Corey Taylor to discuss his social media addiction in new book

Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor got real about his struggles with addiction to social media.

Taylor is working on his fifth book, which he talked about as a guest on the Let There Be Talk podcast. He delved into the topics of addiction and our culture’s inability to put down their phones.

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“There’s a flare in addiction right now and it’s one of the things I’m working on in my new book. There’s a correlation between that and social media — all of the shit that’s been triggered because of social media, the same kind of dopamine trigger. It’s compulsion, gratification, compulsion, gratification. It’s just a constant cycle,” Taylor said.

He even spoke about how struggles in his personal life made his addiction to social media even worse. He also delved into how he broke his bad phone habits.

“I had just gotten separated and I kind of went down a crazy wormhole, because I was really depressed, I was really fucking unhappy. I had just been through hell,” Taylor said.

“Instagram, Twitter… it took me a while to get out of it. For about three months solid, that’s all I did, ignoring my fucking duties and shit. The only time I would really fucking get away from it was when I was with my kids. Then the compulsion would come right back and I was like, ‘What is going on?’ It took me so long to settle that compulsion down.”

Taylor also talked about Slipknot and how the members of the band, including himself, attempted to prevent themselves from becoming addicted to substances in the early days. 

“Our first run, we were very adamant that we weren’t going to be the cliche, so we really really tried to stay as clean as possible,” Corey said. “Then it slowly but surely really started to get it. Most of us are natural addicts anyway. I’m a fucking addict from Hell.”

“I had quit coke and speed when I was 16, so I didn’t have a problem turning that down, but the booze was really where it got me,” he continued. “I had never been a pill guy, never smoked weed, but alcohol, to me, was the only thing that was getting my brain to shut off. That’s where it starts when you’re on the road.”

“By the time the first time I was going to quit drinking, I had three bottles at all time with me and I was going to the bars,” Taylor said. “I got bad. It was a fucking nightmare.”

Taylor admitted he misses the way alcohol and smoking cigarettes calmed him down, but realized it didn’t bring him any happiness and only cause him pain.

‘I really was like, ‘It’s time. I’m not getting any pleasure out of this. I get no happiness, it’s not doing anything for me and it’s really hurting me. And, it’s really taking me away from doing what I want to fucking do,” he said. “Every time I give up something like that, it has just improved me as an entertainer, as a singer, as a writer. … I’ve never been able to create on drugs.”

You can listen to the whole podcast with Taylor below.

 

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