Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch has been very open about how his Christian faith has changed his life since he re-joined the Bakersfield band. The guitarist recently continued his mission by appearing on former Republican Arkansas governor, minister and current conservative political commentator Mike Huckabee's TBN Show Huckabee.
Taking the stage for a segment to discuss his documentary Loud Krazy Love, Head and his daughter Jennea open up about the journey the elder Welch took out of addiction and into the Christian faith. The conversation turns to rock & roll's damned reputation among churchgoers and the flip side of that in which Head is rejected by those in the music scene for being a "Jesus freak."
The main event comes when Huckabee and Head take the stage to pluck out an instrumental version of Korn's 1994 hit "Blind" taken from their self-titled debut record. Standing center stage, the duo is decidedly less animated than the full band's usual presence, as Huckabee performs the track on bass guitar.
Huckabee was previously part of a cover band called Capitol Offense from 1996 to 2013. The group, which played a mix of classic rock and Motown hits, opened for acts including Grand Funk Railroad, the Charlie Daniels Band, Dionne Warwick, and REO Speedwagon.
In April 2019, Huckabee, who was also a Southern Baptist pastor before his career in politics, made headlines for an interview he did with The Christian Post, in which he claimed that redefining gender and sexual identity is the "greatest threat" to America's moral fiber. "The biggest threat to biblical principles today is the failure to apply a biblical standard of maleness and femaleness," Huckabee told the outlet. "We are creating this illusion that there is no gender, there is no identity."
He goes on to blame the Christian church for "the gender dysphoria we're seeing today," which he believes "is largely due to the fact that the Church has failed to present very clearly the words of Jesus and Genesis 5:2: 'Male and female He created them.'"
Huckabee's comments were met with criticism from the LGBTQ and progressive faith communities. Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera, director of faith outreach for the Human Rights Campaign, offered the following statement to HuffPost: "The future of the Christian Church in the U.S. depends on the voices of the faithful who will continue to be vocal in supporting marginalized communities, and on LGBTQ people who are working to strengthen and transform our faith communities ― even in the face of these dangerous, exclusionary voices."
