Ex-KORN Guitarist: God Told Me To Go To 50 CENT And Write A Letter To Him

Jourdaine Middleton of Examiner.com conducted an interview with former KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch on August 29 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada when Head played a free show with FLYLEAF, BLINDSIDE, and METAL MULISHA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Examiner.com: How did you make the transition from lead guitarist to solo artist?

Brian: When I quit KORN, it was just like, it felt like I needed to do it. It was a dream inside of me, you know? Not for a long time or nothing, I just felt like when I changed my life, I was all "I need to go solo and do my own stuff and talk about things I'm into." I just really went for it, like right afterwards. This is like, we just started, so this is the biggest show we've done so far. [laughs] It's fun.

Examiner.com: Now that you've been on your own for the past few years, how has your songwriting evolved?

Brian: I don't know. I'm writing the next record, like, in the next couple months. I haven't wrote anything.

Examiner.com: Like, as opposed to when you were with KORN, and how you are now. How has your songwriting evolved from there?

Brian: Oh! Well, I don't shove, like, twenty beers down my throat, now. Well, before, we'd all get in a room, drink beer, stuff like that, play guitars, and just jam it up and come up with some parts in new songs. But now I write all of my songs. I see all the chords, I hear all the melodies in my head, and I go to a computer and get a keyboard, and I write it on my Macintosh just to get a rough idea of a demo. So that's how I do it. But I may try to write with these guys [the band], a couple of songs for the next record.

Examiner.com: From your album, I wanted to talk about a few songs, more in depth, basically. For "Die, Religion, Die", it seems to oppose the man-made religious doctrine. The sound of the lyrics in the verse seem to speak from the perspective of God or Jesus, with lines like, "You put my name to shame, I'm everything you're not. I give them love, My ways you have forgot." What's the story behind that song?

Brian: I was a younger Christian when I wrote it, but I felt like I had some religious experience with man-made control, and stuff. Like, you need to be in church, and you can't talk to other people in other churches, and I didn't like that. I was new but I was like, "Isn't this supposed to be, everyone's a family and one?" I just didn't like it and I wrote it out of a bitter spirit, you know? I felt if God was saying that stuff, that He'd just want to shake people in love, you know, like a parent shakes a kid. [laughs] It'd be like, "Just kill all this stuff. Just concentrate on love and working together." Just like I said up there, religion's about trying to be good enough for God. What it's supposed to be is your relationship.

Examiner.com: "Washed by Blood" isn't really candy-coated, it's very direct. That has very personal lyrics which, in so many words, illustrates your finding Jesus and leaving the life that you had. Tell me about that song more in-depth. What do you hope a listener will get out of that song?

Brian: You know, "Washed by Blood" was pretty much what I felt Jesus was saying to me when I got saved. I was just, like, coming out of it and I felt His presence and all of that. I felt like He was saying all of that stuff to me. "You're washed by blood from deep inside. You're not a prisoner no more of your old life." Just, washing away all of the pain and me not having to do nothing, except accept it. It was really personal to me and I, when people sing about personal experiences like that, and people... it could sound like, I'm speaking to other people for God, too. I don't know, I just hope that it brings the presence of God to people and that they could feel washed, too. That would be my ultimate dream.

Examiner.com: How does God use you on stage?

Brian: Hopefully He just uses me like He did Paul. You know, Paul in the Bible [who dealt with people who were] impersonating Christians. Like, the nastiest of the nastiest, I feel like I was. Just like we all do, but I feel like He uses me to show everybody how graceful and merciful and how cool [He is]. I want to get to people, it's like, God is so real. You don't gotta be good, it's not like we're trying to be good, because we're so bad before. God is real and wanting to live through us. That's what I hope He's doing for me, 'cause I don't want people to think that I'm trying to be good because I was heavily doing drugs. It's not that, it's just, Christ, I want to love Him and that's it.

Examiner.com: I heard that you began an orphanage out in India. What inspired you to start that?

Brian: When I read a scripture, I was so strung out on drugs. Like coming off of them, you know? It was like, I saw scripture and be, like... I'd go run and try to do it, and feed the poor. I was like, "I'm going to India to feed the poor!" You know, leave everything. I sold my house and we left town. [laughs] Like, I was going crazy, but it was funny because I was showing God that I wasn't afraid to obey. It was wacky, but it was still fun. I felt like He told me to go to 50 Cent and write a letter to him, and tell him Jesus wants to save him, too. I was like, "Alright, God!" and I went and found his jeweler. I bought some diamonds off of him and I gave him a note and he was like, "I'm gonna go see 50 in, like, three days." 'Cause they're developing a business. I go, "Give him this note." It was a long letter saying Jesus wants to save him. [laughs]

Read the entire interview from Examiner.com.