Quotes from Jim Root

I'm definitely a lot more reserved without the mask on. And with the mask on, all those inhibitions kinda go out the window. I can act like Keith Richards, I guess!

Music is like wine, it ages beautifully - and if you spend enough time you can just sit there and listen to it entirely differently.

There's always something to rage about, right?

My approach in 1999 was basically to play what I had, that was all I could do. At the time I was broke. I think I only had one guitar, a flametop green Jackson and I had these DC-10 Mesa Boogie heads. I think I had a cheap Shure wireless.

All my racks are the same between Slipknot and Stone Sour. The only thing I'll do is switch out pedals in the GCX system. But it's the same heads, same wireless, same GCX.

I'm constantly writing, maybe a little more than other guys in the band. I find it a very therapeutic thing to do on the road, where you're estranged from your hobbies.

I feel weird talking about it, because how can I, as the guitar player of Slipknot, sit here and say, 'Oh, I have trouble.' You know what I mean?

With all the different guys in the band and all the different ideas of what's what, it's hard to get everybody on the same page sometimes. We are a very tight brotherhood, but we never know what we're going to do.

When we recorded 'Iowa,' we jammed, we went through the songs, we played as a band and we recorded as a band.

That's why I don't necessarily enjoy it when bands cover other songs. You'll never recreate what has been done, especially if it's something that's legendary and classic.

I have a hard time with any sort of criticism; not because I have some huge ego or anything like that.

Iowa,' for me, I hated doing that album - it wasn't a good experience for me.

Slipknot's the kind of band you need to step away from and kind of take a break from and let it heal, so to speak.

You could say, 'Oh, we're gonna write the heaviest album of all time' or 'We're gonna write an album that sounds like 'Iowa.'' Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare. We're not those people anymore, we're not that band anymore.

Sometimes, hindsight is 20/20. Sometimes it takes another situation to kind of make you look back at a different situation and really see how good you had it, you know?

I plan for the best and expect the worst.

I want to see the guitar in a non-linear sense that encompasses tones, arrangements, songwriting, audio production, and everything else - you have to do it all.

It's important to evolve without ever straying too far from your roots and what established you.

I use Pro Tools version 9 LE at home and I take that on the road with me.

Finding the right amp can be a process, especially when you're young and just starting out. When I was a kid, I had to rely on whatever I got for Christmas. Then my mom got me a Peavey VTM 120. I used that for a few years.

I don't consciously think of any certain direction when I'm writing. I only try not to be repetitive or redundant.

I like to improvise so much live because I get bored playing the same thing over again. It's like the kid at school that already knows all the answers so doodles all over the paper. I do that a lot live.

With 'Iowa,' if you ask me, we really passed up a lot of things that we could have done with the two auxiliary drummers. I mean they hardly touched their drums on that album.

As you're touring there are so many layers to a live show, it has always been important for me to have a guitar that I can use live and in the studio.