Joey Jordison — number 1 — was Slipknot's founding drummer and the principal songwriter of its classic phase. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1975, he was in the band from 1995 to 2013 and is directly responsible for much of what defines it musically. His playing combines extreme speed with absolute precision. Jordison played double kick at tempos most drummers cannot sustain, but what set him apart was the articulation: every stroke sounds separate, even in the fastest passages, and that is what makes Iowa (2001) sound merciless rather than muddy. As a writer he was behind central material on the first three albums, including much of the structure and riffing the band developed. He left Slipknot in 2013, in circumstances only clarified afterwards: he revealed he had been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological illness that at one point deprived him of the use of his legs and forced him to relearn to play. He remained active in other projects — Murderdolls, Scar the Martyr, Vimic, Sinsaenum — and stood in for the drummers of Korn and Metallica on tour. He died on 26 July 2021, aged 46, in his sleep.
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