THE BEAST

Of all the many people who may be Slipknot’s new percussionist, we know one person who for sure will not get that call: Donnie Steele.
Steele, in case you’re unaware, was one of the band’s guitarists before they were signed; following the death of Paul Gray, he was brought back into the fold to play bass for live shows (albeit from off-stage). But when it came time to hire a new bassist full-time, the group ultimately went with Alessandro Venturella (Krokodil). It now seems apparent that things did not end on a high note between Steele and the rest of Slipknot.
Metal Injection reports that in a since-deleted Reddit thread (of which someone got screencaps, natch — see below), Steele stuck up for Fehn, telling fans not to “blame” Slipknot’s now-former percussionist for suing his bandmates over money he believes he’s owed, adding, “Nobody likes to get lied to and ripped off.”
That would be pretty bad on its own. But then, apropos of nothing, Steele went on to attack Slipknot’s members for their alleged lack of songwriting abilities:
“[M]ost, MOST of them can’t write. In the three years I toured with them, I actually spent more time in writing sessions and the studio then I did on the road. All done behind other members [sic] back. That’s how they roll.”
That feels like a low blow — What the heck does it have to do with the Fehn situation? Is he trying to say Chris Fehn does a substantial, or any, amount of the songwriting in Slipknot? — but it also feels like a weak blow. First of all, there’s nine people in that band, so even if four of them do all the songwriting, then technically “most” of them do not. Second of all, like, yeah, no shit most of the dudes in Slipknot don’t write. Has anyone been under the impression all these years that Craig Jones has been doing a whole lot of composing? Is Sid Wilson famous for his siqq riffs? Without Clown and Fehn present to dictate when the empty kegs will be smashed with metal baseball bats, would the whole act fall apart?
Spoiler alert: in most bands, there’s usually one or two members who do the bulk of the songwriting. That’s not a dirty little secret — it’s not a secret, period. There are always gonna be exceptions, of course. But the most damning part of what Steele said is actually that the group’s members are doing stuff behind their bandmates’ backs. Although honestly I’m not even sure what would be the point of being so secretive — sooner or later, you’d have to play the material you’d worked on for the other members of the band, right? Am I missing something? - MetalSucks