Corey Taylor - ‘Artists Aren’t Regarded as People Anymore'

A troubling trend has occurred in recent months, with several pop performers finding themselves under attack during shows from audience members. Bebe Rexha, Kelsea Ballerini, Cardi B. and Ava Max are just a few of the artists recently coming under fire with projectile objects or an actual physical assault during shows. During our recent interview with Corey Taylor, the singer addressed what appears to be a growing trend and why he thinks it's happening.

"Oh, it’s fucking ridiculous," the vocalist told Loudwire as part of a larger interview. "This is one of the problems with social media. Now artists aren’t regarded as people anymore. Even if they never were, they were still regarded as something that is flesh and bone. They were something to obsess about, but at least they were a person."

"Now, because of the feeling of being even more removed from the human experience, now, you might as well just be a fucking soda machine or a phone booth for fuck sake. You’re an object, and you’re going to be treated as such," added the vocalist.

Taylor spoke to how alarming it is that this behavior has started. "The fact that people can’t understand how utterly dangerous it is to do shit like that, how utterly rude it is to treat people like that, how utterly incredible it is to think that you are so special that the show is just about you and not about anybody else around you …. the level of entitlement that is being brought out in people is fucking disgusting," said the singer.

He also noted another issue and that is how people are commenting on what has been happening with the concert assaults. "Everybody wants to just talk about how wrong it is, but nobody wants to talk about why," says Taylor. "It’s because nobody’s looking at anyone as a human being anymore. They’re not looking at the artist anymore. They’re not looking at each other anymore like that. And until we bring the human element back into it, there will be no boundaries. That’s what it is. It’s a destruction of boundaries."

"Now people see that they can be disregarded and they’re going to get a reaction and they’re going to have something that they can tweet about again, it’s just one giant sucking black hole that looks like a massive asshole just sucking the whole universe into it. It’s dumb," he concludes.

Taylor, who recently performed dates with Slipknot, will be transitioning to promotion for his CMF2 solo album later this month. His headline tour kicks off Aug. 25 in Denver, Colo., with dates booked into early October, with a November U.K. and European run to follow. Stay up to date with all his concerts here and look for the new CMF2 album arriving Sept. 15.