Brian Welch, guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning multiplatinum nu metal band Korn, became popular among Christians after he committed his life to Jesus in 2005. In an exclusive interview with ChurchLeaders, Welch discussed his life and faith, as well as his journey back to the band he walked away from after becoming a Christian.
Known to Korn fans as “Head”—a nickname given to him by his bandmates due to the size of his head—Welch came to faith after a long battle with addiction and mental struggles.
Plagued by depression throughout most of his life, Welch has shared that he accepted Christ after his real estate broker invited him to church. Immediately following the service, he went home, placed his young daughter in front of the television, and did a line of crystal meth.
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After snorting the drugs, Welch said he cried out, “Jesus if you’re real like that pastor said, then you got to take these drugs from me. Come into my life. Come into my heart.”
Welch continued, “I just got quiet. I said, ‘Search me right now. Search my heart. And I stayed silent and I said, ‘You know I want to quit. You know I want to be a good dad for this kid.'” The mother of Welch’s daughter was out of the picture because of drugs, and reaching out to God, Welch said, “And she’s going to lose me if I don’t quit. Amen.”
“I felt so much fatherly love from heaven, and it was like, ‘I don’t condemn you. I love you. I love you,’” Welch said. “Instantly, that love from God came into me. It was so powerful that the next day I threw away all my drugs and I quit Korn.”
“I was like, I’m quitting Korn and I am going to raise my kid because I got the love from God coming out of me and then it came out of me to my kid,” he added. “It changed me. My heart was changed like that…God used [my daughter] to save me, to save her life later on.”
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In 2013, Welch returned to Korn after an eight-year absence. Fresh off Korn’s latest tour, during which the band celebrated its 30th anniversary, Welch expressed that his time in the band has been “surreal.”
“I did 11 years, and then I left for eight, and then came back,” he explained. “And so it’s just really bizarre to hear that number. And it doesn’t feel like we’re as old as we are, you know, doesn’t feel 30 years have passed. Every show [on this tour] sold out, besides three. I’m incredibly grateful that we could still do it.”
Although some have criticized Welch for rejoining Korn, Welch said he is exactly where God has called him to be. “I’ve got this odd calling where a lot of Christians don’t understand it and write me off,” he said.
