The One That Kills The Least

Album: .5: The Gray Chapter (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This track finds frontman Corey Taylor reflecting on the choices he makes in the light of the loss of the band's bassist Paul Gray. He told Kerrang!: "That song is a moment of melancholy, where you're looking at all the problems in your life, and you try and put everything in perspective, and you realise that the decisions you make can come back to haunt you, because of something like, in our case, losing Paul."

    "The choices that you make a really starting to affect everything around you, and it comes down to the point where the one that kills the least still kills a soul," he added. "Where every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so it's really about dealing with an active side affects of your choices in the grief process."

Comments: 2

  • Brad from Washington StateAgreed with Brenda
    I am not a fan of God myself, and Corey Taylor certainly is not either. I see him as sort of a wolf in sheep's clothing and I think that is basically part of what this song depicts how God is always glorified to be the "Good" guy, yet in the end he is the one responsible for all the chaos and death in the world.
    "Save another number! Don't forget to hate me!"
    Basically Corey telling God to shove it.
  • Brenda from 84405 My interpretation and what it means to me .
    there's only 1 that is held in such regard of killing the least
    And yet still kills us all
    And I wish I could say it was the devil
    But sadly enough it's the one and only God
    Who kills the least yet kills us all


see more comments

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.