Slipknot founder Shawn 'Clown' Crahan was forced to sit out his band's headline appearances at German's Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park festivals this weekend, due to a family emergency.
Crahan has actually missed all the shows to date on the Iowan band's summer tour of Europe, which began at Sweden Rock festival on June 4.
Addressing Rock Am Ring's 90,000 capacity crowd at the Nürburgring race track in Nürburg, Germany on June 7, Corey Taylor explained Clown's absence.
"First things first," Taylor said, 20 minutes into Slipknot's set, "obviously you can see we are missing one of our brothers. Unfortunately, Clown can not be here, he is back home, taking care of his family. He wanted desperately to be here, but he sends his fucking love from America."
After asking the crowd to "make some noise for Clown", Taylor continued, "Now we are here to make up for that. And by god, we're going to do it."
The band's 14 song set focussed mainly on their 1999 self-titled debut album, but also included two songs each from We Are Not Your Kind (Nero Forte and Unsainted), All Hope Is Gone (Gematria (The Killing Name) and Psychosocial) and Iowa (People = Shit and The Heretic Anthem).
Later in the set, Taylor told the crowd, "Twenty-six years ago, we were blessed to be able to play this festival for the very first fucking time, and goddammit, every time we have come back to your country, it has gotten better and better and better. You have never forgotten about us, we have never forgotten about you, we love you, thank you so fucking much."
The band's tour continues at the Expo Plaza in Hannover, Germany tomorrow, June 10. It is not yet known whether Shawn Crahan will have to miss the whole tour.
Watch pro-shot footage of Slipknot's Rock Am Ring show below.
Linkin Park have been announced as the first headliner for Rock Am Ring 2026.
