“Any kind of technical guitar playing was mocked and frowned upon”: Mick Thomson explains why his solos were erased from Slipknot’s debut album – and how he reacted

25 years ago, Slipknot dropped their self-titled debut – a record that redefined heavy and brought extreme metal into the mainstream. However, for all the bone-crushing riffs it contained, Slipknot had one glaring omission: it didn’t have any guitar solos.

Speaking in the new issue of Guitar World to discuss the record’s anniversary, the band's electric guitar player Mick Thomson shed new light on the album's dearth of lead lines, discussing why all of his own solos were ultimately left on the cutting room floor – and how he felt about it.

“I actually had some solos in songs, but they all got cut out,” Thomson says when asked about Slipknot’s solo situation. “Because between Ross [Robinson, producer of Slipknot] and Joey [Jordison, drummer], guitar solos are stupid now.”

“Any kind of technical guitar playing was mocked and frowned upon,” he continues. “So, yeah, leads were stripped out. The song (sic) used to be called Slipknot, and there was a lead in that, and then there were solos in some other shit. But they were just massaged out.

“I mean, I get it... but it sucked. Because it was one of those things where I’m like, ‘I’ve spent my whole life playing and now fucking here I am, and... nope! Never mind! It’s all gone!’ You know?

“Like, ‘Just take it all away from me. That’s cool! Never mind that I sat in my room for years obsessing and trying to fucking do whatever, and then here I am and... nope!’”

Though he begrudgingly understood the decision to remove his solos, and didn’t put up much resistance to have them stay in – “What are you gonna do? Throw fits?” – Thomson did learn from the experience.

“I learned a lot from Ross, and that was one thing,” Thomson reflects. “I mean, we grew up in an era where you heard one to two guitar solos in every goddamn metal song.

“And it’s like, ‘Why?’ Just as a matter of course? It’s like paint-by-numbers. ‘There’s your template. There’s where that solo goes.’ Ding!”

Guitar solos wouldn’t be out of the picture forever, though. Thomson would get the opportunity to flex his technical lead nous over the next two-and-a-half decades, sharing guitar duties with fellow Slipknot bandmate, Jim Root.

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Thomson's approach to solos was most recently evidenced in the band’s latest album, The End, So Far, which included some of his most adventurous playing.

“I bought a couple of Jackson Dinky guitars with whammies on Reverb.com and brought them into the studio,” Thomson once told Guitar World of the experience.

“I even got a fucking Jackson sustainer, so I went nuts with the wang bar on a bunch of spots ’cause I was having fun. I’ve only played hardtails ever since we started recording. I literally drove to Simi Valley to pick up these guitars and then used them to record my solos.”

To read the full interview with Mick Thomson, visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitar World, which also features interviews with David Gilmour, Grace Bowers and more.