Did you know that Korn once has a music video so popular that MTV decided to stop playing it? Or that a major rap star was in one of their videos before he went on to grammy winning success? What about the song that singer Jonathan Davis says is the "worst song ever?" Stick around and we'll answer these questions and more.
10 Fun Facts About Follow The Leader by Korn
1. Jonathan Davis and the K-Funk All Stars
Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis hates the term nu-metal and prefers to think of Korn as a heavy funk band.
"Yeah, that nu-metal thing. It was funny how they came up with that ****, because when we first came out, no one knew what the **** to do with us. I’d like to find that f***ing writer that coined that term, nu-metal.
When we came out, we toured with everyone from No Doubt, Pennywise, Cadillac Trance, Sick of It All, KMFDM, it was all over the place. So finally someone came up with “nu-metal” and everyone copped our s***. I didn’t understand it, like I never thought of us to be metal to begin with.
Yeah, we’re heavy and downtuned, but metal, to me, is like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, that’s metal man. I always thought of us as a funk band, that funky groovy... Then Limp Bizkit came up and we found them and took them on tour and blew them up, and all the other bands came and we had a scene which was really good and solidified with the Family Values Tour." - Davis, Rank Your Records... John Hill, Vice (Mar 26, 2015)
2. The Amazing Korn-Man
The album cover was a concept
thought up by Korn guitarist Munky which was scetched by a friend of
Jonathan Davis before being handed over to Todd McFarlane of McFarlane
Entertainment. You might know him for his artist work on The Amazing
Spider-Man comics. He is also the creator of the superhero series,
Spawn.
"I'd looked at all their album covers, and they all had this weird sort of mystery about them, like looming shadows. The one I remember [1994's Korn] had a girl on a swing, and there was like a shadow on the ground. What was interesting about it was, 'Was that shadow a predator or a protecting parent?' It left it to the imagination of whoever was looking at the image to decide.
On the Follow the Leader album cover I worked with Greg Capullo... He and I said, 'Well, what if we do hopscotch, but it's on the edge of a cliff. So the question is, will she keep going or will she do what you're supposed to do in hopscotch, which is turn around, and come back?' We did that to play with some of the stuff that Korn had already established with some of their prior album covers." - McFarlane, Todd McFarlane Reveals Story behind Korn's "Freak On A Leash" Music Video, Revolver (Dec 16, 2022)
3. Wrath of Kahn
When Korn's bassist affectionately known as Fieldy came up with a concept for the "Got The Life" music video, managers request that the band work with Joseph Kahn, who had previously direct their video for "A.D.I.D.A.S." However, when approached by the band with a concept for the video, Kahn replied "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
The band instead re-hired Joseph McGinty Nichol, also known as "McG" to direct. He had previously worked with Korn on four other music videos, most notably for "Blind" and "Shoots & Ladders."
4. Retired by MTV
The music video for "Got The Life" was requested and played on Total Request Live so often that MTV decided to "retire" the music video in order to give other artists an opportunity.
The song actually never reached the number 1 spot on the top 10 countdown due to stiff competition from Britney Spears and N'Sync, however the video held a position at number 3 for so long that host Carson Daly jokingly refered to the number 3 position as "The Korn Spot."
5. Shady Mathers, I Mean Matters
Multiple celebrities make cameo appearances near the end of the "Got The Life" music video.
Rapper
William LaShawn Calhoun Jr, also known as WC can be seen getting his
boogie on during a breakdown. Jay Gordon of Orgy makes a quick
appearance near the end. UFC fighter Tito Ortiz, as well as Fred Durst,
Wes Borland, and Sam Rivers of Limp Bizkit are supposedly in there
somewhere too. But most notably in attendance was a small unknown rapper
who tried to get Korn's attention by handing them a demo while on set
filming the video.
As Korn guitarist Munky told Revolver in 2021:
"There were some extras on the set of our video 'Got the Life,'...Some kid came up to me and gave me his demo. I was really drunk and I was like [out of it]. He's like, 'Hey, check it out, I'm a rapper.' I'm like, 'I'm just a guitar player.' It turned out that kid that was on our video was Eminem. He was an extra in that video. I vaguely remember that happening." - Munky, Eminem Appeared In Korn's "Got The Life" Video... Revolver (Nov 30, 2021)
Fellow guitarist Head responded jokingly by saying:
"Thanks a lot, man... We could've been billionaires. We could've signed him before Dre." - Head, Eminem Appeared In Korn's "Got The Life" Video... Revolver (Nov 30, 2021)
6. Make-A-Wish
The 10th song on the album titled "Justin" is a tribute to a fan who got to meet Korn as part of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
The band post a tweet in 2021 which said:
“We loved playing the song ‘Justin’ for Korn Monumental. Justin, pictured here next to Brian Welch & James Shaffer, was our first Make-A-Wish foundation visit. We were writing Follow The Leader in Gardena, CA when we met him. He came to our rehearsal & spent the day with us. He was so excited to meet us & couldn’t believe he was watching us write a song – which ended up being the song ‘Justin’ named after him.
He passed away, unfortunately, a few months after this photo was taken.
We’re happy to keep Justin’s memory alive with our song.”- Korn, Twitter post (Apr 28, 2021)
7. If The Studio's A Rockin'...
A
lot of, ahem, let's just call them "shenanigans" occured in the studio
while Jonathan Davis was recording vocals for "I)t's On."
“It was the pinnacle of rock and roll excess. I’m singing on a record, I’m high on cocaine, and there’s some bitch blowing an amazing fucking musician that’s in an amazing band—I’m not naming names, I don’t fucking tell. But it was a one of my homies and one of those porn stars. It was amazing...
I used the movie ‘The Doors‘ with Val Kilmer as my textbook in rock ’n’ roll school, to be a rock star. I thought I had to be what that was—being all f****** up, doing drugs and getting drunk, f****** as many f****** chicks as I could, the whole nine.” - Davis, Korn's Jonathan Davis Recalls... Wookubus, The PRP (Aug 15, 2018)
8. Worst Song Ever
Jonathan Davis is not a fan of "All In The Family" and wishes that the song was not included on Follow The Leader.
“All In The Family is the worst song ever... It’s horrible. We were all drunk in the studio and I was trying to
rap. At the time, we were having a good time, but now I just cringe.
I’ve got nothing against Fred, it just sucks! We were out of our minds
drunk! It shouldn’t have made the record.” - Davis, This is the Korn song that Jonathan Davis really, really hates, Metal Hammer (Mar 9, 2022)
9. Trix Are For Kids
The
concept and illustration for the "Freak On A Leash" music video was
created by McFarlane Entertainment, in collaboration with Korn and a
husband/wife combo who directed the live-action portion of the video.
"I knew in advance 'Freak on a Leash' was going to be half animation, half live action, so my piece of the puzzle was the animation side... Our conversations were, 'Well, do we want to separate the animation from the live action, or do we want to pass it on?' I came to the decision that we would use [the bullet] as a baton. I would start and hand it to them and they would do their thing and then they would hand the baton back to me and end it on the animation...
"In the video, the thing was that bullets and guns are adult toys, and children are innocent. And although we've seen plenty examples where adults' bad behavior can cost children their innocence and at the extreme, their lives, we wanted to create it as a bit of a metaphor that when the guard comes in, he shoots the bullet, and then you see the potential danger... But at the end, the little girl just grabs it, and gives it to him. And it was a little bit of, 'Silly man, Trix are for kids, not for rabbits,' like, 'You're an adult. This is your stuff. Here, take it back.'" - McFarlane, Todd McFarlane Reveals Story behind Korn's "Freak On A Leash" Music Video, Revolver (Dec 16, 2022)10. Peter Pan Syndrome
"Freak On A Leash" is a song about Jonathan Davis' feelings about the corporate music industry.
"That's my song that rails out against the music industry... Like I'm this freak paraded around, but I got corporate America fuckin' making all the money while it's taking a part of me. It's like they stole something from me–they stole my innocence and I'm not calm anymore. I worry constantly. I'm not just talkin' about the record business. Everything's involved. I've lost something. I'm not all there anymore. I love what I do, but I wish I could have it all back. It's like the "Peter Pan syndrome." I wish I could still fly." - Davis, "A Cut-by-cut Look at Korn's 'Follow the Leader' With Jonathan, Mitch Schneider Organization, quoted through Ultimate Guitar (last edited Jun 22, 2017)
"[I wrote “Freak On A Leash” about] the music industry, entertainment in general — how the machine worked. The label, management, publishers, everything that it involved. Looking back on it, “Something takes a part of me” was [about how] they were taking the fun [out] of making music and making it a business.
You can ask anyone in my band, I hate the f****** music [industry] ... I love singing and I love f****** making music... I know it’s stupid, but this is how I roll. It was me lashing out, because when [we] started getting bigger after Life is Peachy and got a bigger budget, I [was] watching it become more of a business." - Davis, The definitive oral history of Korn's "Freak On A Leash", NM Mashurov, Fader (Aug 14, 2018)
Sources:
"A Cut-by-cut Look at Korn's 'Follow the Leader' With Jonathan, Mitch Schneider Organization, quoted through Ultimate Guitar (last edited Jun 22, 2017) - https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/en/wiki/Korn_-_Freak_on_a_Leash#cite-note-2
Eminem Appeared In Korn's "Got The Life" Video... Revolver (Nov 30, 2021) - https://www.revolvermag.com/music/eminem-appeared-korns-got-life-video-he-was-famous
Korn's
Jonathan Davis Recalls... Wookubus, The PRP (Aug 15, 2018) -
https://www.theprp.com/2018/08/15/news/korns-jonathan-davis-recalls-the-cocaine-booze-blowjobs-that-went-into-the-follow-the-leader-sessions/
Rank Your Records... John Hill, Vice (Mar 26, 2015) - https://www.vice.com/en/article/r7pbkg/rank-your-records-korn
The definitive oral history of Korn's "Freak On A Leash", NM Mashurov, Fader (Aug 14, 2018) - https://www.thefader.com/2018/08/14/korn-freak-leash-oral-history
This is the Korn song that Jonathan Davis really, really hates, Metal Hammer (Mar 9, 2022) - https://www.loudersound.com/news/korn-jonathan-davis-worst-song
Todd McFarlane Reveals Story behind Korn's "Freak On A Leash" Music
Video, Revolver (Dec 16, 2022) -
https://www.revolvermag.com/culture/todd-mcfarlane-reveals-story-behind-korns-freak-leash-video
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Follow_the_Leader_(Korn_album)