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Autograph
Fieldy
Munky
Head
David
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Name:
Jonathan Houseman Davis
Instrument: Vocals, Bagpipes
Birth Date: January 18, 1971
Marital Status: Married, Divorced
Wife: None
Childrens: 1 son Nathan Houseman
Nickname: HIV |
Jonathan Davis was born in
Bakersfield, California on January 18th, 1971. Jonathan grew up in
Bakersfield. His halfbrother Mark says "there's nothing
to do but drugs and drink and fuck". 16 years old
he became a coroners assistant at the Coroners Department in Kern
County. He went on to graduate at the San Francisco School of
Mortuary Science. After seeing victims of car crashes, suicides, and
sexual abuse-including people he had known or talked to the day
before-he suffered post-traumatic |
| stress disorder
and has nightmares to this day, one of which is exorcised in the
Follow the Leader song "Pretty," about a young incest
victim. Jonathan's father's name is Rick Davis and he's got a sister
Alyssa Davis and a half brother Mark. Jonathan earned his
nickname after the "faget" term he was dubbed in high
school. Jonathan stood apart from his peers because of his different
style of dress, mimicking his pop star idols Duran Duran. Jonathan
does not however have AIDS or the HIV virus. 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." As a reminder Jonathan has "HIV"
tatooed on his upper left arm. "That tattoo has probably saved
my life. You know in situations when passion and lust take over your
brain.... I take a look at that tattoo and I remember that the virus
is out there and you never know who's got it" says Jonathan.
On his upper right arm is a tattoo of a crazed bishop ripping up his
skin. "The bishop is a symbol of the atrocities that religion
is making. He's ripping up my skin to reveal Christ. It's more of a
symbol of how corrupt religion is. I don't believe in any of it
because of shit like televangilism. Do you really think that all
that money really goes to charity?" "Before I got in KoRn,
I tried out to be Jesus Christ just so I could face his ass."
says Jonathan of the show Jesus Christ Superstar. "He was such
an asshole to me, but it still made me cry to watch him hang by his
neck." Jonathan's lyrics have created nothing short of
controversy and many of his songs come from the people around him,
including his stepmother who is the subject of the song "Kill
You", about how she constantly harassed, punished, and
tormented him, and the appropriately titled "Mr Rogers"
which was originally to be called "Be My Neighbor", a song
which was inspired by the televsision show Mr Rogers.
"When I was a little kid watching 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." And as for the much discussed
"Daddy" from Korn's debut album, Davis says "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. I don't like to talk about that song, this
is the most I've ever talked about it." When Daddy was
recorded Jonathan became so emotional that they left the tape
rolling. At the end of the song you can hear a door creaking. That's
Jonathan walking out of the sound studio. Daddy has only been
performed live once, but Jonathan became too emotional and so they
stopped playing. Considering that Jonathan has portrayed his
father as an abusive enemy of all that he was and wanted to be, the
two seem to get along surprisingly well. When asked about "Dead
Bodies Everywhere," a song on the new album about how he didn't
want his son to be a musician. "Initially there was some
nervousness on my part," he says of first hearing songs
describing his relationship with his son. "But it forced us to
sit down and go over all the issues and resolve them. And we did,
didn't we?" "Yeah," says Jonathan obediently.
"I had lost everything in bankruptcy, and I was going through a
divorce, and at the moment I looked at my son and said, 'Always have
a day job to fall back on.' And fortunately he didn't listen to me.
But everything's okay now." "We were both fucked
up." Jonathan concedes. "I still remember when I
drove back home after you moved to Long Beach," his dad says.
"When I saw you were living in one corner of a garage, you have
no idea how many buckets I cried driving home. But I thought, at
least he's pursuing his dream. "I'll be damned," dad
continues, "now you're a little drunk in front of your kid,
making music and touring all the time, just like I was."
Jonathan says "Since I was 13, all we talked about was pussy.
It wasn't until I started writing songs about him that we started
talking about all that other stuff. He's not that bad now. But at
that time it felt horrible. When he asks me, 'I wasn't a bad dad,
was I?' What am I going to say? 'You were an asshole'?"
But the truth is that Jonathan now does understand, at least a
little. "Ever since I've had a kid I totally have new respect
for my dad," he marvels. "He did fuck me over, but I can
understand why. When he left to go on the road, he needed to put
food on the table. He needed to pay hospital bills: I was asthmatic,
I was in the hospital every month from the age of three to the age
of ten. When you're three years old you don't think about that shit.
It really freaked me out when I left to go to Japan and my son said,
'You got to go work? Bye daddy.' Then he rolled over, like 'don't
talk to me' It hurt my feelings more than anything in the
world." In November 1998 Jonathan married his girlfriend
of seven years, Renee. "Man, I gave her a wedding she will
never forget! I was fully in all armour and wearing a Kings Crown;
she's a fairy. There were all kinds of little fairies and sprites
jumping in the trees and shit, it was crazy. Renee came up with
it... we were like sitting there and thought wouldn't it be really
badass to be all medieval. We saw that film... remember Excalibur?
Kinda like that, and she went on from there and did it all up. It
was a fuckin' bad-ass wedding...it was definitely dope. People were
trippin' the fuck out. Everybody had to dress in costumes and shit
so it was just a fun time. The whole thing... the castle we were in
and everything... the whole thing was just awesome."
When Renee was pregnant they thought it was baby girl, but at
delivery Jonathan was only slightly surprised to see, as he put it,
"pink balls", and he had to come away from the girls name
Salaam Dementia. |
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