Korn’s ‘The Nothing’ Sessions Were Hampered by ‘F–ked Up’ Studio Employee
Track 7 on Korn's upcoming album The Nothing is called "Finally Free." But its working title became "Raped at Paramount" after a studio employee got "fucked up" and "busted" one of the band's instruments during recording sessions, as singer Jonathan Davis revealed to Kerrang in an interview published Wednesday (July 10).
Offering a bit of backstory to the tentative title, the frontman painted a picture of Korn's recent studio time that involved multiple sessions in different parts of the country. But when the band descended on Los Angeles' Paramount Studios to cut a few tracks, at least one uninvited visitor — seemingly described by Davis as being intoxicated — dropped in after hours and trifled with the group's musical equipment.
"We were [working] at Paramount Studios, I go home, and overnight the people working there got all fucked up and went into the studio and busted one of [guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch] Head's guitars, strung our gear everywhere, and we came up with that name," the vocalist explained. "You get your shit fucked with and it's like being raped — that's where that title came from."
Mercifully, Korn took a mature approach to disciplining the intruder after the fact. Davis, however, wasn't present for the confrontation, and he divulged his desire to give the culprit a tougher shakedown.
"We made that motherfucker come back and face the band," he said. "I wasn't there and my band's more lenient than me, but I would have gotten up in that motherfucker's face. The band were like, 'We've all been drunk and done stupid shit,' but I would have scared the fuck outta him — touch my shit and I'll fuck you up."
Why wasn't Davis so keen on clemency for the studio trespasser? One reason may have been his grief in dealing with the 2018 death of his estranged wife, Deven Davis, for whom the song was written.
"That song was one of the first songs I really got into and it was more about me losing Deven. That was a hard one," the singer confessed.
Korn's The Nothing comes out Sept. 13. See the band's tour dates here.
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