- Music
- 18 Oct 02
We asked the members of hotpress.com to submit questions for Korn’s kilt-wearing frontman Jonathan Davis and then locked him in a room with just a spotlight and a tape recorder
What’s your favourite food?
::: John Dunning
Er, I’d have to say Italian food. I just love it. That or Japanese food. I love them both. But Italian a little bit more.
Do you think you’ll ever wear leather like a real rock star?
::: Charlotte Bergin
I do wear leather. I’ve been wearing leather a long time. I’ve leather suits, leather kilts…I’ve been wearing them since Issues. I wear leather and spikes and stuff.
What do you consider to be your favourite band?
::: Michelle
I had so many, but I think my favourite band was Duran Duran. I’ve always loved them. When I was growing up, I was totally into the romantics scene – going through high school and stuff. I listened to Adam Ant and all that kind of thing. I never listened to heavy music before I got in this band. The only heavy band I listened to was Ministry and I listened to them when they were soft! When they got hard, I got into Skinny Puppy, stuff like that. More industrial, dark stuff. I was into Christian Death. All kinds of Goth music. It was crazy.
What is with you and bagpipes? You’re not really Scottish are ya?
::: Simon Parry
Yes I am. On My Grandmother’s side.
As Nu Metal pioneers, what is your opinion on the countless bands that have borrowed your own formula and style, mashed it about a bit, and gotten big as a result? It must annoy you, does it not?
::: Sean Donegan
At first it kind of annoyed me, but after a while it was like so many bands doing it, I thought there’s never going to be another Korn that can do it like we do it so it doesn’t really bother me. It’s more like a compliment to me that they’d like our sound so much that they’d borrow from it so…
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Why do you always wear kilts on stage and how many do you own?
::: Megan Sharpe
(thinking) I don’t know how many kilts I own… probably around 15 or 16. And, er, I like kilts. No, they’re not in the family tartan. I totally bastardise them they’re all leather, some with spikes, some… there’s all different. So yeah. I make my own. They’re not traditional kilts. I make them look cooler.
Are you surprised at the size of your fanbase in Ireland?
::: Denise
Uhm, I guess I’ll be surprised tonight when I see. Cos the last time we played here was at the SFX and that was three, or four years ago. (I inform him that Untouchables debuted at number 2) Oh, that’s awesome. Hell yeah, (he grins) that’s awesome.
What kind of underwear do you like?
::: Rebecca Nicholson
Calvin Klein’s. And on women? None.
What’s the story with the backward ‘R’ in your logo?
::: Rowan
It was written like a little child would write it. I actually did that with my left hand, real quick, and it’s become the logo and it’s written everywhere now and it freaks me out.
What is your weapon of choice?
::: Bluebird
HK compact 45 ACP. That’s my gun. I got all kinds of guns. I love them. I’ve got at least twenty. I’ve got all kinds of handguns, rifles, all kinds of things.
Do you know of the West Memphis Three and what’s your opinion of the situation?
::: Michelle
Yes I know of the West Memphis Three and I think it’s stupid and it’s basically a witch hunt. We were trying to do something for them, so hopefully we can play Arkansas and donate something to the foundation for those kids. Yes, I do know about that. That was jacked up.
Did you find your work on Queen Of The Damned put a strain on the relationship between you and the rest of your bandmates?
::: Ronan O’Farrell
Well, there wasn’t really any strain because I had Munky and Head play on a couple of songs. It was good. They were down and I was having fun. It was awesome. I loved doing that soundtrack.
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Mos Def slagged you off on their track ‘Rock’n’Roll’ from the Black On Both Sides album? Did you hear it and what’s your response?
::: Chris Deegan
I didn’t even know they did that. Who’s Mos Def? The hip hop artist Mos Def?? Reeeeaaaallllyyyy! (Laughs). Well I just guess I’ll have to kill him.
What was the weirdest place you ever had sex and what did you get up to while you were at it?
::: Melissa Harding
On an embalming tale in the mortuary. (Davis is a former mortician.)
What do you think of the opinion that Sexart was a much better band name than Korn?
::: Carol Tuohy
Well I guess that’s your opinion! Korn is way better, I think. Sexart was an old band, and yuck. I hate that name.
Where does your name come from?
::: Kim McNair
You mean Korn? Well, I was at a party with these two faggots and they were really drunk. Two gay guys. And they were talking about how when they were fucking each other one guy was sucking the other guy’s asshole he blew this diarrhoea fart out and when he opened his mouth he had a corn kernel on his tongue. So I used to go around to people who knew the story and say “Corn” and it’d remind them of it and they’d be totally grossed out. So it just stuck in my head.
Do you ever hanker after the time you worked as a coroner? It must have been pretty interesting work.
::: Brian Mooney
What does hanker mean? Oh, No, I wouldn’t want to go back. It was cool and all, I loved it, but, in that period of my life it worked for me. It jacked my head up too much. It made me a motionless zombie. I would’ve gone crazy.
What do you consider your favourite album so far?
::: Michelle
(Immediately) Untouchables.
Because we spent so much time working on it. We put all we had into it. We took our time and made some great songs.
What does Ronald W. Anderson do?
::: Hillary
(Laughs) How the hell do they know about Ron? He’s my vocal coach. He warms me up and gets my voice ready for the show.
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What’s your favourite cheese?
::: The Antichrist
Buffalo mozzarella.
One of my mates said to me that, to look at you, one might deduce that you were into S&M. Could this be true? Is she right?
::: Samantha Howard
Yes I am into S&M. It’s great. It’s fun. You’re getting your ass beat by somebody and it’s a fucking cool feeling. I’ve been cracked with whips or whatever; I’ve had my ass beat so many times. Me and my girl like to Saran wrap so I get Saran wrapped up – all kinds of weird shit. You get wrapped up like a mummy. You can’t even move. Sweat, all crazy shit. I don’t have a rack though. Or one of those big wheels. You have to go to dungeons to do that. They’ve got professional dungeons. I’ve been to them. They’re cool. There’s all kinds of stuff you can do in one of those.
Untouchables cost a whopping $4 million to make. What the fuck did you spend all the money on?
::: Sean Mackey
Uhm, well a lot of it was spent on our crew. We didn’t think we were going to take that long so, because we didn’t want them to leave and go do other jobs, so we paid all them money for two years. It’s called a retainer. Those are the people who make us look good and sound good and you don’t want to loose them. You gotta keep them on board; it’s part of the gig.
Are you embarrassed by Fieldy’s solo album? In all fairness, it was a bit crap.
::: Kevin Dooley
Uhm, I don’t want to even go there. I was happy that he got to do something he wanted to do. And I support him 100%. But I’m not going to slag him. I’m happy that he’s happy. I could never slag my boy.
What’s your favourite soft drink?
::: Kevin Dooley
7Up. Because it’s caffeine free. I don’t drink caffeine. I just stopped, everything. I’ve been sober for four years. I don’t drink anymore. I was too fucking nuts. I was going to kill myself.
Are you and Fred Durst still mates?
::: Denise Broderick
I don’t know. We speak sometimes, but I haven’t seen the guy in almost three years. We talk on our two ways, but I’m still cool with him, I guess. I don’t know. It’s not like we used to be.
What was your most memorable gig?
::: Mickod
I’d have to say Woodstock ’99. And when we played in Mexico City this year. They were just so massively huge. Woodstock, just the history of it, and playing in front of 3 or 400,000 people. And Mexico because it was our biggest headlining gig infront off 60 or 65,000 people. It was insane.
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Can you still be credible now that you’ve made so much money?
::: Lisa Wall
Yeah. Money has nothing to do with it. Money just brings you more problems. Just because I have money doesn’t mean I’m less credible. I don’t understand that. The only thing that changes is that everything costs more. It’s weird. It trips me out.
What was it like collaborating with Linkin Park on Reanimation?
::: Lorraine Fitzsimons
I did it at my studio in my house. Mike came over, and I had fun. I like talking about cutting my face off and ripping people up. I like their music. I think it’s cool what Linkin Park do. I think the approach they took was awesome. It’s great how they mixed everything up. It’s not like a traditional remix album.
What’s the point of the doll?
::: Ian Cobbin
‘The Doll’ being the Issues doll? We picked that out of all the artwork that was sent in to us from the fans. We saw it, and it was the coolest. That’s where we got the doll from. A kid made that up and we liked it.
Who in the band is most likely to puke in his bunk on the tourbus?
::: Will
That’d have been me four years ago. Now, none of the guys puke when they drink. They’ve got high tolerances to alcohol. They’ve been drinking for years and years. I was the one that always puked. I drank ’til I puked. That was my whole thing. I was an alcoholic-bulimic. I’d drink and then I’d go puke, then I’d come back and drink more. So it was cool.