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All quotes by Jonathan Davis
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.
Balltongue
"The meaning of ball tongue is simple. Some thought it had to do with oral sex, but infact 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 & 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
And as for the much discussed "Daddy" from Korn's debut album, "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
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"LIFE IS PEACHY" meanings
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 think that when they have problems so that they wont have to feel their pain". The song is acctually name after Chi Cheng from the Deftones. Jon says, "We named it after him because he used to call it reggae, and he loves reggae music"
Lost
"It's the sterotypical thing about your best friend meeting a chick, and then you're nothing." - Jonathan Davis
SWALLOW
"Thats about being paranoid. Drug induced paranoia".
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 want to do. I was into 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 out on a date with a chick he would sabotage it, because he didn't have a date or nothin. He was a gutless fucking nothing. I haven't talked to him for years".
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 Makebeleive and Me. FuckinMcfeely and shit... made me sick. So back when I was doing speed, like for 5 or 6 days I would be trippin out and my brain would become a freaky place, and get schizophrenic and stuff, and I'd tape it and watch it everyday, over and over again... 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".
K@#$%! (kunt)
"People think it's sexist bit it isn't. It's more subconcious bitching about all 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."
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
This song's by Ice Cube from his album "predator". It's sung by Chino 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 day dream about what a stud I am. But when it comes down to it, Im a fucking pussy and Im in there jacking off."
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
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KILL YOU
"It's about a relative I first met when I was 12. I fucking hate hat bitch. She's most evil, fucked up person I've ever 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 would 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, bit I always dream't about fucking her and killing her.
"FOLLOW THE LEADER" meanings
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, its on'. Thats partying, its alcohol, cocaine, women. All that wrapped into one. I wrote a song ab out it. And the chorus I talked about why am I really doing this? It's all my fault that im doing this because all the alcoholm the booze and 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
Similar lyrically to No Place To Hide, about how Jon's friends treat him differently no. Jon says: "Its about being paraded around in front of everyone, and also about my hatred of life."
GOT THE LIFE
"Thats a song baging on myself. How everything is always \handed to me. How I look up to god and don't want this anymore. Like I want somthing 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 song almost. Thats 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 songs 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
Callaboration with Ice Cube. Jon says this about 'Children of the Korn': "people are going to fucking shit themselves when they hear this. It's just so bad ass. It is about how parents hate me for doing what I do. It's saying 'Chill out and let me do my shit!' Its like old school hip hop with breakbeats and '80s new wave guiars. A whole big clusterfuck, with all these things going on. But we're not dueling at each other, like I do with Fred Durst on 'All in the family' - I do a verse, the Ice Cube does on. There's no real chorus. It's weird!"
B.B.K.
"Big black cock! Thats what I call a jack and coke. Those little glasses they serve in europe and everything. Thats what I named it, big black cock. And thats another song about me dealing with the pressures of this album and how I, you know, Im trying to kill myself, but you know? Do i really want to kill myself? Things Im just questioning myself. Most is self structured."
PRETTY
"Its a story about this little girl who came into the coronors office when I was working there and she was fucked by her dad. She was a 11 month old little baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her and he fucked her like a toy doll and cucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing Ive ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it."
ALL IN THE FAMILY
"That was really fun to do. Me and Fred were just roasting each other saying the shit we always wanted to say."
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 th em 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
It was the first song written for the album. The song is about a 16 year old boy with colon cancer, and his dream was to meet KoRn. It cames true with the Make a Wish Foundation. "It was like...would your last wish be to meet use? We're just a band. I know we have the impact on alot of peoples lives, but that was just so heavy to me. So we wrote a song about it. We call in the hospital. He's always so drugged up, and he goes 'oh my god!! Your guys are callin me!' It's really cool, but...its really heavy.
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
"It is a love song. Its about my fantasy of Fuck my chick and killing her. Me and her used to do this thing where she'd leave a note on my pillow -10 ways she'd like to kill me. It's like some sicko fetish. I don't know, we're weird or whatever. But she was always bitching "Why don't you write me a love song?" I'm like "Ok here i wanna fuck you and kill you."
EARACHE MY EYE
A cover of a Cheech and Chong song with Cheech Marin making a special appearance.
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