Korn's Jonathan Davis: Nu-Metal Was Full of "Misogynistic Dickhead Jocks" | Page 2 | Revolver

Korn's Jonathan Davis: Nu-Metal Was Full of "Misogynistic Dickhead Jocks"

"The sort of people who'd be bullying me at school if they weren't supporting my band at shows"
jonathan davis korn PRESS 2018
Korn's Jonathan Davis, 2018

Korn just released their 13th full-length, The Nothing, a record that builds upon their well-established sound and taking it into new, even darker and more emotional directions. Is it a nu-metal album? Not if the band has anything to do with how it's categorized. In a tell-all interview with NME, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis got explicit when asked if the band feels misunderstood when it comes to their place within — and, according to many observers, even at the front of — that scene.

"That scene was full of misogynistic, opportunistic dickhead jocks," he commented, pulling no punches. "The sort of people who'd be bullying me at school if they weren't supporting my band at shows. I'm about the art. We got lumped in with that stuff kinda because of the way we dressed. We were kinda hip-hop, but there was nothing really hip-hop about Korn other than the bass lines to an extent. I didn't rap!

He continued, "In the beginning nobody knew what we were — we'd play shows with No Doubt or Pennywise and then when the metal community embraced us we went with it because it felt like we'd found a home. But I hate thinking that some people hear the name Korn and think we're some douchebag, misogynistic, fucking macho dickhead band. I think the fact that we're still here says a lot ..."

Davis, of course, grew up dressing like a New Romantic — and getting bullied for it — and listening to gothy artists like the Cure, so you can see why he might feel frustrated at being lumped in with the polarizing nu-metal scene. That said, he says that he let go of his bitterness about the whole thing long ago. "I do not give a single bit of energy to anyone I would have been bothered about back then," he explained before handing out some solid advice: "Time helps introduce wisdom to you. My advice? Let that shit go."