You also have a couple of women inked on you, one on each arm, and you’ve got a griffin on your leg. I assume that was done because it’s your son’s name?

Yes. I gave my left leg to the kids, and I haven’t finished it yet. My oldest daughter’s name is Angeline, so I want to get an angel next to the griffin. My ex-wife’s daughter, who I’m still really close to, her name is Aravis, as in Princess Aravis from the Narnia books. So I’ll probably get a princess. And with any other kids I may have, I’ll start crawling it up the leg. I’m Irish, so I want a lot of kids, and I’m not going to stop until I’ve got a whole brood that I can eventually teach “MMMBop” to and send out on the club circuit.

That will horrify other kids. Exactly.

Years ago, Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison recalled how you and the band were mistakenly identified as jewelry thieves by police. Do you remember how that went down?

Let me set the scene for you. We were doing an in-store right in-between Ozzfest and the Coal Chamber tour, our first and second tours. We had this crazy in-store set up, and we drove from Des Moines to Chicago to get there. We were running late because people in the band couldn’t get their shit together to get to the vans on time, so we were hauling ass to get there. We get to Chicago, pull in behind this strip mall and have no idea that there is a jewelry store there. So imagine this dude who worked at the jewelry store standing outside and having a cigarette as two cargo vans pull in. Dudes jump out and start getting into coveralls and masks with black makeup. Now, I would’ve called the cops, man. I would’ve been freaking out.

We were across the street from the store where we were going to be doing the signing. We all jump into one van, drive across the street, and then five or six of Chicago’s finest pull up on either side of us, and they all get out with their hands on their guns going, “Shut the engine off and show us your hands.” It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. We should’ve been freaking out but, dude, we were laughing so hard it was insane. This dude was drawing down on Clown, and Clown was saying, “Okay, man, I’m just going to take my mask off.” And the cop was like, “That’s okay, I’ll just shoot you through the door.” To us that was the funniest thing we’d ever heard. We were like, “Are you kidding me?” It wasn’t until after the signing and driving home that we were like, “Holy shit, we almost died.” It was insane, and then the cops came and ran security for the in-store signing. It was insane, dude. They’re just watching all these kids come through. We’re signing autographs, and they’re laughing [and wondering] what the hell is going on here. This was before anybody had even heard of us.

After all these years, what do you think your fans would be surprised to learn about you?

I’m pretty open about everything, almost to severity. I don’t think they’d be surprised by anything that I do. I’m not afraid to make myself look like a fool for the benefit of an audience. I’m not afraid to speak my mind. I just did a show with Camp Freddy; it’s a celebrity cover band, basically. They heard I was going to be in Vegas, and they were doing a show for this weird pajama party, so there were all these swanky douchebags in faux silk pajamas out in the audience with all these chicks stuffed into lingerie. I come walking out in Spiderman pajamas that are probably six sizes too small for me because I don’t give a shit. I will do whatever it takes to entertain an audience. I think that’s why I’ve been so honest over the years. It’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I could be brutally honest doing whatever I want, and I expect the fans to look at me and go, “Well, it’s Corey. That makes total fucking sense.”