Slipknot have consisted of nine masked members for the majority of their career, but as frontman Corey Taylor reveals in a new interview, they nearly increased that number to a round 10 in the early days.

In a new interview with Classic Rock magazine, Taylor – who recently released his second solo album CMF2 – reveals that Ozzy Osbourne once offered his musical skills to the nine-piece when they were on the bill for Ozzfest in 1999.

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“The reason Slipknot got onto Ozzfest [in 1999] is because we were [Ozzy’s son] Jack’s favourite band,” he recalls. “Sharon gave us a little more leeway because of that. We did some crazy shit, but she’d be, ‘It’s fine, it’s Slipknot.’”

He goes on to remember the time he met Ozzy for the first time, when the Black Sabbath legend wasted no time in pitching himself for the number 10 spot.

“I was sitting at a table with Jack and Kelly and Sharon,” he says. “All of sudden, Ozzy comes bounding up: ‘Sharon, can you help me with my earrings?’ And Sharon goes, ‘Ozzy, this is one of the members of Slipknot, it’s Corey, he’s the singer.’

“He looks at me and goes, ‘You’re the guys with nine members? I wanna be number ten!’ I was, like, ‘Dude, you’re Ozzy, anything you want!’ It was like meeting Superman.”

In other news, Corey Taylor recently got into his motivations for going solo, saying he felt like he “wasn’t getting the credit for the things I was actually writing” in Slipknot and Stone Sour.

“As someone who takes great pride in sitting down and creating something from nothing – just from my imagination – that stuck in my craw,” he said.

“I’ve never shied away from giving credit to the people who deserve it. I’ve never taken credit for anything that I didn’t do, and I’ve always been the first to shine the spotlight on anybody else. I don’t necessarily get that in return.”

Elsewhere, Taylor just became an ambassador for Orange Amplification, and is using his Rockerverb 100 MKIII and PPC412 Cabinet rig on his current solo tour.