KORN Frontman Says He Went Totally Sober 'For My Kid And For Myself'

Phillip Zonkel of PressTelegram.com recently conducted an interview with KORN frontman Jonathan Davis. The singer talks about his early music influences (HANK WILLIAMS and A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS),the band's new CD, "See You on the Other Side", and giving up drugs and alcohol. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

PressTelegram.com: Critics have said that "See You on the Other Side" is a more emotional recording than previous KORN discs. It's not consumed by so much anger.

Jonathan: "I see it as a more emotional record. It's more of a thing where I'm trying to do something different. It's always been about me, me, me, me. Emotions coming from me. (Stuff) that bugged me.

"This time around, I wanted to come from a different angle and try to get across different feelings. 'Hypocrites' was my total disgust with Christianity. 'Politics' was my total disgust of human politics, not regular politics. Personal politics, like a woman sleeping with her boss to get ahead, people that hurt other people to get ahead in life. Those politics just disgust me. It's just wrong.

"'Coming Undone' is when you've reached your point and you're like, 'I can't take this (stuff) anymore,' and you do something crazy."

PressTelegram.com: You've written and sung about these type emotions and ideas before. This isn't new territory.

Jonathan: "But I haven't presented it this way before. I think you can understand more what I'm saying. It's not so general. I used to write stuff that you could read into, but this stuff is more specific."

PressTelegram.com: Is this new style an example of you maturing as a songwriter?

Jonathan: "Yeah. I'm getting older. You learn more. I've been doing this 12 years. If you do anything long enough you get better at it, hopefully."

PressTelegram.com: Looking back, how would you describe yourself as a songwriter on KORN's first CD?

Jonathan: "I was a dumb kid when I did the first album. I was just 22. I was a confused kid with a bad drug problem. My mind was scattered all over the place. Writing that album was real easy because I had my whole life to write about.

"It was a fun time. I was living my dream, doing what rock stars were supposed to do at that time. Then you grow up and you figure out that cliche is (expletive) and you can do what you want to do.

"But when you grow up dreaming about being a rock star, you want to do drugs, (have sex with) chicks. Once you do that for a while, and you see how bad it (messes) you up, hopefully you get out or you die. And I got out."

PressTelegram.com: How did you get out?

Jonathan: "I went totally sober."

PressTelegram.com: No alcohol, no pot, no heroin, no cocaine…?

Jonathan: "Nothing. Not even caffeine."

PressTelegram.com: How did you do it?

Jonathan: "I did it cold turkey. On Aug. 22, I had my last drink and said I'm not doing it anymore. I stopped smoking, stopped everything on that day."

PressTelegram.com: Why did you want to stop?

Jonathan: "My grandfather passed away and it was really traumatic for me. I was on the road and thought I could drown my sorrows in drugs and alcohol, but that made it worse.

"My son, Nathan, saw me drunk. That really freaked me out. He didn't understand why daddy was falling down, puking on the ground. Just the look he gave me was enough to make me quit."

PressTelegram.com: His look made you feel…

Jonathan: "Like a piece of (expletive). Like, you dumb, drunk (expletive). You got a kid, what are you doing?

"It was like, I'm doing this for my kid and for myself. If I don't I'm going to die. So I stopped. No AA, none of that other (stuff). AA is good for people who need it, but it's just another religion. It's just another cult."

PressTelegram.com: Did you have any help from therapists or counseling?

Jonathan: "Nope. You just have to be a strong mind. You need to be ready to quit. If you're not ready to quit, that's when you need AA and all that other (stuff). I was ready to stop."