{"id":550,"date":"2008-09-22T13:54:10","date_gmt":"2008-09-22T18:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.themetalden.com\/?p=550"},"modified":"2016-08-03T07:30:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T12:30:29","slug":"metal-news-source-tmd-newsthe-funkthrash-metal-band-from-venice-california-will-go-on-an-east-coast-trek-in-december%c2%a0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/?p=550","title":{"rendered":"ROCKET Interviews Former KORN Guitarist Brian &#8220;Head&#8221; Welch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Brian Head Welch\" src=\"http:\/\/i3.photobucket.com\/albums\/y55\/RSCODY\/l_500b44332a0ce2d8d35469ec61844001.jpg\" alt=\"Head\" width=\"284\" height=\"426\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i66.photobucket.com\/albums\/h259\/rsid999\/tmdcom.jpg\" alt=\"TMD\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Brian \u201cHead\u201d Welch is the former guitar player of the  acclaimed Nu metal band KoRn, a two-time grammy winning musical act that has  sold well over 30 million albums worldwide. Welch shockingly departed the band in 2005 due to  contrasting personal beliefs, shifting his focus to more on life as a father and to being devoted to his new life as a born again Christian.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nHe&#8217;s returned with a gutsy and inspiring debut solo  album entitled &#8220;Save Me from Myself&#8221;, a collection of songs that runs the course  of one man&#8217;s &#8220;inner conflict to survive the demons within himself&#8221;, music that  cuts its listener seriously deep with a crushing, sonic landscape that only  Welch can truly form &#8211; more oft than not he himself revels deeply in his own  great past which harkens back to the sorely missed &#8220;Original  KoRn&#8221; sound he helped create.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSave Me From MySelf&#8221; was released  via Driven Music Group on September 9, 2008.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><strong>The Metal Den\u2019s Randy  \u201cRocket\u201d Cody has conducted an EXCLUSIVE interview with Head for TMD\u2019s loyal following of DEN HEADZ all across the globe!<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/?attachment_id=49666\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-49666\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ROCK1111-1-300x288.jpg\" alt=\"ROCK1111\" width=\"300\" height=\"288\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ROCK1111-1-300x288.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themetalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ROCK1111-1.jpg 576w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: What first drew you to playing music?<\/p>\n<p>Head: I remember listening to Queen and Billy Joel 8 track tapes and really  getting bit by the music bug. I wanted to play drums at first, but my dad talked  me into the guitar because of the noisey drums factor.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: When  exactly did you first start playing the guitar?<\/p>\n<p>Head: I started playing the guitar in 5th grade at 10 years  old.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Did you ever take any formal guitar lessons?<\/p>\n<p>Head: My mom started taking me to beginner lessons when I was 10, and once I  figured out the basics, I quit and started teaching myself metal songs because  playing by ear was a gift of mine.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Who are some of your biggest  playing influences of past and present?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Iron Maiden, Ozzy\/ Randy Rhoads, Motley Crue, Metallica, Faith No More,  Alice In Chains, Coldplay, Rage Against The Machine.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Can you  tell me a bit more about how bad things got for you before you decided to leave  Korn and turn to God for help?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Korn\" src=\"http:\/\/i3.photobucket.com\/albums\/y55\/RSCODY\/51415Korn-Hanger-Posters.jpg\" alt=\"Korn\" width=\"223\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"TMD\" src=\"http:\/\/i3.photobucket.com\/albums\/y55\/RSCODY\/TMDbanny.gif\" alt=\"TMD\" width=\"118\" height=\"48\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Head: I did Crystal Meth everyday for the last 2 years I was in KoRn. The  drug was eating me alive and I believe I would have been dead if I kept using. I  hid my drug problem from everyone and I took it in my suitcase all over the  world. I was a junky, porno freak, suicidal maniac mixing speed and pills all  the time.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: When you found God, was it a &#8216;moment&#8217; where it just  clicked inside your head or just kind of an &#8216;eventual process&#8217; that eventually  led you to him once you started finally cleaning up?<\/p>\n<p>Head: It clicked right away, bro. One night, I was high on meth reading the  bible wondering if God was real, and all of a sudden I felt this crazy euphoric  presence all around me that made me feel so much Love and peace that it over  powered the drugs I was on. The next morning I threw away all of my drugs and my  life completely changed after that experience. I&#8217;ve had many experiences like  that since then and if this life with God wasn&#8217;t very real to me, I wouldn&#8217;t  still be living it.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Do you currently go to church?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Nope. I concentrate on the every day intimate relationship with God  rather than calling myself &#8220;Christian&#8221; and living a different way every other  day of the week besides Sunday. I do pop into different Christian gatherings  once in a while though.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: What was the general reaction you  received from your fans when you released your autobiography?<\/p>\n<p>Head: The main reaction was everyone seemed to have compassion for me because  they had no idea I had so many problems back in KoRn. It was very cool to have  people understand me.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Let&#8217;s talk about your new debut solo album,  Save Me From Myself. Where was it recorded and who produced it?<\/p>\n<p>Head: It was recorded in Phoenix AZ at Fleetwood Mac&#8217;s old studio. I produced  it, but I had a friend help me produce the drums and a couple other things. It  was a long process and it feels great to have it finally come out!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Get Some Head!\" src=\"http:\/\/i3.photobucket.com\/albums\/y55\/RSCODY\/l_15bf7d6d9435142153f8066bfc0b48-1.jpg\" alt=\"Head\" width=\"288\" height=\"393\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"TMD Rocks!\" src=\"http:\/\/i66.photobucket.com\/albums\/h259\/rsid999\/tmdcom.jpg\" alt=\"TMD Rocks!\" width=\"300\" height=\"31\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Who are the other musicians playing on the album?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Josh Freese DRUMS, Tony Levin BASS, Trevor Dunn BASS, Archie J Muise  RHYTHM GUITARS.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: The disc&#8217;s first single is the rocking track  &#8220;Flush&#8221;. Can you elaborate more on the song&#8217;s meaning?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Flush is a song about flushing all of my addictions in life down the  toilet and starting out fresh-exactly what I&#8217;ve been doing for the last few  years. All the drama that I experienced with getting drunk and doing drugs all  the time seemed interesting and amusing to write about. That lifestyle is total  insanity and I&#8217;m just glad I&#8217;m not dead and I was able to write a song like  &#8216;Flush.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: From the tracks I&#8217;ve heard so far, this album truly  delivers on so many levels for the heavy music fan. What kind of guitarss did  you use in the studio for this recording?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Thanks for the props, man! I used a custom made Ibanez baritone guitar  for the distorted guitars. I used a G&amp;L for a lot of the lead guitars and a  Les Paul some too.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: What kind of amp rigs?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Mesa boogie, triple rect&#8211;Orange&#8211;Marshall&#8211;Bognar.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket:  What&#8217;s the one piece of advice you&#8217;d give to a kid picking up a guitar today for  the first time with serious aspirations to make it in the music business?<\/p>\n<p>Head: Play by your own rules and don&#8217;t let people tell you what&#8217;s right or  wrong to play. Play from your heart.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: How much touring will you be  doing to support this album once it&#8217;s released?<\/p>\n<p>Head: We are in the middle of a CD promo\/signing tour all over the US. Next  on the agenda after OCTOBER is for us to put together some kind of live show  hopefully.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket: Thanks very much for taking time out from your hectic  schedule right now to do this interview. Best of luck with it all. Go ahead and  give a shout-out to your biggest supporters.<\/p>\n<p>Head: Thank you for all the  fans that stuck with me when I went crazy for a while back in 2005. Your  faithfulness and loyalty has taught me a lot.<\/p>\n<p>Visit Head On MySpace:<\/p>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/brianheadwelch\">http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/brianheadwelch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brian \u201cHead\u201d Welch is the former guitar player of the acclaimed Nu metal band KoRn,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,19],"class_list":["post-550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metal-interviews","tag-interviews","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}