has been waiting for.

“There’s never been a conspiracy against that project,” Clown clarifies, aware of the multitude of projected release timelines gone by. “The album’s been finished for a long time. But the world keeps changing, and so do my feelings on the art — like, what did we create a long time ago, and how does it relate to now? And what are we feeling now, and what is it?”

The 54-year-old says “there was a lot of stuff going on” during the All Hope Is Gone Sessions and “that’s all in the lyrics.”

He continues, “And it hurts, for me; I don’t know what people will take out or understand, but I know what it’s about. Jim and I held it up. It was our thing, because there was too much anger and too much crap happening, and too much non-communicating. And Sid and Corey wanted to be part of it, and I said, ‘Of course!'”

Late bassist Paul Gray also tried to get in on the project and Clown recollects, “I would say [to Gray], ‘There’s no way in hell you’re going to be on it, because a lot of it’s about you.'”

Gray died two years after the release of All Hope Is Gone and the next album, .5: The Gray Chapter is a nod to his memory.

READ MORE: Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan’s Different Slipknot Masks Through the Years

“It was a very emotional time, and all those emotions went into creating that album,” adds Clown, “And that album is timeless; I can actually listen to it now and feel what I was then, and it affects me more now than it would have then.”

Sticking with his original 2024 forecast, Clown says “there’s still a real good chance it could come out this year.”

“But it’s a beautiful thing, a serious thing,” he concludes, “and I stand by saying that it will be worth the wait.”

Jim Root on Look Outside Your Window

Root tells Revolver that he let Clown know “five or six years ago” that he’s “tired of waiting for it to come out” and joked that he was going to upload it to YouTube.

“I know he’s been working on it and I don’t even think I have a way to listen to that or hear what that’s even like anymore,” the guitarist adds, noting that he was listening to a lot of Bjork and Portishead at the time.

“Clown was playing drums and stacking all these sounds, and I’d start playing guitar to it and then Corey would come in and sing on it and Sid would come in and play all these crazy instruments. It just turned into this, like, really intense art piece and I would love for that to get out there someday,” Root offers.