“I couldn’t play to the potential they needed”: How insecurity made Jim Root turn down joining Slipknot at first
A list of the best modern-day metal guitarists is scarcely complete without Jim Root. His dizzying legato runs in Slipknot are now legendary – try Sulfur or Psychosocial for a quick primer – but, while it may be hard to believe, the guitarist reveals he hasn’t always been sure in his technical ability.
In fact, before joining Iowa’s would-be metal titans in 1999, Root had pretty much checked out of guitar playing altogether. “I was bitter, because I had passed 18 years old and didn’t ‘make it,’” he tells Ben Giese in a new episode of the RIDE BYND podcast.
Root – also a passionate motorcycle enthusiast – says there was a time before joining Slipknot that he didn’t even own a guitar.
READ MORE: Jim Root’s signature Telecaster is now available in Shoreline Gold – here are some images to whet your appetite…
“I think I had an amplifier still, but I didn’t even have a guitar at the time,” he says. “I’d given up. I was working at a screen printing place. It was seasonal, and I’d collect unemployment in the winter.”
“My parents had just gotten divorced so I moved in with my mom so she wouldn’t be so low,” he continues. “Then I was just kinda like, ‘Well, this is gonna be it. Maybe something will happen. Maybe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.’ But I’d resigned myself to the fact that music was just gonna be done.”
But some time later, the call came from then-Slipknot frontman Anders Colsefni asking Root if he was interested in joining the band.
“When that happened, I think Donnie Steele was the guitar player at the time,” Root recalls. “Joey [Jordison, late first drummer of Slipknot] was the drummer… They were players, man… And I hadn’t been playing for so long. I just didn’t feel like my ability was good enough to join their band.
“I didn’t say no to them for any other reason than I just didn’t feel like I was ready for it. I didn’t feel like I could play up to the potential that they needed as a guitar player. Self-defeating, maybe, a little bit.”
Root later answered the call, which proved to be the best career move he could ever make. In the nearly 30 years since he joined the band, Slipknot have become one of the quintessential forces in modern metal, putting out seven top-selling studio albums, frequently headlining festival slots and regularly playing sold-out arena shows.
He’s also made his mark as one of the more unconventional Tele players around right now. The Fender Telecaster is traditionally an instrument claimed by country, blues and softer rock artists, but Root loaded EMG pickups into one and streamlined its features to make it his own signature metal-ready monster.
In a recent video with Fender, Root explained his love of the Telecaster, saying it’s so cool as a guitar design it’s like a timeless pair of sunglasses.
“Everybody thought I should be coming out with some pointy metal guitar that’s got 12 points or whatever. No, how about we just do a classic slab iconic guitar?” he said of his signature model. “Guitars, in my opinion, are like sunglasses. The classics never go out of style. They’ll always be there. People will make their version of it, but there’s only one Fender Telecaster.”
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