Life in a platinum-selling rock band is crazy. The traveling, the stress, the interviews, the women, the drugs, the rock and roll – it’ll wear you out. So just imagine what it would be like to be in two platinum-selling rock bands at once. And now imagine that one of those bands is Slipknot, arguably the most bizarre and most successful extreme metal band in the world.

That’s life for James Root, who pulls double-duty in Slipknot and its much-softer-yet-still-loud sister band, Stone Sour (also featuring Slipknot singer Corey Taylor).

Root and Taylor surprised the rock world in 2002 by shedding their scary masks and releasing Stone Sour’s melodic debut album, which scored two Grammy nominations and went gold on the strength of the brooding, atmospheric single “Bother.”

Now Stone Sour is back with a new album, Come What(ever) May, which debuted in August at Number 2. Root talked to Fly Magazine about what it’s like to come out from behind the mask and why starting a third band is a really, really bad idea.

Fly Magazine: On the new album you guys are actually exploring some pop melodies. Do you ever worry that you’re going to freak out Slipknot fans by making this softer-sounding music?

James Root: That crosses your mind. [laughs] But while we’re making the record and while we’re recording this stuff, I don’t think about that at all. The only time I think about that is if I get a comment about it. It kind of breaks my heart a little bit that people can be that close-minded.

FM: What does Stone Sour enable you to do that you can’t in Slipknot?

JR: I think there’s just a level of comfort that happens with this band that you don’t have with Slipknot. And the thing with Slipknot is, it’s such a chaotic monster that if we weren’t able to step away from it and take a break from it, that band would probably self-destruct.

FM: With Slipknot, there are so many sensational elements, like the costumes and the fact that you’re blasting away at like 800 miles per hour, and sometimes people overlook the fact that you’re actual, real musicians. Is that something that’s important to you about this band – that people can actually focus on the music?

JR: Yeah, that’s very important to me. When I was a kid, when you looked at a band like Kiss, you looked at them as characters. You don’t really think of Gene Simmons or Paul Stanley as the guys that go to the music shop and pick their instruments out. But that music has to come from somewhere! A lot of people overlook that with Slipknot.

FM: You’ve been performing for so many years in front of millions of people wearing the mask and coveralls. How different is it to get out there and just be you?

JR: It’s very different. There’s a lower level of inhibition that happens when you have that mask on. It is you out there, but it’s almost like you feel invisible. But once you strip that away, it’s just down to the human element, and that can be a scary thing. It freaks me out a little bit.

FM: Does it ever sort of blow your mind that you’re in two completely different famous bands?

JR: It blows my mind when I look at our tour schedule and what we have laid out for the next year! [laughs] It’s not like I can think, “At the end of this tour, there’s a break!” There isn’t a break. We’re going back into the studio and doing a record with the other band. In some ways I think maybe I bit off a little bit more than I can chew, but at the same time, I guess it’s the life I asked for.

FM: The way this new album is selling, maybe soon you’ll have two insanely successful bands on your hands.

JR: Then you’ll see a very, very mentally distraught guitar player!

FM: So where do you go from here as far as the goals you set for yourself as a musician?

JR: Well, I want to push my guitar playing along. I kind of let it slack over the years. In a band like Slipknot you fall into kind of a slump with guitar playing, just because you tourfor like 18 months in a row and you play the same songs day in and day out. The last thing I want to do after I get off stage after14 months of touring is pick up a guitar and run scales.

It’s very important to me that it evolve in those ways. Hopefully I can, and if not, I guess we’ll just put out the same record over and over again!

FM: Or you could just start a third band …

JR: Yeah, right? No thanks!