Retrospective

Revelations About Korn’s Debut Album That Make a LOT of Sense: Fieldy Hates Bass, Jonathan Davis Loves Meth

  • Axl Rosenberg
0

Korn - S:TSo there’s a new Rolling Stone piece entitled “Korn’s 1994 Debut LP: The Oral History of the Most Important Metal Record of the Last 20 Years.” I have not read the entire piece because i) Korn sucks and ii) if their 1994 debut is the most important metal record the last twenty years than I’m Jeff Hanneman’s ghost. That’s like calling the Monica Lewinsky scandal the most important political issue of the past twenty years or Bill O’Reilly the most important journalist of the past twenty years. Maybe I’d accept an argument that Korn’s self-titled album is “important” because of the way its influence made semi-mainstream metal totally awful for roughly ten years, but I doubt that’s the stance the article takes.

So yeah I haven’t read it.

But my brutha from anutha mutha Rob over at Metal Injection did, and he helpfully highlighted some of the, um, highlights! Thanks, Rob! Sorry to piggyback on your hard work. You can copy off of me for the Lit midterm and we’ll call it even, okay?

ANYWAY, here are some highlights from Rob’s highlights of the article’s highlights that I thought were worth highlighting:

Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, bass: When I would want to slap my bass, I wanted it to sound like it was being slapped. I didn’t want it to sound like a bass; I wanted it to sound like if you slapped a string. I don’t even like bass, to tell you the truth – it makes me nauseous.

I think that many of us have long-suspect that Fieldy hates the bass, but I always assumed it was because he found the instrument to be so complicated (“Four strings?!?!”), not because he didn’t enjoy the sound. And I never thought he slapped his bass so much because he was literally trying to punish it. I wonder if he knows that his bass can’t feel pain, and then when he tries to hurt it, he’s only hurting himself?

Moving on… the other highlight I felt was worth highlighting was this little gem of a quote:

Jonathan Davis, vocals: I was a meth addict when I was doing that fucking record.

And:

Davis: Went to my dealer and got a big ol’ fat rock of meth, chopped that shit up and I did vocals.

Yes, the first Korn album’s success is largely the result of the one drug that makes crackheads feel superior. While under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and/or heroin, musicians have created such great works as The White Album and Exile on Main Street and Houses of the Holy and Paranoid and Ride the Lightning. While under the influence of meth, Jonathan Davis created the song “Faget.” Score another point for crack!

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