{"id":710037,"date":"2026-07-25T05:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710037\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:27:12","slug":"i-couldnt-play-to-the-potential-they-needed-how-insecurity-made-jim-root-turn-down-joining-slipknot-at-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710037\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI couldn\u2019t play to the potential they needed\u201d: How insecurity made Jim Root turn down joining Slipknot at first"},"content":{"rendered":"

A list of the best modern-day metal guitarists is scarcely complete without Jim Root<\/a>. His dizzying legato runs in Slipknot<\/a> are now legendary \u2013 try Sulfur<\/a> or Psychosocial<\/a> for a quick primer \u2013 but, while it may be hard to believe, the guitarist reveals he hasn\u2019t always been sure in his technical ability.<\/p>\n

In fact, before joining Iowa\u2019s would-be metal titans in 1999, Root had pretty much checked out of guitar playing altogether. \u201cI was bitter, because I had passed 18 years old and didn\u2019t \u2018make it,\u2019\u201d he tells Ben Giese in a new episode of the RIDE BYND podcast.<\/p>\n

Root \u2013 also a passionate motorcycle enthusiast \u2013 says there was a time before joining Slipknot that he didn\u2019t even own a guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I had an amplifier still, but I didn\u2019t even have a guitar at the time,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d given up. I was working at a screen printing place. It was seasonal, and I\u2019d collect unemployment in the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents had just gotten divorced so I moved in with my mom so she wouldn\u2019t be so low,\u201d he continues. \u201cThen I was just kinda like, \u2018Well, this is gonna be it. Maybe something will happen. Maybe there\u2019s a light at the end of the tunnel.\u2019 But I\u2019d resigned myself to the fact that music was just gonna be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some time later, the call came from then-Slipknot frontman Anders Colsefni asking Root if he was interested in joining the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that happened, I think Donnie Steele was the guitar player at the time,\u201d Root recalls. \u201cJoey [Jordison, late first drummer of Slipknot] was the drummer\u2026 They were players, man\u2026 And I hadn\u2019t been playing for so long. I just didn\u2019t feel like my ability was good enough to join their band.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t say no to them for any other reason than I just didn\u2019t feel like I was ready for it. I didn\u2019t feel like I could play up to the potential that they needed as a guitar player. Self-defeating, maybe, a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Root later answered the call, which proved to be the best career move he could ever make. In the nearly 30 years since he joined the band, Slipknot have become one of the quintessential forces in modern metal, putting out seven top-selling studio albums, frequently headlining festival slots and regularly playing sold-out arena shows.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also made his mark as one of the more unconventional Tele players around right now. The Fender Telecaster is traditionally an instrument claimed by country, blues and softer rock artists, but Root loaded EMG pickups into one and streamlined its features to make it his own signature metal-ready monster.<\/p>\n

In a recent video with Fender, Root explained his love of the Telecaster, saying it\u2019s so cool as a guitar design it\u2019s like a timeless pair of sunglasses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody thought I should be coming out with some pointy metal guitar that\u2019s got 12 points or whatever. No, how about we just do a classic slab iconic guitar?\u201d he said of his signature model. \u201cGuitars, in my opinion, are like sunglasses. The classics never go out of style. They\u2019ll always be there. People will make their version of it, but there\u2019s only one Fender Telecaster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A list of the best modern-day metal guitarists is scarcely complete without Jim Root. His dizzying legato runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10240,96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-710037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-artist","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}