SLIPKNOT's SHAWN 'CLOWN' CRAHAN To Miss More European Shows Due To His Wife's 'Medical Situation'

SLIPKNOT co-founder and percussionist M. Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown) will once again sit out some of the band's upcoming shows in order to stay home with his wife, who is suffering from undisclosed health issues.

Earlier today, Shawn took to social media to write: "Hello to all of our fans. Unfortunately I had to return back home to be with my wife due to her medical situation. Thank you for the overwhelming support for the few shows I was able to make. I'm so sorry for missing the remainder of these shows, I was really looking forward to being there. As always, I'm so gracious for your overwhelming support for our family. I will be seeing you all at our shows in July. See you soon and hail SLIPKNOT."

Earlier in the month, Crahan also missed some of SLIPKNOT's shows to be with his wife. But he was able to rejoin his bandmates in time for their appearance at last weekend's Download festival and several other ensuing dates.

In a 2005 interview with the Des Moines Register, Shawn talked about his wife's ongoing battle with Crohn's disease (a chronic inflammatory bowel disease) and her hospitalization which forced him at the time to skip the first SLIPKNOT gigs of his career.

"That's the thing I fight for most in this biz, is family," he said. "Family can and is being incorporated into rock 'n' roll. You can have a wife, you can have a child or children and be a rock 'n' roller."

"Right now has definitely been the hardest time in my life," said the father of four children.

Crahan said that "health is the most important thing you have on this planet if you're gonna have a successful life," and so he knows it's ironic that as his wife battles daily for normalcy, he's slamming his body around the stage each night.

"The older you get, the wiser you get on how to benefit from taking care of yourself in your performance," Crahan said. "But my performance is to feel uncomfortable, so I'm kind of screwed any way you look at it."

Last October, Shawn reflected on the loss of his daughter in an interview with U.K.'s Independent, saying it is one of the most horrific pains any parent can go through. Losing a child isn't something you get over," he said. "That's all I can say. It changes you — and that's it."

Gabrielle Crahan died in May 2019 in Los Angeles, with Shawn announcing the death the following day. The 22-year-old was one of four children Shawn had with his wife, Chantel, whom he married in June 1992.

SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, "The End, So Far", which was released last September via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to "We Are Not Your Kind", it is the band's final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.