Music
Korn were very high on meth when they recorded their first album
by Tyler Munro
December 12, 2014
Though it will likely not surprise anybody who’s seen them, Korn have admitted an interesting tidbit about their first album: Namely, that they were all pretty loaded on meth when they wrote it.
Rolling Stone dubbed Korn’s self-titled debut as their “most important metal release of the last 20 years,” something perhaps even more insane than their rankings of Bruce Springsteen and U2’s albums atop their year end list. But in support of his opinion, writer Christopher Weingarten interviewed the band’s original line-up.
They talked about a lot of things, like their influences (Pantera, Cypress Hill and Duran Duran), but most poignantly, their addictions. Like meth.
Singer Jonathan Davis, who got sober when he was 28, says matter-of-factly: “I was a meth addict when I was doing that fucking record.”
Head, the band’s other guitarist who, after a few years gone from Korn returned a devout Christian, says that while as a young, aspiring rockstar that he never dreamt of being the clichéd drug-doing songwriter, it happened regardless.
“I was trying not to ruin my experience,” he said. “But I was addicted, so it was off and on.”
They talked about how they sent producer Ross Robinson out on drug runs and how they recorded the song “Ball Tongue” totally lit on drugs.
“Went to my dealer and got a big ol’ fat rock of meth, chopped that shit up and I did vocals,” said Jonathan Davis, who says the song was about one of their friends. “[Ball Tongue] was his nickname because when he was tweaking, he’d just sort of seize up and his tongue was like a ball.”
As for the song’s scatting, which Davis would continue to, uh, refine over the years, he says it was from “probably being up too long.”
It’s worth noting here that the band, at least insofar as their health, have totally reformed over the years. They’re clean and “all have families and shit.”
“I don’t think any of us knew that we were going to have severe addiction problems, so it was all in fun at that point,” said guitarist Munky.
Fieldy and Head have both turned full-force towards Christianity; the former has multiple religious face tattoos, the latter got religious ink on his hand to “stop him from masturbating.”
“He is the quarterback and I am the football,” he famously said.
