Korn’s Jonathan Davis Had to Apologize for ‘Talking Sh-t’ About Metallica
Jonathan Davis got into some hot water with the guys in Metallica back in the day for calling the band out in the press... while he was on tour with them! The Korn frontman discussed the incident in a new interview, saying that he was retaliating against being lumped into the metal genre.
"With us, we didn't care about Metallica or any metal music in general," Davis tells the Lead Singer Syndrome podcast. "We had bands that we loved...the most metal band that we really were inspired by was Sepultura, but other than that, we were something different. We always were fighting against this metal, 'Do this metal, this that metal.' We tried so hard to get around that and be with alternative bands and stuff like that, which we did for a while, but it didn't work and we were not a metal band in the sense of a Metallica or of Iron Maiden or that kind of stuff — we were something new — so we always tried to stay away from that. We didn't care what Metallica was doing. I mean, I got in trouble and said it."
"We went out on tour with Metallica, our first Metallica tour, and I said something in the press and they took it and they cut it out, the quote, and they put it all over the arena," Davis continues. "And the quote was, 'I liked Metallica better when they were men.' [laughs] And I felt so horrible. And they came and go, 'You talking shit?' I was all, 'Yes. I'm sorry.' I was intimidated. That's James Hetfield and Kirk [Hammett] and all those guys just looking at me. It's my first tour with them. I mean, I love 'em now don't get me wrong — but, yeah, I said shit. 'Cause it was kind of weird."
Davis says, "To this day, I love those guys," and that the episode took place around the time Metallica put out their 1996 album Load, which was a stark contrast to their metal roots, incorporating a bluesy and lighter sound.
"It was weird when most bands were going soft at that time. And now that I look back, I'm glad they did," he said. "You can't keep doing the same shit, 'cause you get bored. And that's all they were doing - they were trying to evolve, trying to figure it out - and more power to 'em."
Recently, Davis added another leg of U.S. tour dates in support of his Black Labyrinth solo debut disc.The full interview with him at Lead Singer Syndrome can be heard at this location.
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