Jonathan Davis Says Korn “Were Never a Metal Band”
It is with great relief that I report the metal community need be embarrassed by Korn no longer… because Korn are not metal. Thus declared Jonathan Davis to Full Metal Jackie:
“I’ve always had a problem with the term ‘metal.’ We never were that. I mean, just go back to the beginning when Korn started out. We came out of Huntington Beach, California, and they didn’t know what to do with us. The first tour we went out was with Biohazard and House Of Pain. Second one was, I think, Sick Of It All, Orange 9mm and us, and then we went out with, like, KMFDM.
“And we played shows with No Doubt, Cadillac Tramps and Pennywise, and just stuck us all over the place. So I think that we went out and did all that stuff, and it seems like the metal community took us in. We were like the black sheep—we had no place to really go—and I really appreciate and I love the metal community. But as far as us being a metal band, a metal band, to me, is, like, Judas Priest or Iron Maiden—that’s a metal band. I don’t think Korn does that.”
Wait wait wait… did he just call Judas Priest a metal band? What the…? Judas Priest is not metal, people, it’s rock n’ motherfuckin’ roll! Who in their right mind that has a brain in their head thinks that Judas Priest sounds like a metal band?
Despite his most grievous error, Davis continued to explain to Full Metal Jackie why he probably shouldn’t even be on a show hosted by someone called Full Metal Jackie:
“I think we’re just heavy rock. I mean, I don’t like categories, period, but we’re more of a heavy rock band than just straight metal. I’m coming from when metal was, like I said, Priest and that era… Dio and those [bands]… singing about swords and dragons, and I love that. You know what I mean? To me, that was real metal music, and I love it.”
So there ya have it, people. If you don’t sing about swords and dragons, you aren’t metal. Glad we cleared that up.
Korn will be playing not-metal all summer long, touring with other non-metal bands like Babymetal and Rammstein and appearing at Chicago Open Air along with other not-metal acts like Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
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