Paul Dedrick Gray (April 8, 1972 – May 24, 2010) was an American musician, best known as the bassist of the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Slipknot.

Gray was born in Los Angeles, California. Later his family relocated to Des Moines, Iowa. In his youth, Gray performed in bands such as Anal Blast, Vexx, Body Pit, and Inveigh Catharsi.

Besides Slipknot, Gray has filled in as bassist for Unida during their 2003 tour, appeared on Drop Dead, Gorgeous' Worse Than a Fairy Tale, toured briefly with Reggie and the Full Effect and appeared on the Roadrunner United project, performing bass on "The Enemy" and "Baptized in the Redemption" from the project's album The All-Star Sessions.

In June 2003, Gray crashed his car into another vehicle. After police were called to the scene and searched his car, Gray was arrested for possession of cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and failure to obey a traffic signal.[1][2] He was sentenced to one year of informal probation.[3] Turmoil was caused within Slipknot's fanbase when Gray's mugshot from the incident surfaced, as at this time, with the exception of Corey Taylor and guitarist James Root, unobstructed photographs of most members of the band's faces were exceptionally rare.[4]

At the time of his death, he was one of 3 original members of Slipknot remaining in the band, and the only one who had maintained his original role in the band due to Clown's switch from main drums to custom percussion during the early days. He was one of the two members not born in Iowa (the other is Jim Root, who was born in Las Vegas).

Death

On May 24, 2010, The Des Moines Register reported that Gray had been found dead in a room at the Town Plaza hotel in Urbandale, Iowa.[5][3][6][7][8][9] He is survived by his wife Brenna who was expecting their first child at the time of his death.[10] An autopsy has determined that no foul play or trauma was involved[11], and the Polk County Medical Examiner is currently awaiting the results of the toxicology testing.[12]

On May 25, 2010, the band held a formal press conference, stating

"He was kind of the person in the band that really wanted everybody in the band to always get along and just concentrate on the band. He was a really great friend and a really great person. He's going to be sadly missed, and the world is going to be a different place without him."

Gray used to wear tape around his head for his mask. Later, he switched to a Halloween styled Pig mask which he used for the self-titled era, and it represented his indulgent personality. He was then criticized by members of Mushroomhead, another band who use masks, costumes, and pseudonyms to differentiate themselves from other bands, who said Paul stole the idea from their bassist who also wears a pig mask. During the touring cycle for Iowa, he used a black mask with dark eye and nose holes, with a small slit near his mouth, and it bore a striking resemblance to the Man in the Iron Mask. During the Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) touring cycle, his mask took on a more facial shape and contained small angled metal bars inside a larger mouth area. It was decorated with a bullet hole and small cracks.

Gray had two masks that he used for the All Hope Is Gone era. The first one was a gray leather mask, almost identical to the one used during the Vol.3 era, except the bars were then vertically lined, and it was indented with small cracks. His second mask was almost identical to his previous one, except that white paint had been smudged down the mask in a line from the eyeholes, and was adorned with more visible stitches on the face.