A follow-up report from TMZ says Sid Wilson’s removal from Slipknot was, in their words, a long time coming, and that the decision came after the band had had enough of how Wilson treated his bandmates. TMZ did not specify what that behaviour involved.The report also states that Slipknot had been planning to announce Wilson’s departure this week, but lost control of the rollout when the story broke first on Friday, July 31.
Wilson, 49, joined Slipknot in 1998 shortly before the self-titled debut, and performed as #0 handling turntables, samples and keyboards. As of publication, neither Slipknot nor Wilson has issued any official statement, and the reporting still rests on unnamed sources at a single outlet.
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On today’s Metal Breakdown Daily, Scott Penfold breaks down the update that finally makes the last four days make sense — the announcement Slipknot never got to make, what the new report does and doesn’t actually say, and the one thing everybody is about to get wrong about it. Download the free Loaded Radio App on Apple iOS and Google Play and take the show with you.
For four days this made no sense.
A firing reported by one outlet on one anonymous source. A guitarist telling everyone to slow down. A bandmate’s wife openly mocking the rumour mill. The man himself posting a merch ad and walking past a camera without a word. And from the band — nothing at all.
There’s now an explanation that fits all of it.
What The New Report Says
TMZ published a follow-up today with two significant claims.
The first: Wilson’s exit was, in their phrasing, a long time coming — and the decision to remove him came after the band finally had enough of his behaviour toward his bandmates.
The second, and the one that actually unlocks the week: Slipknot had been planning to announce Wilson’s departure themselves, this week. When TMZ broke the story on Friday, the band lost control of that rollout.
Sit with that second point, because it’s the key to everything.
If Slipknot had a statement drafted and a date set, then four days of silence isn’t a band with nothing to say. It’s a band whose carefully planned announcement got detonated three days early, scrambling to work out what to do next while lawyers and managers argue about it.
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It Explains The Things That Didn’t Add Up
Run back through the week with that in mind.
Jim Root’s post told people not to believe everything they read, to stop, think, and wait until there’s more information. Everybody — including us — read that as possible pushback on the report. Under this new reporting it reads completely differently. He wasn’t saying the story was wrong. He was saying wait for ours. “Wait until there’s more information” is close to a literal description of an announcement that hadn’t come out yet.
And the song he played underneath it — “‘Til We Die,” the All Hope Is Gone closer about the band’s bond — reads differently too. Not a denial. Closer to a goodbye.
Stacy Thomson’s posts, mocking the rumour chain, were widely taken as mocking the firing itself. If the firing was real and pending announcement, she was far more likely mocking the speculation about why — which, given the amount of invented nonsense flying around this weekend, would be entirely fair.
Sid’s merch ad and his silence outside that studio both make more sense too. A man who already knows this is coming, who has known for a while, doesn’t need to react to a headline. He gets on with his own business.
And the band’s total silence stops looking like a signal and starts looking like what it probably always was: people who had a plan, watched it fall apart on a Friday afternoon, and were advised to say nothing until they’d regrouped.
We spent four days saying two readings fit the facts. Fair’s fair — the second one is now looking a lot more likely than the first.
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What This Report Does Not Say
Now the part that matters most, and where a lot of coverage is about to go badly wrong.
TMZ says the band had enough of how Wilson treated his bandmates. They did not say what that means. No specifics. No examples. No timeline. Nothing.
That vagueness is going to get filled in by strangers on the internet within about an hour, and almost none of it will be based on anything. We’re not participating in that, and we’d suggest you don’t either.
What’s actually on the record: an unnamed source, at one outlet, describing interpersonal problems in general terms, about a named living person who has not responded and has had no opportunity to.
That’s a real limitation, not a technicality. There is a very large gap between “there were problems in the band” and any of the specific things people are currently inventing.
One thing the new report does settle, though. The reported cause is band-internal — how he treated the people he worked with. That means the speculation about Wilson’s personal life that’s been circulating since Friday isn’t just distasteful, it’s contradicted by the reporting itself. There’s a child in that situation and none of it has anything to do with this. Time to let it go.
Still Not Confirmed
Being precise, because precision has been in short supply all week:
Reported: two TMZ stories, both citing unnamed sources close to the band, saying Wilson was permanently removed on July 31, that the decision followed ongoing issues with how he treated his bandmates, and that the band had an announcement planned for this week.
Confirmed: nothing. No statement from Slipknot. No statement from Wilson. No replacement named. No change to the band’s official channels or website.
What has changed is coherence. On Friday we had one anonymous claim and a set of behaviours that could be read two ways. Today we have a version of events that accounts for every one of those behaviours without straining. That’s meaningfully stronger — and it’s still not a statement with somebody’s name on it.
Our Slipknot lineup page has been updated to reflect the new reporting, and will be updated again the moment anything official lands.
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Twenty-Eight Years
Whatever comes next, this is worth saying now rather than later.
Wilson joined in 1998 and completed the nine-piece lineup that made the self-titled debut in 1999 — the record that changed what heavy music could sound like. He was the DJ in a band that had no business having a DJ, and the scratching and industrial texture underneath those songs is a large part of why they still sound unlike anything else. Pull his work out of “Eyeless” and the track falls apart.
Live, he was the one climbing the rig and throwing himself off it. In 2008 he shattered both heels diving off a stage in Washington and finished the show anyway.
Our ranking of every Slipknot album and our deep dive on the masks both cover how much of that band’s identity ran through #0.
If the reporting is right and there were real problems behind the scenes, that’s the band’s business and their call to make. It doesn’t erase twenty-eight years, and both things can be true at once.
We’ll update the second anyone puts their name to a statement.
TL;DR
- New reporting: TMZ says Wilson’s exit was a long time coming and followed the band having enough of how he treated his bandmates
- No specifics given: TMZ did not describe what the behaviour involved
- The key detail: Slipknot had reportedly planned to announce the departure themselves this week, and lost control of the rollout when the story broke early on July 31
- What that explains: Jim Root’s “wait for more information” post, the band’s total silence, and Wilson’s own business-as-usual behaviour all fit an announcement that hadn’t happened yet
- Official confirmation: still none, from the band or from Wilson. No replacement named, no change to official channels
- Sourcing: two reports, one outlet, unnamed sources throughout
- Wilson’s tenure: joined 1998, performed as #0 on turntables, samples and keyboards, 28 years with the band
- Not related: the reported cause is band-internal, which contradicts the personal-life speculation circulating since Friday
FAQ
Why was Sid Wilson fired from Slipknot?
According to a TMZ follow-up report, the band decided to remove him after having enough of how he treated his bandmates, and the decision had been building for some time. TMZ did not specify what the behaviour involved, and neither Slipknot nor Wilson has confirmed or commented on any of it.
Was Slipknot going to announce Sid Wilson’s departure themselves?
That’s what the report says. TMZ states the band had planned to announce the exit this week but lost control of the rollout when the story broke first on July 31.
Has Slipknot officially confirmed Sid Wilson’s exit?
No. As of publication there has been no statement from the band or from Wilson, no replacement named, and no change to Slipknot’s official channels. All of the reporting so far comes from one outlet citing unnamed sources.
What did Jim Root’s Instagram post actually mean?
Root told fans not to believe everything they read and to wait until there was more information, soundtracked by Slipknot’s “‘Til We Die.” It was widely read as pushback on the report, but in light of the claim that an announcement was already planned, it reads more plausibly as asking people to wait for the band’s own statement. Root has not clarified.
How long was Sid Wilson in Slipknot and what did he do?
He joined in 1998, shortly before the 1999 self-titled debut, and spent 28 years with the band as #0, handling turntables, samples, sound effects and keyboards. He has also performed as DJ Starscream since the 2000s.
Twenty-eight years, and it ends with a report nobody in the band has confirmed. Whatever went on behind the scenes, what’s your favourite thing Sid brought to that band? Let us know in the comments.
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The post Slipknot Reportedly Had Sid Wilson’s Exit Announcement Ready For This Week, With His Treatment Of His Bandmates Cited As The Cause appeared first on Loaded Radio.
