LaunchDaily
7/17/2012
Slipknot guitarist Jim Root rejoined the band on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour on Friday (July 13th) in Tampa, Florida, just two weeks after he had to drop out of the trek's first few shows due to a burst appendix. Video footage of Root's return has been posted online. In Root's absence, the band's other guitarist, Mick Thomson, had been doing double duty on his and Root's guitar parts.
Root had been feeling ill for several weeks before learning that his appendix had burst, a condition which could have been life-threatening. Percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan told us he was glad it happened before Root went on tour: ["I'm happy that he decided to stay home for a little bit, because if it would have happened out here, I don't know what would have happened. If it would have burst in the middle of the set, he might have fallen over and died right there. I don't know, you know, I don't want to think about it 'cause it didn't happen that way."
Root isn't the only member of Slipknot to have some medical trouble around the Mayhem tour. Singer Corey Taylor passed out onstage during a performance in Dallas last week, although it was attributed to heat exhaustion and he did not miss any other gigs.
Slipknot's stint on the Mayhem tour is the band's first U.S. trek since the May 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray.
Following the end of the tour, the group will headline Knotfest, two festival dates put together by the band itself on August 17th in Council Bluffs, Iowa and August 18th in Somerset, Wisconsin.
Slipknot will tentatively enter the studio sometime in early 2013 to begin recording its fifth album. In the meantime, a greatest hits collection called Antennas To Hell arrives on July 24th.
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