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o any fans clamoring for a solo
album from him, Korn bandleader
Jonathan Davis humbly apolo-
gizes. He conceived his new world-
music-influenced foray Black Labyrinth a
dubstep-edgy recording, and even some
unapologetically pop material. He can’t
help it – he’s just always composing
music, regardless of genre. “But I wanted
to put out the one that was nearest and
dearest to my heart, and that was Black
Labyrinth,”' he says. As heard on ethere-
al flagship singles “Everyone” and
“What It Is,” “This record is some dope
shit, and I can only compare it to vintage
Peter Gabriel. There’s nothing else in the
Korn catalog that sounds even remotely
like it because I didn’t want to do a Steve
Perry/”Oh Sherry” thing, which might
as well have been a Journey song. This is
a completely different thing than Korn,
and something I’m really, really proud
of.”
05•2018
full decade ago; he sighs, fully intending
to release it at the time. “But then shit
happened – I pushed the record back
because I always had to keep the Korn
train rolling,” he explains. “That’s what
the managers wanted, and I never had
any free time.” With writing sessions just
beginning for the next group project, he
saw his opportunity to finish and release
the disc, then mount a comprehensive
lone-wolf tour behind it. He has other
works in progress, too – a jungle/black-
metal mashup with his pal Paul from sin-
ister French ensemble Phuture Doom, a
8 illinoisentertainer.com may 2018
ILLINOIS ENTERTAINER: Last time we
spoke, you had just had what you termed
‘an awakening,’ where you started living
a healthier life. How’s that going?
JONATHAN DAVIS: I’m still there. It’s
past the awakening – it’s just everyday
life for me now. I’m just happy in my life,
with nothing but healthy things around
me, and I’m learning at 47 years old how
to deal with life’s obstacles in a healthy
way. And I’ve had a lot of obstacles
thrown in my path, like everybody in life.
But I’m dealing with them well, so I feel
good about myself. So I’m eating clean,
with no fluoride – fluoride is a neurotox-
Jonathan Davis
in, and they put it in the water to make
you dumb. And when I had that awaken-
ing was when I started smoking weed for
the first time, so I’m just way more aware
of healthy things now. Overall, I’m just a
different person than I was back then.
IE: On an ordinary healthy day, you
wake up and…then what?
JD: My day begins with me usually at my
studio or my house – it depends which
one because I have a place where I sleep
at my studio if I’ve come to the studio at
night. But I’ll work out and just do gen-
eral cardio stuff, because I’m an old man
now, and I want to be able to play like I’m
20, and the only way that’s going to hap-
pen is if I keep staying active. So then I’ll
just work on some music or work around
the studio. And then I get my kid from
school, and we come back to either the
house or the studio, and we play video
games, or we break out the Nerf guns
because I’m basically a 14-year-old kid at
heart. And I’ve set my life up that way.
Then we go home, eat dinner, then I go to
sleep, and I do this over and over again.
And I’m a vampire – I’m up all night,
usually until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning.
That’s my routine when I’m at home – it’s