Slipknot bassist Alessandro “V-Man” Venturella recently explained why he lived with founding Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan while the group worked on their latest album, The End, So Far.
The two became full-time roommates due to travel restrictions surrounding the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted much international travel in 2020. V-Man, who is British, normally lives across the pond from his American bandmates in Slipknot.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this page.
“The hardest part was visa issues,” V-Man tells Everblack Podcast. “They locked down America [when the pandemic started]. Also, you couldn’t leave England [without] a work permit. You had to have written — there was some sort of written document that had to say that you needed to leave for work. That was the only way you could leave the country.” (via Blabbermouth)
The Slipknot bassist continues, “Then, there was obviously the testing and stuff. But there was a good [few] months of — no one was going anywhere. Airports were shut, the full works.”
V-Man adds, “I think once it started to kind of ease up a little bit, and people had high-profile jobs — like business around the world — people started moving around. I remember the first plane I managed to get on, it was just me [Laughs]. And there was like, six people scattered around. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It was nuts. The airport was dead. There was like, four people in it. It was like, what’s that movie? 28 Days Later. It was like that.”
The rocker explains, “Once I got the visa thing sorted, luckily, that was it. I went and lived at Clown’s house for six months, I think. It was great. His wife’s amazing. She’d be cooking dinners for everyone. And then other bandmembers would come in and out. Jay [Weinberg, drums] popped in and out, Jim [Root, guitar] popped in and out. I couldn’t just jump on a plane back and forth every week, so I had to stay there.”
Slipknot released The End, So Far in September. The Iowan masked metal band will head to Europe for gigs next year. Get Slipknot concert tickets here.
See V-Man talk about the travel issues at 6:00 below.
The Everblack Podcast [talks] to Slipknot bass player Alessandro ‘V-Man’ Venturella about their new album, ‘The End, So Far,’ the writing process during lockdowns and musical direction, his work as a guitar tech for other big bands, going from crew to headliner at the last-ever Soundwave Festival, his memories of seeing Slipknot for the first time and more!
Slipknot’s V-Man Appears on Everblack Podcast – Sept. 29, 2022
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