COREY TAYLOR Says Online 'Trolling' Is So Prevalent 'Because People Can't Relate To One Another'

Corey Taylor recently teamed up with The You Rock Foundation to talk about depression and suicide in a video (see below).

The SLIPKNOT/STONE SOUR frontman spoke about his own personal battles with depression, as well as detailing his attempted suicide — but also how he overcame those struggles with the power of music and writing.

"I recorded [the video] awhile back and they just posted it, and the reaction's been fantastic," Taylor told Tina Smash of the Jacksonville, North Carolina radio station Rock 105.5. So I'm happy people have really responded to it.

"I didn't really set out to [make a video that was so heartwrenching]; I just wanted to be honest. I knew that this message was gonna get out to kids who struggle with depression and who struggle with suicidal thoughts."

He continued: "Whether people like it or not, more times than most, a lot of teenagers deal with that, even if they're not depressed, they don't suffer from depression, just because it's such a gnarly time in their lives. It's that threshold between children and adults. And there's so much going on that they don't know how to handle it. So, for me, I knew that if I was gonna be able to try and get through to them, I had to be completely honest. And that's stuff I had never really talked about before. But at the same time, if you want people to hear what you're trying to say, you can't come off saccharine, you can't come off fake, you have to offer that kind of honesty, especially in this day and age. And the people who think that they can just kind of get away with just a schmaltzy PSA [public service announcement] are sadly mistaken. People want honesty, because everyone feels like everyone is lying to them these days."

Taylor added: "I am the world's worst liar, and my wife will tell you that right out of the gate. I can't even keep fucking surprises away from her. So I'm the worst. But that's just the way to roll; it's the only way I know how to communicate.

"I read a statistic recently where the level of empathy that people show towards one another is actually 20 points down from what it was when they kind of did the same type of poll in 1986. So the fact that people can't empathize with one another is one of the reasons why bullying is so prevailing, one of the reasons why online what they call 'trolling,' basically, is so prevailing — because people can't relate to one another. And I think that's one of the side effects of such a high quality of technology that we do. People are cocooning inside these electronic boxes and thinking that there's no consequences for what they do, and yet they're destroying people's feelings, especially people with such precarious grips on reality, because they're so young. It's not fair to them, and it's not fair to anybody else. So I basically decided that I'm just gonna dedicate myself to fighting that as hard as I can and making sure that, if nobody else has their back, I'm gonna have their back. 'Cause, you know, you wanna bully someone? Try and fucking bully me? Go ahead. 'Cause I'll rip you to shreds.

"It's just about honesty. If you know yourself, you can do whatever you want. And I was able to go through my weird rock and roll bullshit when I was younger, and I just realized, man, I don't like it. It feels fake on me. I'd rather be myself 24/7 than feel like I have to put on an airs when people are looking or if I'm on TV or anything like that. I'd rather just be myself, and this is just who I am."

The You Rock Foundation is an online platform for instilling hope and love by publishing videos of popular bands testifying about their personal demons, how they fought them, and how they won.

For more information on The You Rock Foundation, visit yourockfoundation.org.