The Kreepy Side of KoRn


Inspired by his brief career as a coroner

and an eerily-accurate psychic reading,

KoRn's Jonathan Davis reveals the band's deep, dark secrets.

By Jaan Uhelszki


Many bands claim to be Goth, or death metal, but few bands can authentically wear that crown. One that can is Korn, a five piece hardcore band hailing from Bakersfield, California. The reason that Korn are true Goth is not because they're the American equivalent of Siouxie and the Banshees or even a jack Nick Cave, but because Jonathan Davis, their charismatic lead singer, was recruited from the Kern County [California] Coroners Department. No, he wasn't brought back from the dead, rather he was working there as an assistant coroner and moonlighting as an undertaker at a nearby funeral home, having recently earned a degree at San Francisco's School of Mortuary Science. And he was making good money, too. What lured him out of the morgue and into the stage was because an astrologer/psychic (who he insists on calling an astrologist) predicted that he would become notorious, if not downright famous, fronting a rock band­­and she didn't even know he was a musician. That propehcy took seed in Davis' fertile subconscious (things seem to take root and flourish with an uncanny expedience in this town at the southern end of the rich San Joaquin Valley) and within two years he was fronting Sexart, a local band with a small following. Sexart was playing some of the lesser lights of Bakersfield's music scene when two members of Korn sauntered into the dive where the band was playing. Unbeknownst to Davis, these former cronies from his junior high school days were about to offer him a job; a job that would mean he'd have to give up the cadavers and move to Huntington Beach, where these former members of that metal hairband, LAPD­­drummer David, guitarists Brian Welch and James Munky Shaffer, and bassist Fieldy­­would welcome him into the bosom of their dysfunctional family.

Davis wasn't a tender-footed rube about the music business when Korn recruited him. His father owned a musical instrument store, and later took over the Bakersfield recording studio once owned by country music great Buck Owen. His son studied classical music from a tender age, but the elder Davis continually disabused him of the notion of a career in the music business, having witnessed so much heartbreak first hand. If that weren't discouragement enough, young Jonathan, in the throes of teenage rebellion, vowed to be anything but his father, as young boys are wont to do, and chose an occupation as remote as possible from the family business. But we wouldn't want to take anything away from Jonathan's propensity for the strange. His own eccentric makeup had much to do with his career choice, as it does with the haunting and disturbing lyrics he writes for Korn The band is not just a vehicle for Davis' particular brand of weird, rather they're a solid outfit that trades on their hammering intensity and fervid lyrical doses of anxiety and rage, that recall an early Tool, a less political Rage Against the Machine, with the quirkiness of Primus thrown in to garner new fans. Davis has a compelling vocal style; he seems to breathe out his lyrics, wavering somewhere between vituperous rage and solemn regret, sining on such topics as sexual abuse, the cruelty of high school, and painful personal experiences. This band has taken their psychic traumas and transmuted them into an art form, framing their early pain with slashing guitars and barbaric drumming. They have carved a healthy following out of middle America with their constant touring­­they were on the road for over ten months last year alone­­which has finally sent their self-titled album (released in October of 1994) into gold status. One listen to the Korn album and you know they didn't get where they are with a preponderance of radio-play, like their brethren before them­­Metallica and the aforementioned Rage­­this is not a radio-friendly band. But no matter. Fans are turning up at shows with their deranged logo (fashioned by Davis in a single setting, writing the band's name left-handed so as to resemble a Stephen King title) tattooed on their body parts. Silverchair's Daniel Johns sports a Korn sticker on the body of his guitar, and Korn counts fans among Biohazard and House of Pain.

ATN's Jaan Uhelszki caught up with Jonathan Davis by phone from his hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and discussed his preference for fluorescent nail polishes, Korn's pre-stage rituals, and some horror stories from inside the morgue. Let us introduce you to the real Alice Cooper, Jonathan Davis.

Addicted To Noise: You have this unprecedented success for a hardcore band, almost like a mainstream band. Why your band, and why now?

Jonathan Davis: It's just what the kids have turned us into, how we've been brought up, how we came was by just playing live shows. That's how we got signed was by playing a lot. We built such a big following, and such demand came around since we've been all around the states about five times, that we were pretty much were forced into that mainstream thing by the kids. Requesting it on the radio, wanting to read articles on us. All the kids want us, so people start jumping on it. It's all the kids, but what's really funny is when you get that mainstream success people start bagging on you for it. And it's not really your fault. We're on a lot of radio now. It's crazy, I never, ever thought this would happen, it's pretty cool though.

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