Slipknot’s M. Shawn Crahan Says He Needs Heart Surgery After Tour Diagnosis

Slipknot’s M. Shawn Crahan says he will need heart surgery after doctors diagnosed him with a cardiac condition following the band’s recent tour.

The 56-year-old percussionist, known to fans as Clown, said on Rick Rubin’s Tetragrammaton podcast that he went in for medical attention after not feeling well. The interview was posted to YouTube on May 7.

In the conversation, Crahan said doctors found an issue with the electrical system in his heart. He described the experience bluntly to Rubin: “I have a skipping heart and I got to get a surgery,” he said. “I found this out after my last tour. I went in, I wasn’t feeling good, and I went in and the nurse was trying to get an EKG thing going on and it just wasn’t happening. I kind of fell asleep and I woke up. I’m like, ‘Are you going to get this thing?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, it’s not working.’ They thought I was having a heart attack right there. My heart skips and apparently I’ve taught myself to be like a cross-country runner.”

Crahan said the condition has caused his heart rate to drop sharply at times. “I’m overweight and my brain is so strong that it tells this stuff what to do,” he said. “My standing heart rate at night is 43 and during the day I get down to 33. Hasn’t happened since I’ve been here with you, which is good, because I’ll go from ‘on,’ to just straight up I feel like I’m dying. I got to get a surgery. It’s a very easy surgery. You’re usually out on the same day. It’s not like they rip you open. This is something about the electricity.”

He also said he briefly wondered whether he might need a pacemaker, joking that it could have been a way out of touring. Instead, he said his doctor told him the procedure should help. “I just I lost it. I was like, I can’t get out of this to save my life,” Crahan joked. “I’m like, there is nothing, not even my heart. It’s going to be better because of Slipknot.”

Crahan, the band’s sole remaining founding member, said he has access to specialized medical care because of his career and expects to improve with treatment. “I got a concierge doctor because I’m in Slipknot and I’m able to go to levels and they’re like, ‘No, you’re going to feel better. You better get in shape because you got to do more now at 56,’” he said. “And it’s just like I just can’t believe it, man, that this was me. It’s wonderful. I’m lucky.”