Faith, family, and Korn: Brian ‘Head’ Welch on his return to the band

Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch recently talked about his experience rejoining the band in early 2013, eight years after he first left, in an interview with Jackson, Mississippi’s Rock 93.1 radio station. 

I was on tour with P.O.D. I was opening for them with my other band. And they had a festival and Korn was playing, Evanescence, all these bands. My daughter was with me. She was 12. So I surprised her. I was, like, ‘I’m gonna jump on P.O.D.’s bus and go to the festival,’ because we had a day off. My band wasn’t playing. P.O.D. tour just happened to go by that festival to play real quick. And we went in, and I was, like, ‘This is crazy,’ ’cause I hadn’t really seen the guys. I’d seen Jonathan a month before that. He came to watch me sing in my band. I’m, like, ‘This is horrible. I can barely sing live and here’s one of the best singers out there watching me.’ And I was so nervous and embarrassed. But we hadn’t seen each other in seven years or something, so we just cried and said hello. And then, at that festival, I was just gonna be kind of low key, maybe say hi to him after. But word got around that I was there, and I went and saw ’em. They said, ‘Come do the meet-and-greet with us.’ So I went and said hi to fans. And then they said, ‘Play some songs with us.’ I was, like, ‘No, man. I don’t remember all the parts. I need pedals.’ And they said, ‘Just play one. Play ‘Blind’ with us.’ I was, like, ‘Cool.’ And I played it, and the whole place just… It was just this emotional thing led by Jonathan, ’cause he had his brothers that he knew since childhood on stage. So he broke down and told the crowd, ‘I need a minute.’ Then he came to me and said, ‘If this is the last memory you gave me, thank you for this memory.’ ‘Cause he didn’t think, ‘Oh, this is it. He’s coming back.’ Or he didn’t probably know if he wanted me back. But I left in such a horrible way that… It wasn’t horrible — it was bitter. And we were all on drugs except Jonathan, which is funny, but were all on drugs or alcohol — we were all on both — and so when I left, it was really ugly. And so I felt it was closure to do that one show with them. And I’m, like, ‘Okay, cool. I’m gonna go rough and tough it on the side and barely make it, and that’s cool. And I’m good with that.’ And I feel like that’s what a lot of the people in the Bible did; they didn’t have it all easy. And then I was at home and I remember just that Christ inside of you that came to reveal that.

But that sporadic live show wasn’t the end of the tale.

There’s seasons in my life where I just go deep and I try to connect, when I have a lot of time off or whatever. And after all that stuff happened, I connected. And I remember I had this few weeks at home where he felt so close to me. And it was one of the longest seasons of experiencing that closeness with Christ. And that’s when he unfolded things to me, like start breaking kind of religion off of me. Like, ‘You don’t have to do exactly what the disciples did in the Bible and make your life miserable.’ And that’s when Munky  called me. And he said, ‘Hey, we’re doing a new album. No pressure. You wanna come down to see what happens? No expectation, nothing.’ I was, like, ‘Thank you, man, so much, but I feel like I wanna go this other way.’ And he goes, ‘If you change your mind, call us. It’s good to see you.’ And then I was at home for a few more days, and I remembered this guy from South Africa came to me in 2006 and he said there’s gonna be a reconciliation with the guys. And he said there’s gonna be a call from James. And I still have that recording to this day. Some guy that saw things. And so I didn’t do it because of that, but it did make me curious — a lot more curious. I did it because I was just praying and I felt like God was, like… A lot of people, all they know is the horrible religion. There’s mean street preachers outside of Korn concerts and a lot of fans just know that. Now what can I do to go show love? And so I start opening up, and boom. I called them. We agreed on all kinds of different things — there were just a few things we discussed. And there it was. And next thing you know, I’m in the studio writing with them, and we’re looking at each other and I was, like, ‘This is really gonna happen, huh?’ And he was, like, ‘Yeah, it’s on. This is crazy.’ And so I realized that a whole new door opened and my whole life was changed.

All worked out for the best.

And so going back into it — the last thing I’ll say — I was so drunk and messed up when I left for years. I had to relearn what it was like to be on stage in that big a capacity tour and do a record, do press, start doing more TV, all that stuff. It was like I forgot the past. It was cloudy — it was very cloudy — ’cause I was so messed up. So it was, like, I was given a second chance to be a rock star in a healthy way. Very grateful.

He also spoke about the ripple effect after he rejoined.

It’s just so clean around the atmosphere of Korn. We just have so much honor and respect for each other. It’s, like, everybody listens to each other. Now Jonathan, as you know, is like the quarterback, so we follow his lead a lot. But me and James are all about the business part of it. Jonathan wants nothing to do with it. He’s, like, ‘You guys go do that. It’s stressing me out.’ But creatively, in the studio and everything, we all honor and work together. And if there’s something that we need to change or do on the road or in the studio or something, even Jonathan, he’ll hear us and listen. And we’ve just got massive respect. And Ray, the drummer, he’s just never a problem — ever. And Fieldy’s been out of the band since, like, 2020, and he’s just focusing on family. So we got this guy, ‘Ra’ Díaz, another amazing South American guy coolest accent ever. Very, very humble. And so it just feels really clean and mature. And it’s all about this band that we created and keeping it going, growing it and rocking out with the fans. It’s all about the fans. There’s no groupies. There’s no drugs. There’s no partying backstage. Our drummer is the only one that drinks, and he drinks wine. He gets purple teeth every night at, like, 1 a.m. So that’s as crazy as it gets. It’s all about the show.