Last year Slipknot blasted crowds at Sonisphere Netherlands and Sonisphere Spain, before vocalist Corey Taylor gave one of the best-received daytime sets on the final day of Knebworth with an impressive solo showing. He's returning to Sonisphere UK this year, so Team Sonisphere caught up with him yesterday at Sonisphere Switzerland while the US were playing Slovenia in the World Cup to find out what's he's got in store for us .

Corey is a genuine Sonisphere fan.

"In the US, festivals feel really commercial and really specific. People want what they know and if you did a festival like this in the states it would be the same music over and over," he explains. "But here the love of music is so universal and diverse that you can do festivals like this and you never know who is going to be on. And the fans eat it up. They don't care about boundaries or musical borders. They just want to come and enjoy the day and listen to real music. I really wish we had something like that in the states because I think people would come and would really, really love it."

He particularly enjoyed the response to last year's solo set, which featured a cover of The Rolling Stones? "Dead Flowers":"People really dug it," he says happily. "This year i've got a few surprises. Hopefully my guitar works this time. I had a few technical difficulties last time. This year it's probably going to be a straight acoustic set. I'm going to just get up play some covers i've been working on and do some really cool acoustic versions of those songs."

Any clues as to what they might be?

"Nope, nope, no. You're going to have to come and see to find out."

Suddenly a cheer goes up and Corey (who it turns out likes football and is a Man U fan) runs off to check out what's going on.

"we're drawing 2-2," he says with a whoop when he returns.

Like the majority of the other artists playing the relevant Sonisphere shows this summer, he's excited to see Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax play on the same bill for the first time.

"The Big Four weren't the only bands I listened to growing up, but they were the upper echelon," he explains before another bit of consternation around the corner causes him to run off to the TV and watch the US have a goal disallowed.

If you're a Stone Sour or Slipknot fan then stay tuned. We'll be running an in-depth piece with Corey Taylor's perspective on the new Stone Sour album, Audio Secrecy, as well as an interview with Jim Root during the current Sonisphere tour.