HWY 666

Album: CMFT (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Corey Taylor started writing this song when he was 17, jotting down some lyrics about a confrontation with the Devil at HWY 666 with his soul at stake. A sophomore at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, he scribbled the words in his English class notebook.

    Years later, when it came time to put together some demos for his first solo album, CMFT, the Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist came across his teenage poetry in a box tucked away at his grandmother's house. He decided to mold his verses into a song and make it the record's opening track.

    "I started with that one, thinking it'd be cool with a rockabilly Pantera vibe to it and kind of beefed up the story about someone turning their back on the devil when he's offering them everything," he explained to American Songwriter. "It starts the album because of the tempo, it's a stomper that gets your blood going and puts you right in the middle of it. But it was also great to start because of how old the verses were. It was like 'how far back do we want go back?' That was when I was realizing my potential and where I wanted to go with my life, so I wrote the chorus and finished it."
  • The story mirrors the legend of Robert Johnson. The '30s blues star reputedly made a deal with the Devil at the crossroads of Highway 61 and Highway 49, giving up his soul in exchange for becoming a renowned musician. Unlike the blues musician, Taylor rejects Satan's advances.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Second Wind Songs

Second Wind SongsSong Writing

Some songs get a second life when they find a new audience through a movie, commercial, TV show, or even the Internet.

Bible Lyrics

Bible LyricsMusic Quiz

Rockers, rappers and pop stars have been known to quote the Bible in their songs. See if you match the artist to the biblical lyric.

Andy McClusky of OMD

Andy McClusky of OMDSongwriter Interviews

Known in America for the hit "If You Leave," OMD is a huge influence on modern electronic music.

Janis Ian

Janis IanSongwriter Interviews

One of the first successful female singer-songwriters, Janis had her first hit in 1967 at age 15.

Concert Disasters

Concert DisastersFact or Fiction

Ozzy biting a dove? Alice Cooper causing mayhem with a chicken? Creed so bad they were sued? See if you can spot the real concert mishaps.

Amy Grant

Amy GrantSongwriter Interviews

The top Contemporary Christian artist of all time on song inspirations and what she learned from Johnny Carson.