Jim Root

Background and Facts

James "Jim" Root (born October 2, 1971) is the current rhythm guitarist for Slipknot and the current lead guitarist for Stone Sour.

He joined during the end of the recording of the self-titled album. At this point, former guitarist Josh Brainard had decided to leave the band due to his unhappiness with the direction of the band. Singer Corey Taylor invited James to join the band, knowing him from their previous effort together, the first incarnation of Stone Sour . The only track on the self-titled album on which James can be heard is Purity, but this song was removed from the album due to a lawsuit and subsequent copies of the album do not feature any of James' playing.

Like the rest of Slipknot , James is from Des Moines, Iowa . At 6'6", he is the tallest member of the band. He worked as a screen printer, waiter, and bus boy before joining Slipknot. James has played in previous bands such as Deadfront, Anal Blast, and Atomic Opera. James is also the co-guitarist for Stone Sour .

He and Corey reunited the band during the hiatus between the Slipknot albums Iowa and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

In Slipknot , most of the guitar work is fast, heavy. James and co-guitarist Mick Thomson do trade some leads on the band's Vol 3 album (especially in The Pulse of the Maggots's solo), but their music is otherwise almost completely devoid of guitar solos. Guitars in Slipknot rarely take the spotlight, rather, Mick and James fill in the sonic territory not occupied by the band's other seven members. All guitars in Slipknot are tuned to 1 1/2 steps down from dropped D (Low to high, B, F#, B, E, G#, C#,) except for on the songs My Plague, The Heretic Anthem, Skin Ticket, New Abortion and Iowa, on which they are tuned to B tuning dropped A (Low to high, A, E, A, D, F#, B.) Standard tuning is used on prelude 3.0.

James's playing in Stone Sour concentrates more on building melodic metal anthems. It has been rumored that he will be releasing a signature Fender Telecaster in early 2007, and this was confirmed by James Root in a recent interview in the January '07 issue of "Total Guitar" magazine..

Other Shit

Masks
When James first joined Slipknot, he adopted ex-guitarist Josh Brainard 's mask. It was a black bondage mask that covered most of his head. He had purple hair at the time and used to pull parts of it up through a hole in the top of the mask. After a couple of shows and one photo shoot, he decided to change masks, as the bondage mask was too uncomfortable to allow him to concentrate on playing. He adopted a jester's mask, said to represent that side of his personality. His most recent mask is a variation of this mask. It is still a jester's mask, but this one lacks the red diamond detailing around the eyes and a zipper in between the lips.
Facts

• Root is 6'6" tall
• His natural hair color is sandy blonde.
• Previous to Slipknot, Root was in the bands Dead Front and Atomic Opera
• Currently dating Italian vocalist Cristina Scabbia from the popular band Lacuna Coil [1]
• He is a smoker.
• Newest member of Slipknot.