Songfacts®:

• The first single from Slipknot's album .5: The Gray Chapter features clean and melodic vocals from lead singer Corey Taylor in its verses before he sings on the chorus:
  
  Step inside
  See the Devil in I
  Too many times we've let it come to this
  
  Taylor explained the song's meaning to The Pulse of Radio: "'The Devil In I' is really about the war inside yourself," he said. "Trying not to give into defeatism, trying not to give into negativity, trying not to give up basically. It's a struggle. It's one of the hardest thing you can do, is to give in to that side of yourself."
• 5: The Gray Chapter debuted at #1 on the US albums chart. It was Slipknot's second long player to top the list, their previous studio release, All Hope Is Gone, reached the summit in 2008.
• The song's music video was directed by Slipknot drummer Shawn Crahan and features the destruction of band members in various ways. Chris Fehn, for instance, is pecked to death by ravens, a fate he requested for himself as the percussionist suffers from a fear of birds. Sid Wilson, meanwhile, eats his arm and fingers in the clip, destroying the things most important for the DJ's role in the band.
  
  "Basically, this video is about finding past devils, past things - becoming one with it and then doing away with it," Crahan explained
• This song, along with much of the .5: The Gray Chapter album, deals with Slipknot bass player Paul Gray, who died in 2010 at 38 after overdosing on fentanyl.
  
  "I had to write that song to be able to figure out how I was dealing with the death of my friend," Corey Taylor said on the Viceland show The Therapist. "A lot of people who lose people in violent tragedy, it's a scar that never heals. It becomes septic, and all of a sudden everything your life is polluted by it."