Slipknot’s V-Man Went Into ‘Mad Panic’ After His Identity Was Discovered
Update: V-Man commented on Loudwire's Instagram saying he wasn't panicked at all: "Actually didn’t. Had a wonderful day"
Unlike with the identity of Tortilla Man (which has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be Michael Pfaff) Slipknot were unable to keep bassist Alessandro ‘Vman’ Venturella a secret for very long. In a new chat with the Rock Show With Daniel P Carter, the host and musician remembers V-Man freaking out when he was unmasked by internet sleuths.
In 2014, Slipknot revealed two new members on bass and drums. Our first look at the fresh duo came with the music video for “The Devil in I,” but just minutes after its premiere, V-Man was caught red-handed.
V-Man was a bandmate of Daniel P Carter’s in Krokodil, so when “The Devil in I” finally came out, Carter was right there beside the new Slipknot bassist. “So in 2013, obviously, founding member Joey Jordison had left the band. He was replaced by Jay Weinberg; and ‘V-Man’ Venturella was playing bass at this point,” Carter recalls.
“And I actually remember very vividly being in the studio, because I actually played in a band called Krokodil with V-Man at that point. And we were in the studio working on stuff and “The Devil In I” video went up online and all of us in the studio kinda sat there and watched it in on the computer and were high fiving him and stoked and everything.”
“At this point, no one knew who these new members were in the band. But I think within about a half an hour I think somebody had screen grabbed the picture towards the end of the video where V-Man‘s playing bass and somehow, someone recognized the tattoos on his hand—they’re pretty distinctive I guess. And I remember him having this look of mad panic as his phone just started blowing up, like for the entire rest of the day—to the point where he was like ‘I just need to go. I just need to go now.’ It was amazing.”
Corey Taylor commented on V-Man’s unveiling shortly after it happened. "I was, like, 'Why didn't we make him wear gloves?' I was so upset. I was, like, we thought of all this stuff. We put the hood on him and then the mask, and it was, like, 'It's really hot, guys,' And then there is his tattoos for everybody [to see]. I was, like, 'Well, we missed the mark on that one.'"
The Knotfest Roadshow will invade North American once again in 2020, bringing A Day to Remember, Underoath and Code Orange along for the ride. For tickets to the tour, click here.
The 66 Best Metal Songs of the Decade: 2010 - 2019