biography



Korn was formed in 1993 with the combination of two bands: Sexart and LAPD. Sexart was
the band that Jonathan Davis had led during his years as an assistant coroner in the Kern County
(California) Coroners Department (also moonlighting as an undertaker at a nearby funeral home),
having recently earned a degree at San Francisco's School of Mortuary Science. Jonathan was only
in Sexart for about four months and did only one song with the lead singer which is on a Bakersfield
compilation. LAPD was the band which included James "Munky" Shaffer (guitar), David Silveria
(drums), Reginald "Fieldy Snuts" Arvizu (bass, later) and on tour only (not on the album) Brian
"Head" Welch (guitar). LAPD was apparently bigger then Sexart and is not impossible to find, like
Sexart is. Munky said: "Me, Fieldy, and David recorded it when we were about 18 or 19. You
might even hear some Korn parts. That's when I played rippin' solos."
The bands first crossed paths when Munky and Brian were in Bakersfield one night, and they
went to this bar where Sexart happened to be playing. According to Munky: "We were getting
ready to leave, and just as we're walking out the door... Jon was the singer in that band, and we
heard him sing and me and Brian both turned to each other and our jaws just... (drops jaw) oh my
God. And so we turned around and went back in and watched the whole set." Later they asked him
to join the band. Initially Jonathan didn't want to do it, but a psychic had told him that he would be
stupid if he didn't do it, so he went and tried out. The rest, as they say, is history...
We asked Brian about their experience with Megadeth: "Mustane was a dick. They were
always blaming us for shit. We weren't allowed to carry beer around stage because he was a
recovering alcoholic. So we filled water bottles with it and taped around them so you couldn't see
what was in them. Once he came on our tour bus, after he fell off the wagon, piss drunk, and said:
'You know what you need to do to get big?... (at this point we were dodging his swaying finger that
was pointed at us) ... only tour with big bands.'"
"We were supposed to be touring (on the Monster Magnet and Grotus tour) with the
Deftones and Sugar Ray, but it got fucked up... Sugar Ray is in Europe or some shit and the
Deftones are with Anthrax. Chino (lead singer of the Deftones) is God. Marilyn Manson was
supposed to be on tour with us with Ozzy but they didn't want to open for a band that opened for
them." He then told us he particularly doesn't enjoy touring with Monster Magnet, because their
performance is so "old rock". "We're touring with Ozzy, but we don't like playing big places. It's so
impersonal. We like to be close to the people. It's a better performance, although I keep getting hit
in the head by my mic when people fall on stage." (Jon also said he loves it when people come on
stage)


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