20 Great Jonathan Davis Quotes: Korn Singer on Bagpipes, Mr. Rogers, Sex, God | Page 2 | Revolver

20 Great Jonathan Davis Quotes: Korn Singer on Bagpipes, Mr. Rogers, Sex, God

"I was a mixture of Jim Morrison, fucking Robert Smith and Rakim"
jonathan davis korn 2018 PRESS, Jonathan Weiner
Jonathan Davis, 2018
photograph by Jonathan Weiner

Jonathan Davis has always been an open book when it comes to talking about his life and experiences in and outside of Korn, whether it be his struggles with sobriety, or the bullying he endured that led him to write songs like "Faget" and perform them for similarly disenfranchised fans who have come to see the singer as something of an outcast hero. The past year has been a particularly tumultuous one full of peaks and valleys: Davis released his first-ever solo record Black Labyrinth, celebrated the 20th anniversary of Korn's career-defining album Follow the Leader, worked on the band's latest LP, due in 2019, and dealt with the death of his estranged wife Devin.

"Who would've thought we'd still be here doing this, and still relevant after all these years?" he told NME last year, but Korn diehards understand why the band still strikes a chord, and know that Davis' openness and honesty has a lot to do with it. From his early days as a rebellious mortician-in-training to his later years as a rock & roll elder statesman, Generation Nu-Metal's dreadlocked figurehead has let loose plenty of intriguing, eye-opening and memorable nuggets of wit and wisdom over the past two and a half decades. Below are 20 of his most striking quotes.

"If anyone doesn't understand what I'm saying, I'm probably not saying nothing at all."  – Interview, 1995

"I think the beauty of our band is we draw so many different kinds of people at our shows. That's why we can travel with a punk band, or a hardcore band, and then go out with Danzig and bring these people. We get mixed crowds. We just want to play to everybody." – Interview, 1995 

"I hate Mr. Rogers. I don't like Mr. Rogers at all." – Chronicles of Chaos, 1995

"I'll kiss a dude. It means nothing to me because I know I'm straight. I like wearing makeup, I like dressing in girls' clothes. I was very in touch with my feminine side and I acted upon it. But in America, it's bad to be gay. That's the fucking mentality." – The Guardian, 1999

"I've pulled so many dead bodies out of cars. It's like a puzzle trying to figure out how someone died." – Melody Maker, 1999

"I'm very anti-Catholic and anti-religion. Any religion is terrible. Religion is the cause of so many wars. It's just what I believe, but I don't look down on people who go to church." – Concertlivewire.com, 2004

"I turned the corner to recovery after I came home and my three-year-old son saw me all fucked up." – Skope, 2007 

His favorite pickup line: "Fuck me, I'm famous!" – Spin, 2011

On his favorite song: "'Love Will Tear Us Apart' by Joy Division. It's so beautiful and so fucking sad at the same time. As a kid it struck me how many different emotions a single song could evoke, and it changed my view of music forever." – Spin, 2011

"If you don't have haters, then you aren't doing something right." – Spin, 2013

"That's a piece of advice I learned from Anton LaVey in The Satanic Bible. Not that the advice is satanic, I just like those words: Do whatever you want to do, just don't hurt anyone. I've been doing that in my life for a long time. It pretty much eliminates guilt. If you want to fuck a billion chicks, don't be married and have a family. Pretty self-explanatory. Just make yourself happy and you'll be happy. Don't worry about all the guilt. If you're not hurting anybody, then it's not bad." – Spin, 2013

"It seems really sad that everyone's asleep and oblivious to the fact that the country is using the media to, I don't know, capture people's attention or take away from the fact of what's going on with our country." – Bakersfield.com, 2014

"Bullying goes on. It's just human nature. Unfortunately, it's still happening, and it's not just kids. Fucking adults bully other adults. It just goes on, period." – Westword, 2015

"Nothing brings more joy into my fucking heart than seeing our music help a kid who is depressed, or suicidal, or going through an episode. That's the payoff to me, that's why we keep coming out here, that's why we keep making records. Because we like to see people smile." – The Guardian, 2016

"I know – and this is a fucking fact – that Scottish folks have got the funk like a motherfucker. Average White Band are badass, so having that [blood] definitely gives you some swag." – Kerrang!, 2018

"[Recording Follow the Leader] was the pinnacle of rock & roll excess. I'm singing on a record, I'm high on cocaine, and there's some bitch blowing an amazing fucking musician that's in an amazing band — I'm not naming names, I don't fucking tell. But it was a one of my homies and one of those porn stars. It was amazing." – The Ringer, 2018

"I was a mixture of Jim Morrison, fucking Robert Smith and Rakim." – The Ringer, 2018

"The real reason I wanted to play bagpipes was that in Star Trek when Spock died, and that motherfucker played 'Amazing Grace' ... Everybody tears up, and I'm like, 'I gotta play bagpipes.'" – Loudwire, 2018

"I believe in a higher power, obviously: I believe sometimes that this universe might be a simulation of some kind, and it might be designed by someone intelligent. But we'll never know until we'll die, really, will we? This is my journey trying to figure it out." –Through the Labyrinth, Episode 4, 2018