In addition to having busy touring and recording platinum bands like Slipknot and Stone Sour, plus a solo career, Corey Taylor has published four New York Times best-selling books and written countless guest posts for websites. In a new interview, Taylor divulged he is working on his fifth book about the topic of addiction. In it, he talked about his own addictions at length. Which you can see excerpted below. Taylor’s most recent book, America 51 (DaCapo Press), was released in 2017, discussing the political landscape of America. 

“There’s a flare in addiction right now and it’s one of the things I’m working on in my new book. There’s a correlation between that and social media — all of the shit that’s been triggered because of social media, the same kind of dopamine trigger. It’s a compulsion, gratification, compulsion, gratification. It’s just a constant cycle,”

“Our first run, we were very adamant that we weren’t going to be the cliche, so we really really tried to stay as clean as possible. Then it slowly but surely really started to get it. Most of us are natural addicts anyway. I’m a fucking addict from Hell. I had quit coke and speed when I was 16, so I didn’t have a problem turning that down, but the booze was really where it got me. I had never been a pill guy, never smoked weed, but alcohol to me was the only thing that was getting my brain to shut off. That’s where it starts when you’re on the road.”

“I miss the calm-down, but I really was like, ‘It’s time.’ I’m not getting any pleasure out of this. I get no happiness, it’s not doing anything for me and it’s really hurting me and it’s really taking me away from doing what I want to fucking do. It’s the same reason I quit smoking. Besides quitting drinking, it was the best decision I ever made.”