Late last year, Korn celebrated the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough 1998 album Follow the Leader, with a series of shows that saw them playing the majority of the record. David Silveria, who drummed on the LP, as well as all of Korn's recordings until 2005's See You on the Other Side, didn't participate in the concerts, but he did recently look back on the album in an interview with RadioactiveMike Z, host of 96.7 KCAL-FM's "Wired in the Empire."
"When we did Follow The Leader, it was pretty much complete chaos every day and every night when we recorded that record at a studio in the [San Fernando] Valley called NRG," Silveria said, as reported by Blabbermouth. "We rented a house in Hollywood. We basically had parties every night after we would be in the studio. And there was a fenced-in backyard, and everyone would be drinking beer and we'd tell everyone to throw their beer cans off the balcony in the backyard. By the time we were done recording the record to move out of the house, I think the entire backyard was covered in three feet full of beer cans. Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous. I think one of our crew guys, we actually paid him to go … He took all the beer cans and recycled them and made a bunch of money. And I think, honestly, if I remember correctly, in our budget, we spent $85,000 on liquor and other things. But I think we spent about 85 grand doing that record just on booze and extra stuff."
Silveria also recalled being "starstruck" when Cheech Marin and Ice Cube came into the studio to record their Follow the Leader cameos, and pointed to the experience of playing in front of 275,000 people at Woodstock '99 as a highlight of the album cycle. "I remember going on stage in '99 at Woodstock and looking out at the crowd, and as far as my vision would take me, I could see people until they just disappeared into nothing — there were so many people," said the drummer, who now plays in the recently formed band Bias. "I think it was 275,000 [people]. They had two sets of sound systems. There was a millisecond delay, so when everyone jumped, they jumped in a huge wave, starting in front of the stage and going to the back. ... being in front of 275,000 people, that was probably the biggest rush of it all." You can listen to the full interview below.
