Donnie Steele (born October 6) is an American musician and founding member of heavy metal band Slipknot having been part of the original line-up from their inception in September 1995 until February 1996 during the mixing stages of the band's first release Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat which Steele performed all guitar tracks for. In 2011, Steele returned to Slipknot as a touring bass player to replace Paul Gray who had died in 2010. On September 12, 2014, after the release of The Devil in I music video, the new bassist and drummer appeared in the music video masked but the identity of the bassist was revealed by accident to be Alessandro Venturella due to his signature hand tattoos being uncovered. This confirmed that Steele's second stint with Slipknot had ended. However it is still possible that Steele may have been involved in some or all of the studio sessions for .5: The Gray Chapter.