Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch has responded to online speculation that he has renounced his Christian faith with a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. The speculation stemmed from Welch's March 2021 appearance on Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn's "No Fuckin' Regrets With Robb Flynn" podcast. During the interview, the guitarist — who left Korn in early 2005 after becoming a born-again Christian, before reuniting with the band in 2013 — was asked by Flynn if he thinks religion became his "new addiction" following his split with the nu-metal trailblazers.
"I think I went too far with it," Welch said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. "And I got obsessed with it, just like I was obsessed with the drugs. I believe I did, for sure. And I had to come out of that and find normalcy, because there's nothing worse than a freakin' irritating religious person just shoving it down your throat — there's nothing worse than that. And you saw it on the documentary [2018's Loud Krazy Love, about Welch and his daughter Jennea], Jonathan [Davis is] like, 'I hate those motherfuckers.' People can't stand 'em. And for years, we've had those Christians outside of Korn concerts, saying Korn's of the devil, and all this. It's crazy — it's a crazy thing. But I'm just glad I got through it. And I'm glad that I am who I am now, and I have a lot of peace and rest for my soul. I feel very leveled and at peace with myself."
In the new video (which can be viewed above), Welch clarifies his comments. "The Christian news media and other web sites and stuff, especially the Christian side, there's been a lot of stories about Christian musicians renouncing their faith," he says. "So it's really good for clickbait. A lot of these media outlets took it and listened to it and thought that I was renouncing it. So it was definitely taken out of context.
"When I first became a Christian, I was coming off of methamphetamines, first of all, and I had a massively powerful encounter where God was revealing himself to me. And so those two sides of the coin — coming off of meth and a powerful encounter — I didn't know how to react and I just went out and I was overzealous, I was obnoxious with my faith, and it took me a while to bring it down. So that's all I was trying to say in that video, in that podcast with Robb Flynn.
"I still share my faith, my personal stories of things that I go through in a non-religious way, I feel like," he continued. "I try to be very spiritual, but non… Like, 'This is this, this is how it's helped me, da da da.'
"My manager hit me up and he's, like, 'Hey, I think you should address this because I think people are really starting to believe that you renounced it.' And I was, like, 'All right. All right. I'll post about it.'
"But that kind of stuff doesn't get to me at all anymore," Welch explained. "It's just, like, whatever. People can twist your words however they want. I have an amazing relationship with God and I know where that stands. So I'm very confident in that, so I don't gotta really worry about it for temporary controversy."
You can watch Welch's appearance on "No Fuckin' Regrets With Robb Flynn," which kicked off said controversy, below.
