On the Road Again: Slipknot

On the Road Again, USA TODAY's spotlight on artists on tour, this week looks at heavy metal band Slipknot.

To Hell and beyond. Slipknot fans shouldn't expect the same show on the spring leg of the masked metal marauder's Prepare for Hell Tour, which began April 25 at the Fort Rock festival in Ft. Myers, Fla., as they'll get when the Summer's Last Stand tour kicks off in July. "We're going to change the set list a lot," says guitarist Jim Root, with an eye toward working in more songs from the group's latest album, .5: The Gray Chapter. Plus, says frontman Corey Taylor, "I think we're going to add some more fire. We can always use more fire."

Who made Slipknot. "Obviously, there's a heavy Kiss influence" to a Slipknot concert, Taylor says, "just for production and show and making sure the audience gets every drop of their money's worth." Other bands that made a major early impact on the group include Ministry, Sisters of Mercy and Metallica. "Then everybody from G.G. Allin to Gwar, where you just don't know what's going to happen next. We took all these insane influences and created this amalgam that became Slipknot."

A doctor in the house. Slipknot's nine musicians perform so aggressively — banging their heads, leaping from stage equipment, slamming beer kegs with metal baseball bats – that "we damn near have to have a hospital on site," says Corey Taylor. The group hires local medical personnel at each tour stop in case something goes awry. Like the time percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan needed more than 20 stitches in his face, outside and inside, after catching a microphone stand while headbanging. Or the time percussionist Chris Fehn tore his ACL on stage. Or the time DJ Sid Wilson broke both his heels landing a jump on the first night of Mayhem Festival 2008 and ended up wheelchair-bound for the tour. "He totally used it to his advantage," Taylor says, "because he started doing wheelchair tricks onstage."

Level of commitment. The group's hardcore fans have been known to try to outdo each other with macabre displays of devotion, presenting the group with a cow's heart or carving song titles into their skin. "There was a good five-year period where it got out of hand," says Taylor, who recalls being asked to autograph what he's pretty sure was a human femur. "I didn't ask that many questions, to be honest," he says. "I just kind of signed it and ran."

Carry that weight. Years of playing heavy mahogany Fender Jazzmasters have left Root's left shoulder lower than his right. "I've got a pinched nerve, and my rotator cuff is all messed up," says Root, 43. "I'm really dumb, so I'm probably not going to adjust the way I do things, and I'm still going to bang my head and all that stuff, even though I shouldn't."

The show will go on. A knife wound to the head Mick Thomson suffered during a fight with his brother in March won't affect the tour from a legal or physical standpoint. "He's fine, everyone's fine," Taylor says. "The level of injuries were blown out of proportion by people who read the police report and filled in the blanks." Thomson and his brother both wound up being charged with disorderly conduct.

A list of Slipknot's upcoming North American dates follows:

April

29 - Pensacola Bay Center, Pensacola, Fla.

30 - Champions Square – Superdome, New Orleans

May

2 - Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, Pelham, Ala.

3 - Carolina Rebellion, Concord, N.C.

5 - Knoxville Coliseum, Knoxville, Tenn.

8 - US Cellular Coliseum, Bloomington, Ill.

9 - Northern Invasion, Somerset, Wis.

10 - US Cellular Center, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

12 - Erie Insurance Arena, Erie, Pa.

13 - The Pavilion at Montage Mountain, Scranton, Pa.

15-17 - Rock on the Range, Columbus, Ohio

16 - Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.

July

24 - Cruzan Amphitheater, West Palm Beach, Fla.

25 - MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater, Tampa

26 - Aaron's Amphitheater at Lakewood, Atlanta

28 - DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit

29 - Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, N.Y.

31 - Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

August

1 - Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh, N.Y.

2 - Xfinity Theatre, Hartford, Conn.

4 - Xfinity Center, Boston

5 - PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, N.J.

6 - First Niagara Pavilion, Pittsburgh

8 - Molson Amphitheater, Toronto, Ont.

11 - Jiffy Lube Live, Washington, D.C.

12 - Farm Bureau Live, Virginia Beach

14 - Klipsch Music Center, Indianapolis

15 - First Midwest Bank Amphitheater, Chicago

16 - Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, St. Louis

19 - Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver

21 - USANA Amphitheater, Salt Lake City

24 - Rogers Arena, Vancouver, B.C.

26 - Concord Pavilion, Concord, Calif.

28 - MGM Resort Festival Lot, Las Vegas

29 - Ak-Chin Pavilion, Phoenix

30 - Isleta Amphitheater, Albuquerque

September

2 – Austin 360 Amphitheater, Austin

4 - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston

5 - Gexa Energy Pavilion, Dallas