In a new interview with Black Sheep Recovery, Brian Head Welch recalled leaving and rejoining Korn and opened up about how his bandmates reacted to it.
“I left in such a horrible way. It wasn’t horrible, it was bitter,” he admitted. “We were all on drugs except Jonathan, which is funny. We are all on drugs or alcohol we were all on both. So, when I left it was really ugly. So I felt it was closure to do that one show with them and I’m like, ‘Okay cool, I’m going to go rough and tough it on the side and barely make it, and that’s cool and I’m good with that.'”
Welch recalled speaking to the band members and explained how they agreed on certain things. “I called them we agreed on all kinds of different things. There were a few things we discussed and there it was. Next thing you know where I’m in the studio writing with them and we’re looking at each other and I was like, ‘This is really going to happen huh?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah this is it, it’s on. This is crazy.’ So I realized that a whole new door opened and my whole life was going to change.”
“So going back into it the last thing I’ll say, I was so drunk and messed up when I left for years. I had to relearn what it was like to be on stage in that big capacity, tour and do a record, do press, start doing more TV, all that stuff. It was like I forgot the past I had. It was cloudy, it was very cloudy because I was so messed up. So I was given a second chance to be a rock star in a healthy way, very grateful,” he added.
Welch turned to religion in the early 2000s to overcome drug and alcohol addiction. As a result, he left Korn in 2005 for nearly a decade. He was baptized after his departure. In 2013, he rejoined the band.
The guitarist often shared stories from the times he wasn’t in the band. One of these stories includes him feeling like a ‘hypocrite’ for rejoining the band after a decade. “They asked me to come back two or three weeks later, that’s when I got confused, ’cause my story was left the fame, left the money, followed Christ to a more humble place, I didn’t care about that stuff,” he admitted earlier. “I had to break this religious mindset. That was my whole story. I wrote a book about it. I’m like, ‘Lord, I can’t do that.’ That’s not my story. I didn’t know [it was a part of my story] because of the religious mindset.”
He also recalled being afraid of the reactions he would get once he was back in the band. “I knew if I went back everyone was gonna say, ‘He wasn’t real the whole time, he just wanted Jesus to help him get clean, now he’s going back to the fame and money.’ Dog returns to its vomit, all that stuff. Then I started feeling like it was meant to be; God was leading me to it.”
It’s been over ten years since Welch rejoined Korn, and they will be headlining multiple festivals this summer, including Sweden Rock Festival, Rockville, Sonic Temple, Download, and Hellfest.
