Craig"133"Jones

Background and Facts


Real Name: Craig Michael Jones 
Nicknamed "133"

Craig "133" Jones, born Craig Michael Jones on February 11, 1972, is a musician, better known as the sampler/keyboardist.

In the early days, Craig originally joined Slipknot as a guitar player to fill in for Donnie Steele, but later switched to being in control of the samples working with Sid Wilson. Craig also controls the guitar effects used live. His mask in the early days of Slipknot was a Gas Station mask with long needles, but eventually switched to a tight leather mask with six inch nails in it.

While all of the Slipknot band members wear their stage masks in the public eye, most have been seen without their masks, mainly due to side projects they may be involved in that do not have this same tradition. Craig Jones is the most elusive face of Slipknot, and until the the 'Duality' video shoot in Des Moines, IA, no fan had ever seen his true face knowingly. He is a video game fanatic and gets his ideas for samples in songs from movies. Eg: The line "Here comes the pain" in the track "(Sic)" was taken from Carlito's Way; the voice was of Al Pacino. The opening track for their self-titled album was created by Craig, and the dialogue in the background, "The whole thing I think, is sick", was taken from a Charles Manson documentary.

Craig has also never been quoted officially as having made any comments to interviewers, preferring to start an interview with the zip covering his mouth opened, and closing it in answer to any questions asked. During photo shoots, he wears patches over his eyes to keep his anonymity. He is also known to leave shows early for the same reason. It would seem he is rather isolated and independent, which is why he is probably looked upon as the "darkest" member of the band.

James Root once said about Jones that: "He even scares me. I kind of feel I'm doing a service to the community by knowing where Craig is from day to day."

There is a persistent rumor that his only words have been when an interviewer asked him to describe himself; "I have a rather slim, serial killer profile." Craig Jones has given an interview about his samples to the company Cakewalk , which is the company he prefers when doing samples.

In the new Slipknot DVD Voliminal: Inside The Nine, all band members were individually interviewed unmasked, but Craig never said a word and his face is blurry. Craig was asked how many people were buried in his backyard, but he did not say a word.

Trivia

• The nickname "133" (said One-thirty-three) has been confirmed as the speed of the processor of Craig's first computer, which was high-tech at the time.
• Some thought his nickname came from this. Take 133 multiply by 5, which is his band number and add 1 as he is 1 man and you get 666.
• It was rumored that Craig ran Slipknot1.com by himself, but it has been proven false.
• He is a computer game fanatic, his screen name when playing Quake III Arena online is ZZ 5 . He even has his own "Slipknot member" skin, so it looks just like him when he plays.
• Just prior to some European dates with Slayer in October of 2004, Craig had to pull out of some dates due to some much needed dental surgery.
• He is a smoker.
• In Austria, the emergency number is 133 as pointed out by James Root in Voliminal .

Inside 133

So you're wondering how the sound in the very beginning of the CD is made. Well, that's made by Craig, the sampler. He puts some crazy twists on the CD by adding sounds from movies such as "Carlito's Way" (sic) into the music. He is also, supposedly the Webmaster of Slipknot1.com, this may have changed though. After Slipknot is done playing a set, Craig leaves and secludes himself, he is isolated and independent from Slipknot. Craig is married and he originally joined the band as a guitarist but was replaced by Mick so that he could work on the samples. He is a computer freak and when playing Quake 3 his screen name is ZZ 5 along with his own skin which looks just like him. To prevent his eyes being seen in photo shoots he covers them with leather, he also prefers not to take part in interviews, remaining anonymous.


"Very quiet, the epitome of Killers Are Quiet. I remember him going with me and some others to the 1988 And Justice for All - Metallica/The Cult concert. My car's radiator blew on the way home." Craig didn't record MFKR, although his pic is in the inside sleeve of the album. The samples were put together by Anders and producer Sean Mcmahon after MFKR was recorded. Not many people know this but Craig actually joined the band as a guitarist to take over Donnie Steele's Position. His sampling was integrated into the mfkr songs for example the song gently started off with a sample from the movie "Falling down" featuring the conversation between "d-fens" and the army surplus Nazi."

Other Shit

Quote - "Sometimes, when we are working our way up to the stage, we'll shove our way through the crowd. When people see me coming, they mostly get out of the way. But sometimes they don't..."

Mask - He wears a "diver's" (actually a gas station helmet) with nails coming out of the top. Apparently his old mask's "diving helmet" used to be a cheap plastic Sinclair (gas station) racing helmet. His mask, initially when he joined Slipknot,  was a  pantyhose which was accompanied with a SPAM T-shirt to every gig, the mask changed with the change of instrument, to the black helmet. Eventually He painted it black, put nails through it, and put a gas mask on it, a camera flash was added to the top but this was later removed. This mask apparently represented pain.

Useless fact: Craig used to wear a wolf skin mask during the very early shows. An exact replica of this mask was used in the United Kingdom's, Channel 5 remake of the Shining. Just a little thing I noticed while watching it the other night (25 Jun 2001).

Other Stuff: "A long time ago, back when they were playing at Mary's, someone did get a little close to getting hurt. Someone came up from behind him and startled him. He can't hear a lot in that mask because it's pretty airtight. When they came up behind him, they were wanting his autograph and they tapped him on his shoulder. He wasn't expecting anyone to come up behind him and he whipped around a little and one of the nails on his mask got caught in a chick standing next to him's hair. It took Paul and Shawn just a few seconds to get them untangled. That's as close to anything that I know of as far as any incidents with Craig's masks."
Bands:
Played guitar in thrash metal bands before Slipknot.
Josh/Joey/Craig - Modifidious: In this band he played guitar as a replacement for Bruce who had left to join Atomic Opera. This is how he met Joey.
1995 - CURRENT: Slipknot