ATN: What about the logo for Korn, it looks like the cover of
a Stephen King book. How did it come about?
Davis: With the backwards R, I did it in about two seconds, the whole gross story about our name had a very kid vibe about it. [Korn got it's name from an urban myth that was made the rounds in Bakersfield's underage set. It had something to do with a homosexual encounter that went awry when one of the participants came down with a virulent case of diarrhea, during the act of passion. What transpired was the "catcher" was left with a mouthful of, how-you-say, feces, and one shining, pristine kernel of corn glistening on his tongue]. The whole basis for that album was growing up and being a kid, so I took a big black crayon and did that in two seconds left-handed, when they told us that they needed a logo.
ATN: This album seems to treat childhood in a strange way, pointing out the cruelty rather than the lighthearted aspects of it...the horror of childhood. Was your childhood particularly bad?
Davis: Yeah. I think everybody forgets how bad childhood can be, but I remember it when I meet a lot of the young kids that come to our shows that are going through that right now. It was just something I had to get out.
ATN: When you were young, did you have problems more with your peers or with your family?
Davis: It was probably a little of both. The kids would fuck with me, and my parents would make it worse.
THE MAN BEHIND THE EYELINER
ATN: Are you an only child?
Davis: No I have a sister, a half-brother, a half-sister and one step sister. I was living with my real sister and my step sister, so I had two girls in the house.
ATN: That's where the eyeliner came from?
Davis: Yeah. When I was in high school I wasn't a jock, I was into art, drama, and music and I wore eyeliner, so I wasn't accepted. People used to call me a faggot and a queer, so I wrote this song to get back at them.
ATN: What brand did you use?
Davis: Mary Kay, or that really cheap shit, what's it called, Wet and Wild.
ATN: I thought they just made nail polish.
Davis: No, but I do have all kinds of their crazy nail polishes now.
ATN: I envision you with black nail polish, maybe that's because the music is so dark.
Davis: No I have fluorescent pink and green on. I've got a whole bunch of metallic colors, but I like the enamels better because the fluorescence show up better.
ATN: Did writing about the horrors of childhood prove to be cathartic? Are you better for exorcising these demons?
Davis: Yeah, it felt great. I feel great all the time now.
ATN: Do you write most of the songs yourself?
Davis: I do a lot of writing but it's the whole band together. I do most of the lyric writing. Me and Brian are a writing group and Fieldy and Munkey are a writing group and we bring our ideas together at practice and rip them all apart.
ATN: So all the songs are written by all five of you.
Davis: Even if one person wrote an entire song, we split it all evenly. If it was published I'd get fifty percent of everything because I write the lyrics. So it's everybody. One for all, all for one.
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