Exclusive interview: Brian "Head" Welch

Brian "Head" Welch © Jourdaine Middleton

In early 2005, Brian “Head” Welch, lead guitarist and co-founder of nu-metal group KoRn, parted ways. Since leaving, Head is devoting his life to his daughter, to Christianity, and to expressing his spirituality through music and writing. In his debut record Save Me from Myself  (2008), Head relays his past drug addictions, his alcoholism, and his beliefs. The album is eleven tracks of eye-opening, heart-wrenching, raw tunes that reflect Head's musical roots in old school KoRn albums. He also illustrates his life in two published books entitled “Save Me from Myself” (2007) and “Washed by Blood” (2008). With a hard life slipping off of his shoulders and a new light shining down on Brian “Head” Welch, the man has a new mindset and feels free to tell people about it. On August 29^th at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, Head played a free show with Flyleaf, Blindside, and Metal Mulisha. After playing his set, he sat down in his dressing room to chat about the new things going on in his life.

JM: How did you make the transition from lead guitarist to solo artist?

Brian: When I quit KoRn, it was just like, it felt like I needed to do it. It was a dream inside of me, you know? Not for a long time or nothing, I just felt like when I changed my life, I was all “I need to go solo and do my own stuff and talk about things I'm into.” I just really went for it, like right afterwards. This is like, we just started, so this is the biggest show we've done so far. [laughs] It's fun.

JM: Now that you've been on your own for the past few years, how has your songwriting evolved?

Brian: I don't know. I'm writing the next record, like, in the next couple months. I haven't wrote anything.

JM: Like, as opposed to when you were with KoRn, and how you are now. How has your songwriting evolved from there?

Brian: Oh! Well, I don't shove, like, twenty beers down my throat, now. Well, before, we'd all get in a room, drink beer, stuff like that, play guitars, and just jam it up and come up with some parts in new songs. But now I write all of my songs. I see all the chords, I hear all the melodies in my head, and I go to a computer and get a keyboard, and I write it on my Macintosh just to get a rough idea of a demo. So that's how I do it. But I may try to write with these guys [the band], a couple of songs for the next record.

Brian "Head" Welch © Jourdaine Middleton

JM: So it'll be more like a full band rather than just a singer/songwriter kind of thing, on your part?

Brian: On a couple of the songs. You know I like to get a basic idea of the songs, and then have people add to it.

JM: I always see you playing an Ibanez guitar, even with your old band, and now. What is it that makes an Ibanez your main brand?

Brian: They're free. [laughs] Right when I started with KoRn, our bass player hooked up with them, this guy named Rob in Ibanez, he came to our show and was like, “You guys want to get hooked up with free guitars?” And we were like “Yeah,” so we stuck with them all these years. He put out a guitar that was our own model, so it was just like... it's a really good relationship, no problems with it ever, so it's like, why leave, you know?

JM: How often do you experiment with different tones and effects to make up your playing style?
Brian: Quite a bit. In the studio, we just go nuts. I have four different amps. I have an Orange, Mesa Boogie, a Bogner, Marshall. We just went nuts and tried everything. I do four different tracks of the same thing, and blend them all together to get a really cool sound. Pedals, and stuff? I experiment on every record. It's one of the fun things, like Christmas, that the dealer I go to at the guitar store, and I just shop. I plug in pedals for hours and say, “Is there anything new? What's this, and what's this?” Then I just buy new stuff [for] a new album. Some times I get stuff that's been around for fifty years, like I never tried before. So it's fun. It's a guitar player's Christmas.

JM: Sounds like a dream.

Brian: You play anything?

JM: Yeah, I've been playing guitar for about seven years.

Brian: Really? So you can shred, then!

JM: I played cello for eight.

Brian: Really? I love the cello.

JM: I played cello when I was four years old, and I quit after a while and went into guitar.

Brian: You're pretty good right now, right?

JM: [laughs]

Brian: I mean, you could say it. Have you practiced for seven years?

JM: Yeah.

Brian: Ah, then you got to be good.

JM: I taught myself for a while, got a teacher, then taught myself some more.

Brian: That's how I did it, yeah. I got, like, two teachers, and then I kept... 'cause if you can figure it out, like, the ear and stuff, you know. So it's fun.

JM: Yeah, I love it. [laughs] Anyway, from your album, I wanted to talk about a few songs, more in-depth, basically. For “Die, Religion, Die,” it seems to oppose the man-made religious doctrine. The sound of the lyrics in the verse seem to speak from the perspective of God or Jesus, with lines like, “You put my name to shame, I'm everything you're not. I give them love, My ways you have forgot.” What's the story behind that song?

Brian: I was a younger Christian when I wrote it, but I felt like I had some religious experience with man-made control, and stuff. Like, you need to be in church, and you can't talk to other people in other churches, and I didn't like that. I was new but I was like, “Isn't this supposed to be, everyone's a family and one?” I just didn't like it and I wrote it out of a bitter spirit, you know? I felt if God was saying that stuff, that He'd just want to shake people in love, you know, like a parent shakes a kid. [laughs] It'd be like, “Just kill all this stuff. Just concentrate on love and working together.” Just like I said up there, religion's about trying to be good enough for God. What it's supposed to be is your relationship.

JM: “Washed by Blood” isn't really candy-coated, it's very direct. That has very personal lyrics which, in so many words, illustrates your finding Jesus and leaving the life that you had. Tell me about that song more in-depth. What do you hope a listener will get out of that song?

© Jourdaine Middleton

Brian: You know, “Washed by Blood” was pretty much what I felt Jesus was saying to me when I got saved. I was just, like, coming out of it and I felt His presence and all of that. I felt like He was saying all of that stuff to me. “You're washed by blood from deep inside. You're not a prisoner no more of your old life.” Just, washing away all of the pain and me not having to do nothing, except accept it. It was really personal to me and I, when people sing about personal experiences like that, and people... it could sound like, I'm speaking to other people for God, too. I don't know, I just hope that it brings the presence of God to people and that they could feel washed, too. That would be my ultimate dream.

JM: What's your favorite guitar song on Save Me from Myself?

Brian: Guitar song? I really like “Money,” it's got some cool... I don't know if it's my favorite, but it's what came to my head right now. I love the first sounds and just really like “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo” on the chorus. It's kinda monotonous, it keeps going on the same thing, but it's cool. I like the sounds on it.

JM: What song on the album do you think shares an equal balance of songwriting and guitar work?

Brian: Probably “Washed by Blood” because it's, like, eight or nine minutes long. There's just so much guitar on that one.

JM: How does God use you on stage?

Brian: Hopefully He just uses me like He did Paul. You know, Paul in the Bible [who dealt with people who were] impersonating Christians. Like, the nastiest of the nastiest, I feel like I was. Just like we all do, but I feel like He uses me to show everybody how graceful and merciful and how cool [He is]. I want to get to people, it's like, God is so real. You don't gotta be good, it's not like we're trying to be good, because we're so bad before. God is real and wanting to live through us. That's what I hope He's doing for me, 'cause I don't want people to think that I'm trying to be good because I was heavily doing drugs. It's not that, it's just, Christ, I want to love Him and that's it.

JM: I heard that you began an orphanage out in India. What inspired you to start that?

Brian: When I read a scripture, I was so strung out on drugs. Like coming off of them, you know? It was like, I saw scripture and be, like... I'd go run and try to do it, and feed the poor. I was like, “I'm going to India to feed the poor!” You know, leave everything. I sold my house and we left town. [laughs] Like, I was going crazy, but it was funny because I showing God that I wasn't afraid to obey. It was wacky, but it was still fun. I felt like He told me to go to 50 Cent and write a letter to him, and tell him Jesus wants to save him, too. I was like, “Alright, God!” and I went and found his jeweler. I bought some diamonds off of him and I gave him a note and he was like, “I'm gonna go see 50 in, like, three days.” 'Cause they're developing a business. I go, “Give him this note.” It was a long letter saying Jesus wants to save him. [laughs]

JM: [laughs] Did you get a response back from that?

Brian: Nah. But thank you Lord, that I was out of my mind and wacky, and coming off Speed. Thank you for making me sane again.

JM: Tell me about the work that the orphanage does.

Brian: Well, actually, I'm not affiliated with them anymore, but I donated a bunch of money. I donated money and they built a home for them. When we went there, there was a bunch of crime, and all of this stuff going on. Crime dropped 90% since that home was put in. It's just a big school and it's a home to live there, and a church there, and they teach them. So it's, like, everything in one. Kids off the streets, kids whose parents died, kids who were sold into the sex trade, and like, people grabbed them up. So, it was a really cool experience, I'll maybe go back there and do something similar to that again. Those people are awesome, those are the real heroes, 'cause they're there with the kids. It's pretty cool.

JM: Do you have any future plans for any kind of mission work?

Brian "Head" Welch © Jourdaine Middleton

Brian: Right now, I just feel like I'm doing my thing that I'm supposed to be doing, which is music, and media, and stuff like that. I would love to be involved in anything that I feel like I'm supposed to do, 'cause so many times in the beginning, I was like, “I want to do everything.” I wanted to build a skate park with the money I had, I wanted to go to India, I wanted to do this thing with Stephen Baldwin and all that, but you got to tune in and figure out what you're called to do. If you go and try something, you're not supposed to be there, it won't work out. You're supposed to be somewhere else. I would love to do missionary work when it feels right. Right now, I feel like I'm tied in offerings and stuff. I'm so in with my money to people that are already doing it, so that's how I'm helping missionaries right now.