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Recently, acclaimed former Korn guitarist Brain “Head” Welch, always a man of many words and interesting stories, was kind enough to speak with us regarding, among many other things, the release of his riveting New York Times Bestselling autobiography Save Me From Myself…
Todd: At what point did you realize it was no longer possible for you to remain a member of Korn?
Brian Welch: “…In 2004 when I was hooked on drugs and Korn and I caught my daughter singing some Korn lyrics for the song “A.D.I.D.A.S.”, which stand for All Day I Dream About Sex. She didn’t know what she was singing, but just hearing it come from her mouth was like ‘…oh no…’. I was hooked on methamphetamines and I just knew I had to leave. …I believe God spoke to me and gave me the courage to say no to the pressure of still wanting to be a Rock star and actually taking my mind off of myself and putting it on my daughter. He gave me the love, strength and courage to just be at home with my kid. It was easy because I knew I was making the right decision. …There’s no way, at the end of my life, that I’ll regret it, but if I had stayed in Korn, there’s all kinds of regret that I could have had.”
Todd: In hindsight, considering the severity of your past addictions, do you feel you may not have survived had you remained a member of the group?
Brian: “…I could have cleaned up, gotten off drugs and still stayed in the band because God revealed himself to me and God took that stuff away from me. I’m a very loyal person, ya know? …Especially now that I have God in my life. I just figure that if someone does something nice for you, you should try and do nice stuff back for them. When God took the drugs away from me, revealed himself to me and did all these wonderful things for me and my family, it was just in my heart to give him everything that I am. …The guys in Korn aren’t horrible people…I just knew that being there (in the band) wasn’t glorifying him and that I could be doing something greater than that. He gave me the courage to walk away and die to myself in every way so that I can do everything that I can for him.”
Todd: At this point, can you envision yourself ever reconciling with the group?
Brian: “I don’t know what
the future holds. I have no plans for that now, but three years ago if you had
told me I would be a Christian and wouldn’t be in Korn, I would have told you
that you were crazy (laughs). …I don’t know what the future holds…you never
know what God’s gonna do. For now, I just feel like he’s calling me to be
someone that I’ve never been before. I’m just letting Christ live through
me…it’s doing something to me, but I don’t know what, though.”
Todd: Have you had an opportunity to partake in any of the group’s ‘…post-Head…’ recordings? Did everything sound how you’d imagined it would?
Brian: “Yeah, I’ve listened to a little bit of it. It’s just really different. …It’s electronic sounding…a lot of their new stuff. It’s got a different vibe, but I like it and it’s cool for what they do. …I think they did what was in their hearts and they’re doin’ fine with it. They’re sellin’ lots of records and are doin’ great. I have a lot of respect for those guys. The lost me, they lost their drummer (David Silveria, who is currently on “hiatus” from the group) and they keep going. There’s three left and they keep on going, so you gotta give that to ‘em.”
Todd: Despite the obvious positive changes to your life that occurred since your departure from the group, are there any aspects of your time with Korn you wish you could relive?
Brian: “…I miss playing live, but I’m gonna be doing that soon. I like being away from those guys…because I was more of a follower. I followed what (Korn vocalist) Jonathan (Davis) wanted to do, I followed what (Korn bassist Reginald) “Fieldy” (Arvizu) wanted to do and now I’m in place where I’m in charge. It’s good to not be a follower because I get to do what I believe in, which is Christ. …I am a follower because I follow Christ, but he’s put me in charge of what I’m doing now. It’s not a power thing. I just feel that I’m free to do what’s in my heart, what I believe in. And it’s all for God, so it’s a good, good feeling. …God’s right there in the middle of it helping me, giving me more power than what I have, so it’s all good.”
Todd: What ultimately prompted you to write a book? Did you feel it was necessary for your story to be properly conveyed?
Brian: “…A friend actually suggested it to me and…Harper Collins publishing just kinda reached out to us. I wasn’t even thinking about a book because I’m a musician, ya know? …I just wanted to get my music out there. …I wasn’t really that excited about it at first, but once I got started writing… I didn’t know I could write, but I guess God put a gift on me to at least write my story. I had a couple of editors help me, but then I got really into it and got excited about it. …Back in 2005, when people would ask me about my conversion during interviews, I didn’t have enough time to tell my story. You can only say so much. I just wanted to put the whole story down so people could know what really happened. When I left Korn, a lot of people were shocked and were like ‘…wow, this guy’s weird and freaky…’…they didn’t know what to think, so the whole story is here now and they can think whatever they want.”
Todd: Overall, how do you feel the book tour has gone thus far? Have the crowds been as large or as small as you were expecting them to be?
Brian: “It’s been awesome. In the beginning, it started out slow…there were maybe fifty people at the bookstores. But it was cool because it was intimate and I was able to take the time to answer questions and let people tell me about their lives. …Then, the bookstores started getting bigger…I think just because of word of mouth…and the crowds jumped up to a couple of hundred. I still have the time to talk to everybody… Within six days, the book went to number twenty on the New York Times Bestsellers List, so that was a surprise. …Going from a guy that wasn’t really excited about doing a book to being on the Bestsellers List is pretty amazing to me. …Barnes And Noble, one of their reps for the East Coast area, said that it’s just amazing because books by musicians don’t usually do that well…especially when it’s about a musician that found God. She said that’s extremely rare, so I’ll just take that as another sign from God.”
Todd: Have you received any negative reactions to the content or subject matter of the book? I would image not everyone has been comfortable with some of the insights you story offers…
Brian: “You know what? I’ve had pretty much nothing but positive (reactions) with the book. Korn fans have been comin’ up to me and saying ‘…I bought your book because I wanted to read about the dirt on Korn, I’ve read it and I’ve found myself inspired by your story…’. A couple people have been saved…they’ve given their lives to Christ within a Border’s bookstore. There’s been a rumor going around that I was trashing Korn, that I was digging up all the dirt on everyone’s lives. …The guys in Korn…I don’t really speak to them right now even though we’re not on bad terms…we just don’t contact each other. …They got the rumor and they heard that I was talkin’ trash, but as soon as everybody read it when it came out, they realized that I’m just tryin’ to tell my story and that I’m not bashin’ anyone, ya know? They’re cool with it now. …I just wanted to share my heart and tell people what happened to me and why and how I came to where I’m at today. …I tried to be very respectful to the people, but the people that were in my life…my partners in crime in whatever I was doing…I dragged them through my story because they were there. I tried to be respectful to people’s wishes and privacy. The stuff I shared about Korn…especially things like Jonathan drinking his own puke…I think I had already shared most of that in the press…I tried to do it that way so no one would be surprised, but I also wanted to take the reader through a realistic trip backstage and behind the scenes.”
Todd: What can you tell us about your forthcoming solo debut? Musically, how will it differ from your work with Korn?
Brian: “It’s going to be similar to Korn musically, but with a different message. It’s intense, heavy Rock like Korn. …It’s basically like the book. It’s about my life and how God saved me from myself. There’s even a song on it called “Save Me From Myself”. …There are songs on it about me getting sick of partying and needing to start over. Some of it’s about my faith…and how I’ve seen the religious and Christian side of things. I want to promote the relationship, ya know? …I just wanna help hurting people…that’s my point. I wanna help people with my music and just let God live through me and reach out to people.”
Todd: What musicians have you been working with?
Brian: “I did all the vocals and the guitars, but I brought in some awesome musicians…some veterans. I brought in (Eric Clapton/Steely Dan drummer) Steve Gadd, (King Crimson/Yes bassist) Tony Levin…I brought in (Nine Inch Nails/A Perfect Circle drummer) Josh Freese to do a lot of drums and I also brought in Trevor Dunn to do some bass… …It was just fun, ya know? It’s a cool sounding record. …We’re talkin’ to two labels right now…we’re negotiating. I’m on God’s time. I don’t know what’s actually going on. I didn’t know I was gonna do a book and now here I am doin’ a book tour, so everything’s on his time and is his plan, so we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, the music will be out real soon…like within the next eight months.”
Todd: Did you initially find it difficult make the transition from lead guitarist to lead vocalist/guitarist?
Brian: “It was kinda difficult because I had never sung lead before. All I ever did in Korn was some soft background vocals and some loud screams and it’s hard to mess those up, ya know? …God’s helped me to develop a voice to where I can sing verses, choruses and the whole song. I’ve always wanted to have a voice that I could do that with and he’s given that to me. It was kinda hard at first. There are challenges, of course with everything that we do, but he’s helped me through it and I got it recorded. The next challenge is getting me built up so that I can sing all of the songs live for an hour and a half or whatever.”
Todd: Any idea what type of venues you’ll be playing when you eventually tour in support of the album? Will you be including any Korn material amidst your set?
Brian: “I don’t know what’s going to happen, so… I’d like to start out intimate, ya know? Those were always the fun shows with Korn. I don’t know what God’s gonna do, though, ya know? …The book is selling great, so I suppose it will be whatever the demand is. If I go out there and there’s a demand for me to go to large places, then I’ll have to go, but to start out, I’d like to do some small shows…some theaters or maybe even some small clubs. …I think I’ll just be playing my straight music. That was then and this is now. It’s not like Korn broke up. There still out there doin’ it, so people can go out and see that for themselves.”
Todd: At the end of the day, what do you feel is the main purpose of you life’s work? Is there a specific goal you’re striving to achieve?
Brian: “I just wanna tell my story. You know what I’ve found? When I was trying to get off drugs, I asked God for help, not knowing if he was real or not. …I found out that he’s real and he’s so close to us that we’re breathing with him, ya know? We can know him…we can know him intimately. ...The fact is that we’re all dying and we can be connected with the eternal realm right now. It’s just so fun to me. I wanna take it to the kids and teach them what I’ve learned. God is so good and so close…he just wants a relationship with everyone. …Some of that stuff turns people off, so my music can be just about positivity, ya know? It’s about a different vision of life. It’s about positivity and feeling good so we can stop running to the junk that makes us sick and unhealthy. …My main thing is that I’m so close to God…if you draw near to him, he’ll draw near to you. …My biggest thing in my heart is that I want people to know him, come to him and get to know him.”
Select Discography
Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (2004) *
Take A Look In The Mirror (2003) *
Untouchables (2002) *
Issues (1999) *
Follow The Leader (1998) *
Life Is Peachy (1996) *
Korn (1994) *
* as a member of Korn