James Root

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

At 6'6, "Jim" towers over his 6'2 guitarist counterpart, Mick, who is believed to be the tallest.
His real hair color is sandy blonde.
He is more often called Jim.
Previous to Slipknot, James was in the bands Dead Front and Atomic Opera.
Currently dating Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil.
He is a smoker
He has said that if he were to be a superhero, he would be Superman because he could fly.

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. That is what you see on the cover of the self-titled album. 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 has red diamond detailing around the eyes, and a zipper in between the lips.

History

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 family commitments. 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 busboy before joining Slipknot. James has played in previous bands such as Deadfront, Anal Blast, and Atomic Opera. James is also the rhythm guitarist for Stone Sour.

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

Playing Style

In Slipknot, most of the guitar work is fast, heavy, rhythm guitar. James and co-guitarist Mick Thompson do trade some leads on the band's latest studio album, 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 C# tuning dropped B (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.) James's playing in Stone Sour concentrates more on building melodic, radio-friendly rock anthems.

Gear

James used to play:

various Jackson guitars, as he had an endorsement.

James now plays:

Fender Flathead Telecasters and Showmasters
Custom built Charvel San Dimas two-humbucker model built by Fender. (It has a traditional stratocaster look, but a thinner neck and dual humbuckers).
Rivera Knucklehead Reverb Amplifiers.

Jim outfits all his guitars with EMG 60 pickups in the neck position and EMG 81 pickups in the bridge position.

External links

James Root | James Root | James Root | James Root

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Masks

History

Playing Style

Gear

See also

External links