KORN's BRIAN 'HEAD' WELCH Says Return Of Big Rock Concerts In 2021 'Doesn't Look Too Promising'

KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch spoke to Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio about the band's plans for the coming months. He said (see video below): "I think that we're gonna get creative with getting through the majority of the year, if we can't play shows. KORN's management and the band, we're just throwing things back and forth — 'What if we did this?', 'What if we did that?' — and we're getting pretty close to locking in some cool ideas. So I'm hoping, the crystal ball is showing me that we can have some shows in the fall. I think there's gonna be smaller shows happening. So I don't know if that means that KORN goes out and does a club tour — just to get to the fans and give 'em something, and to give us something to do — or I don't know if it's something where you have to show proof that you got a vaccine.

"The big shows are — common sense will tell you that getting ten thousand people into a place doesn't look too promising for this year, but you never know," he continued. "But we'll see. And then Europe could be a different story. So I'm hoping, the crystal ball is telling me that we can at least go over there and do some stuff. So, we'll see, man."

This past January, Welch told U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine that he and his bandmates should have some "exciting news" to announce pretty soon. A month earlier, Welch explained to Knotfest.com why KORN hasn't taken part in any live streams, like so many other artists have during the coronavirus pandemic. "Well, we actually were talking about it, and we were doing this and that with management," he said. "These [other] guys [in KORN] got young kids running around. And what are they gonna do? Just leave their wives with the home school stuff? I'm impressed with my KORN brothers; they're stepping up and doing school with their kids.

"KORN has toured for 25 years," he continued. "I left KORN for eight years and got to chill at home. These guys are taking this time to be family men, to be great fathers. Who's to say we won't do something soon, or early next year? I don't know. But I'm telling you, they are the best fathers, and I'm proud of them. So that's probably the reason — family first."

When Welch left KORN in early 2005, he simultaneously announced that he kicked his addictions to drugs and alcohol by becoming a born-again Christian.

Both Welch and KORN bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu have had highly public, though separate, conversion experiences, ones that have been greeted with a certain amount of skepticism.

In October, KORN and free-to-play video game titan World Of Tanks Blitz launched a special Halloween collaboration, revealing the music video for "Finally Free", a track featured on KORN's latest studio album, "The Nothing". Thee months earlier, KORN released a cover of THE CHARLIE DANIELS BAND classic "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", featuring a guest appearance by rapper YelaWolf, exclusively via Bandcamp. All proceeds from the track were donated to Awakening Youth, a nonprofit organization devoted to young people faced with the loss of a parent due to divorce, addiction, death, being surrendered for adoption, or other reasons.

"The Nothing" was released in September 2019 via Roadrunner/Elektra. The follow-up to 2016's "The Serenity Of Suffering" was once again produced by Nick Raskulinecz.