
Greg
Welts , ex percussionist

Gregory
'Greg' Welts, a friend of the band who worked as a tattooist at Dave
"Davo" Wilkins' shop, The Axiom. Welts had previously been
in a punk band with Paul,Joey and Davo called The Havenots, and his
work adorned the bodies of many of Slipknot's friends and acquantances
- Colsefni in particular had felt the Welts needle on more than one
occasion. Greg had tattooed four large panels onto Anders' back, the
beginnings of a comic strip showing the change of a man into a wolf
(Rage themes). More significantly, it was Greg who inked the Slipknot
logo, a bendy S, on Colsefni's leg. Anders says now that it was just
a quirky dollar sign until it became the Slipknot symbol. The band had
also included a photo of Welts on the inside tray of the MFKR cd case
(see
photo), thanking him in the credits list along with Wilkins.
Greg
- who chose to wear a babyface mask on stage, and was duly given the
nickname Cuddles - joined the band in September of 1997. His presence
was immediately felt: a driven, almost insane character, he made a point
of destroying as much of the set as possible during the shows, and would
even dismantle his drum kit and throw it into the crowd. Occasionally
his maddened personality led to him being called Giggles by the rest
of the band.
On
July 6th 1998, just days before the signing to Roadrunner Records was
due to take place, Cuddles was asked to leave the band. It's not clear
why he was fired, this was due to his lack of dedication to the position
he took on and the lack of contribution besides the parts Anders previously
delt with, he played his last show during the summer of '98 shortly
before the signing to Roadrunner Records. Following his movement away
from the band and the firing from Axiom piercing studio(owned by Dav-O),
Greg left Des Moines. He went on to start a new tattoo shop in South
Dakota named "The Ultimate Prick" - there are rumours that
this has been shut down now. There were also rumours that he had been
dating Joey's sister and that being one of the reasons for him being
sacked. This however has never been confirmed.
Greg
was replaced by another 'temporary' percussionist called Brandon Darner
who was then later replaced by Chris Fehn who still remains as #3 to
this day.
Full
name
Gregory Sean Welts
Nickname
Cuddles and Booch
Mask:
Babyface mask by Distortions

Other
bands Greg was a part of include:
insects
catch-22
nasty pets
have nots
Dav-O
on Cuddles a.k.a Greg: "I met Greg one week night at 2nd Ave
Foundry in the Summer of 95. One of the Owners, Eddy introduced us.
We spent the night talking about the OC scene. Greg had been part of
the OC scene for a number of years in the early 80s and had played with
Mad Parade, Organised Crime, claimed to have played a few gigs with
CH3 and had made the finial cut trying out for Agent Orange. He moved
out here with his pregnant girlfriend and got caught cheating shortly
after she gave birth. She throw him out and he went back to Steamboat,
CO. When I was in need of a tattooist, Greg moved back out here and
started drumming for us."
Senior
VP of A&R, Monte Conner about Cuddles: First time I ever saw
Slipknot live was at a university or a college in Chicago in 1998. They
were wearing the black boiler suits at the time and there was another
guy playing percussion with Clown called 'The Baby' and this was a guy
with a babymask, and he was fuckin awesome..totally like mental looking
guy he used to like hold the gun up to his head and shit. He was totally
awesome, the band could've very well been with the baby right now but
anyway they got rid of him and brought in Chris Fehn.



Cuddles
pictured in Promotional Photos 1997-1998


Greg
drumming with The Havenots back in the day (notice Paul Gray on the
first pic)



Greg
in the studio with the Knot in 1998 (thanks to OzzyChick)





Various
Live photos from the old days

Live
at the 2nd Dotfest in Ankeny, IA on June 12th 1998
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