Former SLIPKNOT Drummer JOEY JORDISON Says Rare Disease Robbed Him Of Ability To Play

Former SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison has revealed that he has been fighting transverse myelitis, an inflammatory disorder that has robbed him of the ability to play drums.

Ever since SLIPKNOT parted ways with Jordison in December 2013, both sides were silent and evasive about the reason why the split occurred.

While accepting the the “Golden God” award at tonight’s (Monday, June 13) Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards event in London, England, Jordison gave an emotional speech in which he spoke about his exit from SLIPKNOT for the first time. He said: “Towards [the] end of my career in SLIPKNOT — and I want you all to give praise to them as well. We accomplished a lot in life, every one of them, and I wish them nothing but luck and the best of praises. Cause what we created in the basements of Des Moines, Iowa will never be matched. It’s one thing that is fucking absolutely fucking unbeatable. I love those guys very much… Towards the end of my career in SLIPKNOT, I got really, really sick with a horrible disease called transverse myelitis, I lost my legs. I couldn’t play anymore. It was a form of multiple sclerosis, which I don’t wish on my worst enemy. I got myself back up, and I got myself in the gym, and I got myself back in fucking therapy to fucking beat this shit. And if I could do it, you could do it. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, more than fucking anything.”

He continued: “To people with multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis, or anything like that, I am living proof that you can fucking beat that shit. And fucking metal and all of these fans will do it for you. This is the fucking world right here. You can beat this shit; no joke. Just the fact that metal lives in your heart, you can fucking accomplish anything.”

You can watch the speech at around the 16:30 mark in the below video.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, transverse myelitis is a neurological condition produced by abnormal inflammation in the spinal cord, resulting in a block of the nerve impulses and neurologic symptoms. Transverse myelitis is a rare disease, with a frequency estimated to be five new cases for every one million people.

SLIPKNOT singer Corey Taylor told Metal Hammer that firing Jordison after 18 years was “one of the hardest decisions” the group ever made, adding that Jordison is “in a place in his life” which is “not where we are.”

Taylor said he could not get into specifics for legal reasons, but admitted, “It’s when a relationship hits that T-section and one person’s going one way and you’re going the other. And try as you might to either get them to go your way or try and go their way, at some point you’ve got to go in the direction that works for you. This is me speaking in the broadest terms, with respect to Joey. I guess to sum it up, it was one of the hardest decisions we ever made.”

Taylor said that the band is “happy right now and we hope that he is . . . he’s just in a place in his life, right now, that’s not where we are.”

The singer would not answer whether drug use played a role in Jordison‘s dismissal, and confessed that he had not been in touch with his former bandmate. Taylor said, “I haven’t talked to Joey in a while, to be honest. That’s how different we are. It’s not because I don’t love him and I don’t miss him. And it is painful; we talk about him all the time, but at the same time, do we miss him or do we miss the old him? That’s what it really comes down to.”

SLIPKNOT‘s new drummer is Jay Weinberg, son of longtime Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg.

Jordison‘s new band called VIMIC will release its debut album, “Open Your Omen”, later in the year via Roadrunner Records. Joey is joined in that group by singer Kalen Chase Musmecci, who has toured with KORN as a backing vocalist and percussionist, and Joey‘s former SCAR THE MARTYR bandmates Jed Simon (guitar), Kyle Konkiel (bass) and Matthew Tarach (keyboards).

Jordison is also involved in a brand new extreme metal supergroup called SINSAENUM. His bandmates in that project are MAYHEM and SUNN O)))‘s Attila Csihar along with former DÅÅTH and CHIMAIRA vocalist Sean Zatorsky, DRAGONFORCE bassist Frédéric Leclercq on guitar and SETH‘s Heimoth on bass.