Korn [Blind]
A reference to Jonathan's drug use during his early years.
"Another place I find to escape the pain inside"
The drugs controlled his life. They provided an escape from the pain he endured
as a young adult, and he couldn't see any future direction for himself.
"see through the grey that clouds my mind"
He wants to escape the confusion in his mind but his self esteem is so low that
he is not confident enough to make change for himself. He wants to leave the
world and start again but he doesn't know how, so he uses drugs to distort
reality.
[Ball Tongue]
"The meaning of ball tongue is simple. Some thought it had to do with oral sex,
but in fact its about a guy we had to work with on a t-shirt. He either had a pierced
tongue or a wart or something on his tongue and he was a dick to us" - Jonathan Davis
While the lyrics to Ball Tongue would have you believe otherwise it has always
been said that the song a guy with a pierced tongue who used to make t-shirts
for the band but ended up screwing them all over.
"There you are alone, with no hope of ever having something to be proud
of, something earned without begging"
It appears that the person was close to Jonathan but he had doubt that
what he was doing for the band made any difference, so s/he backstabbed
them. S/he disconnected her/himself from Korn and ended up doing nothing,
in the hope that they would come running back to save him/her from his own
self pity.
"Why are you at home buried in your own self pity? Why do you insist on
living the life clean out of me? "
The person was one of few who shared time with Jonathan but became obsessed
with him, expecting him to give all his attention.
"Yes, I know you're the person, the person that took time with me. Does it give
you the right to expect your life revolves around me?"
[Need To]
Need To is about being in a relationship with someone you love so much but you
are too scared to get close to them because you're paranoid that they may stop
loving you.
"You pull me closer, I push you away, You tell me it's okay, I can't help but
feel the pain"
Jonathan was used to being fucked over by people he loved and any future
relationship was going to feel the same. Every time he thought he was getting
too close he would push her away.
"I hate you .... Fuck you, bitch"
Jonathan already resents the girl because he's so confident that she will
end up breaking his heart. He hates her before she has even done anything.
[Clown]
"We were playing at this show in San Diego and this skinhead guy came up
and said 'Fuck You! Go back to bakersfield!' I didn't understand that I bent
down and he took a swing at me. Our road manager Jeff knocked his ass out" - Jonathan Davis
"A tatooed body to hide who you are, Scared to be honest, be yourself"
It seems that this incident was a breaking point for Jon. As the Clown video
shows he was a victim of torment from his peers at school because he was different.
He was an individual, and this was hard for others to accept. Everyone
else hid behind an image that wasn't representative of themselves, but of
what others wanted them to be.
[Divine]
Divine is about the sting of revenge. Jonathan wanted someone who didn't
want him. Then the tables turned and he found that this person wanted him
now.
"You're suffering 'cause of me, it's divine"
"Did you really think you'd beat me at my own game"
He wanted to show her how it felt to want someone you can't have, and
he knows now that since he lost interest in her she realises what she's
given up. Now it's his turn to have some fun, and he is enjoying it.
"You know what, Fuck you, I'm fed up with you, I'm not as good as you,
Fuck no, I'm better than you"
Jonathan knows he's a better person than her by showing that he's not a doll
that can be picked up and put down at will.
[Faget]
"Everyone thinks I'm bashing gay people in this song, and I'm not. It's really
about me going through highschool being called 'pussy', 'queer', and all that
stuff, about getting picked on by all these jocks." - Jonathan Davis
Spend any time with Davis and one is likely to be subjected to an endless
barrage of queer references and gay jokes. But what might initially come
across as small-town homophobia turns out to be something more, a by-product
of a lifetime of sexual confusion. One Davis-penned song, entitled "Faget,"
reflects on time spent as a Duran Duran-loving New Romantic, when the singer
would don makeup and hang out in gay bars. "Everyone thought I was gay my
whole life," says Davis, "so I have to joke about it just to deal with it."
- Spin Magazine
[Shoots and Ladders]
"It was written because all these little kids sing these nursery rhymes
and they don't know what they originally meant. Everyone is so happy when
singing but 'London Bridge' is about the Black Plague. All of them have these
evil stories behind them." "The lyrics are all from nursery rhymes, and a lot
of nursery rhymes go back to the Middle Ages. They're actually pretty twisted
if you know the stories behind them, like about Black Death and stuff."
- Jonathan Davis
[Predictable]
Another relationship cliche that Jon finds so predictable. Every relationship he goes
into he's going to find himself hurt at the end. He wonders why there is any point in
it at all because he'd rather die than feel the pain.
"I can in every way, mistake the pain I feel inside. It comes to me, evil thoughts
is creeping through my mind"
How can he deal with the situations of a failed relationship but to remove himself from
the world, or remove the other person. If he can't have them, noone can.
[Fake]
This is another song with a theme similar to Clown. Everyone around him hides behind
an image of what their peers want them to be.
"I can't stand the sight of you, I can't stand what you put me through. Your life's
a lie, that you hide. Is it that terrible being you inside?"
Jonathan is persecuted for being himself rather than another person trying to fit
in with the crowd.
"You try so hard to be wanted. False emotions tells you fronted. I think being a
person relies on one thing. Be yourself, let you come through"
Everyone wants to fit in so badly that they will change their appearance and
opinions to that of the mainstream crowd.
"Fake, you'll regret it, you'll regret it"
Once they are older they will realise that they've wasted their youth by trying
to be something they're not.
[Lies]
Again with the same theme of Clown and Fake, Lies picks on those who are too
afraid to be themselves. People who hide behind a conformed society.
"I want you to see the life you have disguised"
"Do you ever see from outside your fears"
He is pointing out those who fear they too will be persecuted if they
step outside the line of individuality.
[Helmet in the Bush]
"It's about a speed problem that I had. You know, you do a lot of speed
and -- if you're a male -- your penis retracts severly." In the song he
says: 'Please God let me sleep tonight.' Jonathan had trouble sleeping,
becuase that's what it does to you. The guy heard at the beggining of the
song is La Caco, a friend of the band. His real name is Michael and like
taco bell. He's a really Nice Guy and he has been friends with the band
for years." - Jonathan Davis
[Daddy]
"People think Daddy was written because my dad fucked me up the ass, but
that's not what the song's about. It wasn't about my dad or my mom. When I
was a kid I was being abused by someone else and I went to my parents and
told them about it. They thought I was lying and joking around, so they never
did shit about it. They didn't belive it was happening to their son." - Jonathan Davis
Life Is Peachy [Twist]
A lot of heavy guitars, bass, drums and skat.
As with Ball Tongue and numerous other songs Jonathan has said there
are no lyrics. Regardless of this it is hard to deny that words cannot
be heard which make sense.
[Chi]
"Chi is about a lot of alcohol and drug abuse. People turn to that
when they have problems so that they won't have to feel their pain."
- Jonathan Davis
The song was named after Chi Cheng from the Deftones. "We named it
after him because he used to call it reggae, and he loves reggae
music." - Jonathan.
[Lost]
"It's the sterotypical thing about your best friend meeting a
chick, and then you're nothing." - Jonathan Davis
[Swallow]
"That's about being paranoid. Drug-induced paranoia." - Jonathan
Davis
[Porno Creep]
The only instrumental Korn song with a few spoken words. It seems that
Porno Creep represents one or all of the band members, or even someone
else. Notice how the self titled and Follow the Leader CD covers both
feature pornography magazine covers.
[Good God]
"It's about a guy I knew in school who I thought was my friend, but who
fucked me. He came into my life with nothing, hung out at my house,
lived off me, and made me do shit I didn't really wanna do. I was into
new romantic music and he was a mod, and he'd tell me if I didn't dress
like a mod he wouldn't be my friend anymore. Whenever I had plans to go
on a date with a chick he'd sabotage it, because he didn't have a date or
nothing. He was a gutless fucking nothing. I haven't talked to him for
years." - Jonathan Davis
[Mr Rogers]
"Back in the day when I was a speed freak, um... even further back when I
was a little kid watchin' Mr. Rogers, that shit was scary. He was a freaky
old man... Land of Makebelieve and Mr. FuckinMcFeely and shit... made me
sick. So back when I was doing speed, like for 5 or 6 days I'd be trippin
out and my brain would start to get freaky and get schizophrenic and stuff,
and I'd tape it and watch it everyday over and over... I don't know, I was
sick in the head. As a kid he told me to be polite and all it did was get me
picked on. I fucking hate that man. Thanks for making me polite and trusting
everyone, and easy to take advantage of. So I spent 3 months on that one song,
just tweakin' on it, and it was totally just my Mr. Rogers obsession, about how
evil I thought he was. Pretty much drug induced." - Jonathan Davis
[K@#O%!]
"People think it's sexist but it isn't. It's more subconcious bitching at
all the women who've been with me in my life. It's not about women in general,
just those women who hurt me. Initially, we wrote it to send to American radio
for a joke, because they always chop up all the other songs. So we were going
to send a 'real' single seven days later." - Jonathan Davis
[No Place to Hide]
No Place to Hide appears to have various themes. One could be that while
Jonathan exposes his painful past to the world he has no secrets left, and
no comfort zones. He feels raped because Korn is becoming the next big thing
and the media takes advantage of him pouring his soul out. This theme follows
that of Freak On A Leash where he feels he is just used by the industry to
make money.
[Wicked]
Wicked, a song originally from Predator by Ice Cube, features guest vocals
by Chino Moreno from the Deftones.
[A.D.I.D.A.S]
"It stands for all day I dream about sex. It's about how much of a pervert
my ass is, and how I daydream about what a stud I am. But when it comes down
to it, I'm a fucking pussy and I'm in there jacking off" - Jonathan Davis
[Low Rider]
This song by original artist War was sung by Head on his birthday. The deep
voice he uses is meant to imitate 80's rap artist Tone Loc.
[Ass Itch]
"That was the last song I wrote, and I was so burned at writing out lyrics
because everytime I write I get depressed because I start thinking about
things, you know? So the whole song is about that. In the chorus it says,
'Before day, my sun will be dying'. It's because I put myself on the line all
the time and for what? Because people aren't going to be listening to it
anyway." - Jonathan Davis
[Kill You]
"It's about a relative I first met when I was 12. I fucking hate that bitch.
She's the most evil, fucked up person I've met in my whole life. She hated
my guts. She did everything she could to make my life hell. Like, when I was
sick she'd feed me tea with Tabasco, which is really hot pepper oil. She'd
make me drink it and say, 'You have to burn that cold out, boy'. Fucked up
shit like that. So every night when I'd go to sleep, I'd dream of killing
that bitch. In some sick way I had a sexual fantasy about her, and I don't
know what that stems from or why, but I always dreamt about fucking her and
killing her." - Jonathan Davis
Follow The leader
[It's On]
"It's On" is my shit peer pressure song. Me being so stressed out going out
and partying. Everybody's just going 'Come on dude, it's on.' That's partying,
it's alcohol, cocaine, women. All that wrapped into one. I wrote a song about
it. And the chorus I talked about Why am I really doing this? It's all my fault
that I'm doing this because all the alcohol, the booze an the chicks do is just
make it worse. They just rearrange all the problems in a different order that I
can deal with at that moment.
[Freak On A Leash]
"One of the best titles I've heard ever for a song. That's my song against
the music industry. Like me feeling like I'm fuckin' a pimp, a prostitute.
Like I'm paraded around. I'm this freak paraded around but I got corporate
America fuckin' making all the money while it's taking a part of me. It's like
they stole something from me, they stole my innocence and I'm not calm anymore.
I worry constantly."
[Got the Life]
"That's a song baggin' on myself. How everything's always handed to me. How
I look up to God and don't want this anymore. Like I want something more out
of life than all this. And I've got everything I really need but I sometimes
don't like. I don't know how to explain it. I have to let it sit through the
songs more to actually get into what I write. I truly know, really, the
meanings of the songs almost. That's what I'm getting out of it right now."
[Dead Bodies Everywhere]
"That was the song about my parents trying to keep me out of the music business.
My father was in it and he knew how it was and I totally understand now that
I have a son. I want Nathan to be a musician but I him don't want him to go
through the hell I went through. That's the same thing my Dad was doing. A
lot of people can relate to it, because it's like the Dad's wanting their sons
to be football players and their sons want to be doctors or something.
That peer pressure its like trying to make them something they're really not.
And the Dead Bodies thing is like so I did it and all I got out of it was dead
bodies everywhere and got all traumatized. Thanks a lot Dad, Mom."
[Children of the Korn]
"That's the song that Ice Cube is on. Cube came up with the title.
I fed off of what he wrote, he was talking about growing up and puberty.
Dictating what he can do, like how you gonna tell me how to live and who to fuck?
And all this stuff. And I took that and in my stuff I was talking about being a
kid always known as the fuckin' town faggot. It's funny how things change. That
some of these people picked on me and all of a sudden look who's laughing now.
Also in another of the verse I talked about all these parents fuckin hating me
for what I do, saying I'm corrupting their children, but in turn these parents
need to step outside of themselves and really listen to what I'm talking about.
Then I think they can understand that they were kids before. They're just really
quick to judge me. All the Children of The Korn are all our Korn fans.
All those kids going through that shit and feeling what I feel."
[B.B.K ]
"Big black cock! That's what I call a jack and coke. Those little glasses
they serve in Europe and everything. That's what I named it, big black cock.
And that's another song about me dealing with the pressures of this album and
how I, you know, I'm trying to kill myself, but you know? Do I really want
to kill myself? Things I'm just questioning myself.
Most of this is self-structured."
[Pretty]
"It's a story about this little girl that came into the coroner's office when I
was working there and she was fucked by her dad. She was an 11 month old little
baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her and he just fucked her like a
toy doll and chucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing I've
ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it."
[All in the Family]
"Fred was there after Korn TV and we said, 'Let's do a song together, Hey,
man, let's go back and forth and rip on each other like an old school battle.'
I don't know who's idea it was, I can't remember if it was mine or Fieldy's
or Fred's but we came up with the idea and we started writing and we worked
on it together. I came up with some bags on myself for Fred to say. It was
all in good natured fun."
[Reclaim my Place]
"This one is about the whole band and about all my life being called a homosexual.
And then I became this big rock star in a band and I'm still called a fag even by
my own band. So it's like I was fuckin' pissed off at them. It's like erase them
all because I'm gonna reclaim my place and say hey, they owe a lot to me for what I
did, and I owe a lot to them back. But, it still kinda sucks.
I've never ever gotten away from that fag fuckin' title. Just because
I'm a sensitive kinda guy. Kinda feminine it really sucks." [Justin]
"Justin, that was the kid dying terminally with intestinal cancer.
His last dying wish was to meet us and it really freaked me out.
That threw a whole bunch of new kind of pressures on my head.
That's really intense. Someone's gonna die and his last thing he wants to do is
come hang out with us. So I truly just freaked out. It's like why would you want to
meet me? What makes me so special? And in turn I talk about how I admire his strength
and his life. I couldn't stare at him because he was so content he was gonna die.
No one could look him in the eyes. And I totally admire his strength. I wish I had it."
[Seed]
"Seed. That's all about the same thing again. I, laying in bed in my hotel room,
thinking about do I really need all this stuff? All this pressure on me? Because
I'm a stressed out freak. It's about Nathan, it's about every time that I look into
his eyes, I see myself how I used to be, innocent and stress free. I'm kind of
jealous of it. It really sucks, I used to be that way. It's like I have to work
so hard at this thing in my life. I have to become a stressed out freak. I put
food on the table for my child. Every time I look in his eyes, I just see myself
staring right back at my ass laughing. I was like care free, innocent as a child.
It's really weird and I'm really jealous of it."
[Cameltosis]
"That's a love song. It's about women in general, women who hurt me.
It's Tre's lyrics. He's going on about chicks and my chorus is like I'm
so scared to love anyone and really let them in after I got hurt really
really bad by a girl. I've let Renee in a little bit, to be honest, but
I'll never be that in love ever again. That's what I'm saying, if you've
loved twice, you're gonna get fucked, 'cause you usually do."
[My Gift to You]
"Renee always wanted me to write her a love song and that's why I called it My Gift To You.
It's my gift to her, you know how I get sick. I always had a fantasy of fucking her and
choking her to death. I fantasize about what it would look like me in her body and watching
me do it. So it's like a really sick fucked up song. I did it totally like, I love her so
much, I want to take her out of this world. It's really strange. She used to leave notes
on my pillow like 25 ways she'd like to kill me. She's got this weird death fetish. We're
kinda fuckin' freaky. She got it. She's all 'Thank you that's kinda fucked up.
I was expecting a fuckin' I love you, baby kinda song.' I'm all, 'No, you know me.'
I mean I can't do that."
issues
[Dead]
"All I want in life is to be happy", it's that simple. People say that it's become their own anthem.
It's like whenever I start to feel good, something comes and takes it away and I feel like I'm nothing again,
like I'm dead. - Jonathan Davis
[Falling Away From Me]
The song is about domestic abuse and that there ways to get help whether it's telling someone or calling
a help line, there are ways to get out of those situations. Noone has to be treated like that. - Jonathan Davis
[Trash]
"Trash" is about how I threw my world and everything out. I threw her away. I threw my old self away.
It basically comes back down to the sex thing. The battles I did on the road, this whole album is what
I went through because I was on the road and I went crazy. - Jonathan Davis
[Make Me Bad]
"I need to feel the sickness in you" ... It's spawned from fuckin', basically, from having sex. That's
where that line comes from, but it means a whole bunch of things to me. "Make Me Bad" was about the battles
I had being on the road, being married and being with other women. I'm not married anymore... beause of my
lifestyle, and I just couldnt do that to my wife anymore. So that ended. But does it make me bad that I have
a dick and I have fucken other feelings to be with other people? Why should I be with just one? It seems like
human beings are genetically engineered to procreate. Thats what we do, fuck everything, and that's what our
natural insides want to do. It is hard to find someone like that. But she was a good woman and I didnt want to
keep on... I did the right thing, I was a man about it. It was better for me to tell her and let her go on
with her life and find someone who could help her and be like that. So that song was spawned by that, does
it make me bad to want to be with other women? In a sence it was my only drug, why... because I dont drink
anymore, I cant drink. I've been sober for a year. I dont have any other vices. So at least doing that could
be something... - Jonathan Davis
[Beg For Me]
"Beg For Me" is more of an angry thing because the whole thing for "Beg For Me" is the crowd. The only time
I was good on tour was when I walked up onstage and that's what the song is about. Feeling wanted is
something one thing I've always needed. I was shuffled around so much when I was a kid...Being up onstage
was the only point was the only time when my anxiety would go away for an hour. - Jonathan Davis
[Hey Daddy]
"Hey Daddy" where I was schizophrenic and there were these voices telling me to do shit... To kill myself,
basically. Daddy is one of my nicknames, so its like I'm talking to myself the whole time. It's hard to
explain. - Jonathan Davis
Untouchables [ here to stay]
"Here to stay is basically about being fed up with people taking advantage of you.
I wrote it when being angry of basically being born a nice guy.
Nice people always get taking advantage off, and lashing out basically I'm tired of this
and I'm not going to let you do this to me, I'm here and I want to be this way." - Jonathan Davis
[hating]
�I mean, basically the song is about I�ve been hating everything for so long, and I think that�s just
basically negative energy I�ve just been putting out� � Jonathan Davis
[one more time]
�It�s basically about these feelings always chasing me, like I have an Alter ego.� � Jonathan Davis
[alone i break]
�I wrote it when I was going through a rough time, and it�s basically a song about
chicken-out, about things getting so bad you don�t wanna be here anymore� - Jonathan Davis
[beat it upright]
�It�s a booty song, you know, talking about freaky sex, or what ever� - Fieldy
[Wake Up Hate]
"The whole song is a fuck off. It's a song about feeling hopeless, how kids have no reason to live anymore.
What do they have to fucking live for? Back when I was growing up there were lots of opportunities for kids that
seem to have fallen off. They skirt through school and then get meaningless jobs or just go kill people and
rob and shit. It's about starting a riot, really fucking rebelling." - Jonathan Davis
[No Ones There]
No ones there is about " people who flock to you when everything is great but when it gets shitty they all bail."
- Jonathan Davis
Biroglyphics