“Day, is here fading. That’s when I’m insane. I flirt with suicide, sometimes kill the pain. I can’t always say ‘It’s gonna be better tomorrow.’ Falling away from me, falling away from me.”

– Falling Away From Me

I remember the first time I was introduced to the music of Korn. Their 1999 album Issues had just been released, with the single Falling Away From Me and my brother had quickly become a fan. He played me an acoustic version of the song, and lyrically something resonated. As I listened to the album more, as well as previous albums Korn, Life is Peachy and Follow The Leader I felt a connection to the band in a way that I hadn’t with many others. The feelings I had from being teased throughout school, the part of me that had always felt different, suddenly was brought to life in musical form. I became hooked.

“I have met a lot of our gay fans. They are always so thankful. Thank you for singing the music that you sing, it helps me and makes me feel like I am not alone,” Korn’s lead singer Jonathan Davis told GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine. “It makes me feel really good about what I do in music because I am helping somebody, I am touching someone’s heart with my music, emotionally striking up some feelings and helping a person feel better about themselves. It means the world to me. I am not one to judge anyone, so I think it’s amazing.”

“I wish there was something. Please tell me there’s something better. I wish there was something more than this saturated loneliness.”

- Tearjerker

In a Canadian media exclusive, we spoke to Davis on the phone before his March 31st show at the Big 4 Building on the Stampede Grounds in Calgary. He, guitarist James “Munky” Shafer, bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, and drumer Ray Luzier, are currently crossing the country as part of the Jagermeister Music Tour.

“I’m sick and tired of people treating me this way everyday. Who gives a fuck right now I got something to say to all the people that think that I’m strange and I should be out of here locked up in a cage. You don’t know what the hell is up now anyway. You got this ‘pretty boy’ feeling like I’m enslaved to a world that never appreciated shit. You all can suck my dick and fuckin’ like it!”

- Faget

One song that truly resonates is Faget from their first album. I had a disagreement with a friend about Korn, who he accused of being homophobic for having the song. If you listen to the lyrics, it is anything but.

“It was a term I heard my whole life from a very early age. It really started kicking in when I was in high school in the 1980’s. I was really into the nu-romantic scene like Duran Duran. I wore eyeliner and had my hair weird. It was all fun but some of the bullies felt that it was not cool I guess, and I got my ass beat a lot and picked on. I still get called a faggot. I was labelled it my whole life pretty much, so I wrote a song about how much it hurts.”

There is something incredibly cathartic about being at a Korn concert and screaming out the word in defiance with thousands of other people.

“Every time I scream faggot it is just getting that hurt out. It is a hurtful word, and it is sad that people are so closed minded and think that being gay, or being different is a bad thing. You can’t help the way you feel, the way you are built, fucking dumbass people don’t understand that.”

“A place inside my brain, another kind of pain. You don’t know the chances, I’m so blind.”

 - Blind

Korn admittedly has a large, aggressive male following. In many ways, the band’s support of LGBT rights, and songs like Faget may turn heads. After all, if Jon Davis accepts gay people, why shouldn’t they?

“That has happened and it has opened a lot of people’s eyes. I am not saying all of them because there are a lot of meatheads out there who are closed minded. There are also people who like the band and don’t get what I am talking about. For the most part this is a band for people that are different, who have been picked on for this or that, and really hold onto it and find hope in it.”

“Hypocrites! I’m gonna do it blind. Hypocrites! Your messiah was never mine. Weeping rose of Jeremiah, purity unlike no other offers hope to those who need it. Don’t forget care to thy brother.”

- Hypocrites

“God told me, already got the life”

– Got The Life

A topic frequently touched on by the band is organized religeon. Former member Brian “Head” Welch left the group after becoming born again Christian, while Fieldy is also born again, but still with them.

“Fieldy became Christian, he reads the bible but doesn’t try to assimilate you into the Christian fold. He reads books about Buddhism, Hinduism, all the religions. He is more of a spiritual person and he accepts everybody.  The biggest problem I have had with organized religion is how they say if you are different you are wrong, if you are gay you are going to hell, if you are this, you’re that. To me it doesn’t ring true in my heart. If God or Jesus or whoever you believe in, if he loves you so much why if you are gay is it bad? Love is love, and that is how it should be. I have always had a hard time, I have watched it since I was little. I watched my gay friends get persecuted. When I was five my parents were heavily involved in theatre and I grew up around a lot of gay people. I watched the hell they went through from being in a hick town and being persecuted by religion, or just people’s opinions of it. I think that is why I turned out the way I did, because I saw it at an early age.”

“You really want me to be a good son, why you make me feel like no one? You want me to be something I can never ever be.”

- Dead Bodies Everywhere

The themes of Korn’s music – loss, abuse, being teased, feeling alone, death – can at times be lost in the guitars and drums. Some simply write off the music as loud angry metal. It could be said that they are under-appreciated lyrically. Davis doesn’t feel that way.

“I don’t ask for that. I am not going to say my lyrics are the greatest in the world, there are lots of better lyricists then me.  I just get out what I need to get out and lay it on the table really simple. If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t.”

Korn III – Remember Who You Are is set to be released this summer. The album is produced by Ross Robinson (who also produced the first two Korn records) and features the band “returning to their roots.”

“After Life is Peachy we experimented more and more in different directions. We felt it was time for us to come back full circle and start over with a more raw, emotional record. We recorded it in a little 12x12 room called the catbox and recorded it as a four piece, vocals, one take to tape. The previous albums I stacked my vocals three or four on top of each other and this one was very simple, it was all about being simple. Ross took us into the studio and made us remember who we are and where we came from.  Once we got in there all the memories came flowing back from when we weren’t this big band Korn, it was just us writing music and having fun and not caring about the business or singles or any of that kind of stuff. It was just us purely bitching and getting our emotions out and writing the music that we love.”

“Ya’ll want a single say fuck that. Fuck that shit.”

- Ya’ll Want A Single

Initially Korn did not have a record label for this album. It relieved a lot of pressure, such as trying to write “a single” and allowed them to focus on the album as a whole.

“We just write the music. If the song comes out [as a] single, it is a single. We don’t sit there and write a single, because you can’t. We found ourselves in that situation with the last two records, with the record company going we need that single, we need this and that. It messed with our heads a bit. When we did this record we didn’t have a record company, no management was allowed in the studio, it was just us. When we got done we let them hear it. It is what it is, this is what you’ve got to work with guys, go for it. It started out as being a concept album but it turned into something different.”

“This state is elevating as the hurt turns into hating. Anticipating all the fucked-up feelings again”

– Here To Stay

Back on the road, Korn’s current tour is one of their strongest. Instead of focusing on songs that fans haven’t heard yet, the show in Calgary featured fan favorites from all of the albums as well as Oildale from the new album.

“Usually I write the setlist but this time Munky had a little poll on the website for the songs they want to hear, and they put the set together. It is a really cool set, I like it a lot. A lot of older stuff mixed with newer stuff and one new song. It’s exciting,” he explained.

“Fans always love classic Korn that is what they want, but a lot of them like the new stuff. We are playing the newer stuff that we think the fans like, and the song off the new album - they are really digging that.”

“Sometimes I cannot take this place. Sometimes it’s my life I can’t taste, Sometimes I cannot feel my face. You’ll never see me fall from grace.”

- Freak on a Leash

Davis is an interesting contrast. On stage there is this dark, charismatic frontman, preaching to his followers with long hair flailing as he thrashes around. In conversation, he is soft spoken, intelligent, and almost shy. Married to former porn star Deven Davis, with two sons, there seems to be two sides to Jonathan Davis.

“It is a trade off. Our fans are really energetic and they go off on the music, and in turn so do I. I see girls and guys crying and singing every word, that makes me go even harder. There is a really emotional connection to the crowd for me,” he said of his stage presence.

“I call the aggressive one Jonathan Davis. When I go on stage that is how I get my aggression out, I turn into that monster.  All that hate and rage and bullshit from my whole life, from me seeing all kinds of crazy shit, that is the guy that comes out. When I am home and offstage I am completely different, and it seems to be working for me.”

Korn will continue to spread their message to the masses, and Davis has one message in particular to the gay community.

“I love you, thanks for being great fans. Don’t let anyone put you down - fuck em!”

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