Money, fame, success; you’ve got it all, right? Not according to Brian “Head” Welch, the former lead guitarist and founder of multi Grammy-winning nu-metal rock band Korn.
The mega rock star details his life story in his new book, Save Me From Myself: How I found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs, and Lived to Tell My Story. The biography, released 7 July (07/07/07), explains the freedom he received from a life devastated by drugs and entangled in the negative lifestyle that comes with being in an out-of-control band. His testimony is of a life that hit rock bottom, but was lifted up by Christ.Christian Today caught up with the musician at his hotel in New York. His long pony tails, split braided goatee and tattoos may not have given him the appearance of a typical Christian, but his witness was a heartfelt and sincere testimony to what God has done in his life.
You have a new book in which you talk about your life as the lead guitarist in Korn and your conversion to Christianity following that. As part of that band, you garnered huge fame and wealth, but your book talks about the struggles that came with that kind of lifestyle. Can you explain some of the problems you had to deal with?
Welch: That lifestyle, going in, before even we got Korn, it was like partying. Partying was the thing. It went along with the music. You know, drugs and drinking, drinking especially, went along with the music and stuff. When we got into Korn, the drugs crept in from the get-go. We wrote the first Korn songs on drugs, on speed, up for days. So that was a big impact on the band, you know.
It levelled out. The drug use kind of went away when we started touring. And then it started to come back as we got bigger, you know. It’s like more people were experimenting, and we got wrapped up in it a little too much. Everybody went through some kind of turning point in their lives, not just me, but mine was more drastic.
So how was it that you came back to Christ? Was it a single moment – like one night where you were thinking 'oh, I just can’t do this anymore' – or was it more of a drawn out process?
Welch: You know, it seemed that the more successful Korn got, the traumas in my personal life increased. It’s like the more famous you got, the more problems you got and stuff.
I got hooked on meth. That was the worst part of my drug addiction. I got hooked on methamphetamines the last two years I was in Korn, and I did meth everyday. I couldn’t get out of bed without it. I wanted it, but I wanted to quit. I couldn’t quit. I tried to quit. I went to rehab, and I just couldn’t quit.
I didn’t even know I was going back to Christ. I didn’t know I had Christ. I didn’t know Christ was real. I knew they said he was real, but I never experienced him. So when I went to rehab I couldn’t quit the dang drug. I got invited to church by a friend, and they took me in. The preacher was talking about how you can just go … all you got to do is talk to God in your everyday life and He’ll be involved. If you just hang out with Him, all the bad things will just fall out of your life.
