COREY TAYLOR's 'Seven Deadly Sins': Book Details Revealed

Da Capo Press has set a tentative March 1, 2011 release date for Corey Taylor's "Seven Deadly Sins" book.

Taylor is the hard-living, hard-talking frontman of the bands SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR. Renowned for his flamboyant and disturbing stage presence, Corey has lived it all. Starting in the early '90s, Corey threw himself into the hard-drinking, hard-loving, live-for-the-moment life of a small-town Iowa hero — Corey "Fucking" Taylor! As his career went stratospheric, and he found himself rich, wanted and on the road, his behavior got more and more extreme. Everything you can think of, Corey's done it... girls, drugs, excess of every kind. "Seven Deadly Sins" is Corey's story, told through the prism of the seven deadly sins. His years of excess eventually made him sit down and start to think about what it was to "sin" and whether "sinning" could — or should — be recast as a good rather than bad thing. Yes, Corey's hurt people, and done bad things, but if sin is what makes the man, then can it ever be wrong? This isn't a straightforward memoir, this is Corey's no-holds-barred story told through his own unique philosophy, honed through years of the craziest and most hedonistic excess in rock.

In a July 2010 interview with ExploreMusic (see video below),Taylor stated about his upcoming book, "I did not use a ghostwriter, and I'm very proud of that fact. One name on the cover — that's it.

"It's basically me kind of taking the piss out of the whole religion thing. It's really wrapped around the 'seven deadly sins' and how... My interpretation of the seven deadly sins is basically they're not sins at all. They are human characteristics that we all share. In a way, they're the kind of things that connect us all — we're all horny, hungry, angry motherfuckers, basically. But that doesn't make it a sin. They may lead to sin, but the urge is not sin at all; we're all instinctive animals at the end of the day. Half the time I'm surprised some people can tie their own damn shoelaces, but that doesn't make it a sin. And it's me making that point of you can live with these urges, you can live with these hungers and still be a good person, and I balance it with some stories from the past and all these things that I kind of went through and, you know, that I came out on the other side and, hopefully, I'm a good person for it. So it's kind of half funny, half serious, but it's very — I think — I think it's very intelligently written and I make very valid points and I cuss a lot in it, so there you go."

ExploreMusic: Why did you decide to write a book to begin with?

Corey: "It's something I've always wanted to do. It was just another piece of a list that I had in my head of things I wanted to do, and luckily, I had a really good friend who is a literary agent who was very into the idea of me doing a book. The publishing house that I ended up going through, De Capo Press, they were very into it as well, because they were, like, 'You know what? We want you to write your own book. We want you to do this. We want you to do that, and we wanna help you do it.' So it was really cool. I had a lot of people who were behind me right out of the gate. And I wrote it in a month and a half... I finished it. I'm talking 75,000 words, 11 chapters... done! And they were, like, 'You're way ahead of schedule.' And I was, like, 'Well, you wanted it. I mean, that's what I do.' So I wrote it, actually, during the recording of [the new STONE SOUR album] 'Audio Secrecy'. When I wasn't recording, I was writing, basically. And I got it done very quickly. So it's being edited right now. I just got the artwork together; I'm kind of sorting out a bunch of stuff like that. But I'm stoked. It's gonna come out next spring, and... It's just one more thing that I get to do. And they're so happy with it that I already know what my next two books are gonna be about. So it's really, really cool."

ExploreMusic: I'm interested in hearing your argument for "Thou shalt not kill."

Corey: "Well, 'Thou shalt not kill' is a commendment; that's not a proper sin. The seven deadly sins are gluttony, greed, lust, rage, envy, sloth and pride — vanity, basically. Those are the seven deadly sins, and we all feel them, we all live with them, we all have those days when we're as lazy as crap, we all have those days when we just want to eat everything in sight, we all have those days when every chick is unbelievably hot or every guy is unbelievably hot... We have those days where we all experience that, and there's nothing wrong with that. We were given sentient thought for a reason. If you can't deal with it, then you are on the wrong track. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let organized religion make me feel bad about something that comes naturally. Screw you! Don't you have enough control in the world? Can you just leave me alone and let me live my life? If I kill somebody — sure, condemn me. OK, fair enough. If I'm not killing anybody, if I'm not raping children, if I'm not doing this and doing that, then get the hell out of my life.

Corey Taylor talks to ExploreMusic about his book:

(Thanks: www.getinside1.com)