LIFE LESSONS
BRIAN ‘HEAD’ WELCH
As Korn’s guitarist resurrects his Love And Death project, he talks addiction, redemption and, um, farting
WORDS: STEPHEN HILL
BRIAN WELCH HAS had one of the most interesting journeys of any metal musician in living memory. As a member of Korn he helped to craft the sound of nu metal, superbly anchoring their bottom-heavy attack and tag-teaming riffs with fellow guitarist James ‘Munky’ Shaffer, before his spiral into addiction led him away from Korn and into the wilderness. His salvation was found in his religious beliefs, spiritual awakening and, ultimately, an emotional reformation with his bandmates. As he prepares to resurrect his post-Korn solo project-turned-fully functioning band, Love And Death, we find out what he’s learned from it all.
I CAN’T EXPLAIN KORN’S SOUND
“We just took all of this music – metal, punk, industrial, hip hop – and melded it all together on that first album. We somehow nailed a moment in time when people were looking for something new and the climate was right. Jonathan had so much pain in his life and he just needed to get it out, that’s all we really concentrated on. We didn’t know what it was going to be. People didn’t like it at first; we were an oddity, but we started to grow on people, we just put a stamp on the history of heavy music and we’re proud of that. Did I think back then you’d be asking me about it today? Hell, no!”