A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven: (Or, How I Made Peace with the Paranormal and Stigmatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process)

by Corey Taylor

Overview

Corey Taylor has seen a lot of unbelievable things. However, many of his most incredible experiences might just shock you. For much of his life, the Grammy Award-winning singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour has brushed up against the supernatural world. Those close encounters impacted his personal evolution just as much as headlining at Castle Donington in front of 100,000 people at Download Festival or debuting at #1 on the Billboard Top 200.

Since growing up in Iowa, his own curiosity drew him into situations that would've sent most people screaming scared and running for the hills. He's ballsy enough to go into the darkness and deal with the consequences, though. As a result, he's seen ghosts up close and personal, whether while combing through an abandoned house in his native Iowa as a child or recording an album in the fabled Houdini Hollywood Hills mansion. He's also got the memories (and scars) to prove it. For some reason, he can't seem to shake these spectral stories, and that brings us to this little tome right here...

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven compiles Taylor's most intimate, incredible, and insane moments with the supernatural. His memories are as vivid as they are vicious. As he recounts these stories, he questions the validity of religious belief systems and two-thousand-year-old dogma. As always, his rapid-fire writing, razor-sharp sense of humor, unbridled honesty, and cozy anecdotes make quite the case for his point. You might end up believing him or not. That's up to you. Either way, you're in for a hell of a ride.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306822926
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Corey Taylor is the lead singer of both Slipknot and Stone Sour, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Seven Deadly Sins. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, he spends his time between there and the rest of the world. TheCoreyTaylor.com

Table of Contents

Cold House 1

But First Let's Meet Our Contestants 23

The Mansion 45

One Night in Farrar 67

Paranormal Paralysis and Paranoid Parameters 89

Foster Manor 111

Wine and Spirits with Friends 131

A Haunting in New York? 153

Beyond the Fringe 169

The Kids on the Circle 191

You'll Have to Pay for Another Five Minutes 213

Acknowledgments 235

Editorial Reviews

08/26/2013
Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist Taylor's follow-up to Seven Deadly Sins reveals itself to be a well-meaning but often meandering collection of ghost stories and far-out philosophical and quasi-scientific ruminations on the existence of God and ghosts that never quite comes together. Circular discussions, tangential digressions and lack of focus detract and irritate rather than provoke thought or introspection; the reader instead must concentrate on Taylor's ever-wavering train of thought in order to keep up. Luckily he does much better when addressing paranormal and supernatural experiences, which constitutes the majority of the book. Some of these encounters are sought out, while others, like the ghostly children who inhabit his current home and the mansion full of ghosts who terrorized the band during a recording session, are mere chance. Taylor's enthusiasm for his topic and sheer wonder is infectious; he makes for a humble, charming host. Still, it's die hard ghost hunters and fans of Taylor's music that will likely get the most out of this. Those on the fence, whether it's regarding organized religion or the existence of ghosts, likely won't have any major revelations. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Corey is a very ambitious writer. His witty sense of humor and writing style really pulls you in with every word… If you want a fun read about the paranormal and some laugh out loud moments from one of the coolest guys in music pick this one up.”

Publishers Weekly Bestseller, 7/29/13

Publishers Weekly, 8/26/2013

“Taylor's enthusiasm for his topic and sheer wonder is infectious; he makes for a humble, charming host.”

San Francisco Book Review, 8/29/2013

“Taylor is an engaging narrator, skewering organized religion and his own poor choices with equal fervor.”

Examiner.com, 9/10/13

“Part autobiographical and part suspense novel…I whole heartily suggest you pick up a copy. This is a whole scary as hell motion picture captured in the printed word.”

PopMatters.com, 9/16/13

Kirkus Reviews, 6/15/13

“Fun campfire ghost stories.”

FrontRowReport.com, 6/17/13

“He's done it again, folks, put out a piece of art and work that will leave you speechless and thinking harder than you have in awhile. Taylor's second book…is probably more highly-anticipated than his first book and will have your hair standing on end, chills down your spine while making you laugh hysterically at some parts…A well-written, in-depth, intellectual and bone-chilling piece of work that will go down in history as one of the best books written by a metal singer of all time.”

A New York Times Bestseller, 8/4/13

A Publishers Weekly Bestseller

MediaMikes.com

“At several points throughout the reading of this book the hair on my arms was standing completely straight up.”

Red Carpet Crash, 7/25/13

 “It's a very well written account of his experiences. Highly recommended read!”

Examiner.com, 7/19/13

“[A] literary masterpiece…Witty and worth the read.”

Sound Crave Magazine, 7/19/13

From the Publisher

Slipknot singer sees dead people. Apparently, Taylor (Seven Deadly Sins: Settling the Argument Between Born Bad and Damaged Good, 2011) has backstage passes to the spirit world that not many of us are privileged enough to get: He not only sees ghosts on a regular basis, but he's also convinced that the same spooks are haunting him everywhere he goes. His first recollection of seeing ghosts was around the age of 9, when he and some friends went on a Goonies-like adventure to a scary-looking old house in his suburb. In that house, he saw his first sinister apparition, which seemed to be an old man who wanted the young whippersnappers out of his house. From then on, according to Taylor, his life has been one big spook-tacular extravaganza filled with supernatural occurrences. (Later in the book, the author does his tedious best to scientifically prove that these spirits can, in fact, walk the terrestrial plane among us.) Taylor recalls stories about seeing a shadow man in a cornfield trying to attack him; he was once pushed down the stairs by a malevolent, otherworldly force; every time he buys a new Munsters-style mansion, it turns out to be haunted by the spirits of dead children. To Taylor's credit, all these anecdotes about his close encounters with the spirit world are told in exacting detail, and you certainly want to believe him. Unfortunately, insecurity about how his theories and stories will be received comes to the fore in a big way: Taylor alternates between annoying self-deprecation and smug self-congratulation, spending too much time on humorless, expletive-laden rants against those who would dare question his place among the elite few who have regular interface with supernatural beings. Mostly fun campfire ghost stories marred by pseudo-scientific babble and a self-conscious rock-star attitude.

Kirkus Reviews