Every generation of music seems to be stamped with dozens of musicians who were taken from the grips of life too early. In recent years so many immensely talented musicians are being ousted from the music scene, it makes me wonder, is there some badass band being put together in the sky that we don't know about?. Last May, another legend of our time was taken far too early, Mr. Paul Dedrick Gray.
Gray is known as the mind bending, ear shredding bassist of possibly the greatest metal band of all-time, Slipknot. #2, as was his "number" assigned to him by the band, Gray was one of the founding members and primary songwriters for "the nine." One of the most lasting images I personally have of Gray, besides the 11 times I watched him destroy the sea of fans at their shows, was in their latest release,
(sic)nesses Live at Download 2009. Just before the band is about to go on stage, their pre-show ritual is to get together as a cohesive family and share their thoughts and feelings for the night's show. During the scene, Tayor asks, "Where's Paul?" Paul Gray is just off screen talking to his wife and says, "I love you baby, and I'll call you after the show." Here's a guy, telling his family how much he loves them, just moments before he goes on stage before tens of thousands of screaming, insane fans, just waiting to tear each other apart. This is the man he was. A pure person with a huge heart, who just so happened to be an incredibly talented musician and songwriter.
Probably the most important part of Slipknot he played was the fact that he was seemingly the glue for the band, holding them together when times got tough. This was evident in the fact that the future of Slipknot is still unclear and basically every single one of the band members has made a statement saying that it's going to be almost impossible to replace Paul as bassist.
"There's a part of me that's ready [to carry on with the band] and there's a part of me that's not," vocalist Corey Taylor said recently. "Honestly, I have a lot of trepidation about it. I don't know how to feel. I know a lot of the guys in the band are trying not to show that side, and I can't."
Despite the fact that Slipknot has been building a schedule of European festival shows, their ultimate future remains in doubt. Honestly, there seems to be literally only one thing that isn't in doubt in the world of Slipknot since, Gray's untimely passing; the fact that we lost not only a great musician, but the world lost one of it's most pure and good-hearted people it has seen.
