Artist News Gigs & Festivals

Brian Welch rejoins Korn for live dates

By | Published on Wednesday 30 January 2013

Brian Welch

Guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch has rejoined Korn, at least for a string of upcoming live shows. Welch originally left the band in 2005 after a struggle with drug addiction led him to find Christianity, deciding that the band’s output didn’t chime with his new found beliefs. It’s a reunion that has been some time in the making though. Word first reached the band that Welch wanted back in 2009, and in May last year he performed one song with them at the Carolina Rebellion Festival.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Welch said that he’d been at the festival with his daughter and happened to bump into Korn’s other guitarist, James ‘Munky’ Schaffer, explaining: “I hadn’t seen [him] in seven years, and talked with him for 30 minutes. It was really heavy. Then, ten minutes before they went on stage, [bassist] Fieldy is like, ‘I’m just saying, we have a guitar set up for you’. I’m like, ‘What? I just want to see you guys! Alright, I’ll play ‘Blind”. It was just crazy, because it was really emotional. That’s what set it up. Munky called me a month after that, and he said, ‘Hey, if you ever want to come back, the door’s open. We miss you'”.

Warming to, and perhaps going a bit overboard with his theme, he continued: “Everyone is broken in this world. There’s so much divorce, hate and unforgiveness. For people to see this, I think it’s just really uplifting. I never thought it would happen, and I’m not sure they did either. The fans just love it, because a lot of the fans back in the day were like, suicidal, and from broken homes and abuse. They looked up to us like their family. And to see their family split up was hard on them. To get it put back together, there is a joy around the people who care about it”.

However, it’s not clear at this stage how long the reunion will last, as Welch is still working with his new band Love And Death, which he formed last year. He said: “We’re going slow. We’re hanging out when I’ve got time, but I’ve got my [own] album out, and they’re busy doing their stuff. But I’d say anything is possible right now”.



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