The “Classic” Korn Lineup Is Now 50% Christian Rockers

Dan Gibson | February 13, 2009 2:00 am

When Brian “Head” Welch left Korn to follow Jesus, that was a big story. But in 2009, two years after the band last put out an album, it’s less immediately interesting that Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu is a born-again Christian, complete with a tell-all book about his rebirth coming out in March.

Welch made reference to another member of Korn becoming a Christian at the Cornerstone megafestival last summer, but I’m not sure anyone was paying enough attention to look into the situation any further. So Fieldy’s book, whch declares his conversion following a life of drugs, alcohol and hard partying, has been sort of under the radar.

Music was in his bones. From the time he was an infant, Fieldy watched his dad’s band perform, and soon enough he found his own calling: the bass. After high school, with a guitar and little else, he left his small California town for the music scene in L.A. Before long, Fieldy, Brian “Head” Welch, James “Munky” Shaffer, drummer David Silveria, and Jonathan Davis would gel together and form a band with a completely new sound-Korn.

What happened next was something Fieldy had always dreamed of but was totally unprepared for: Korn exploded, skyrocketing to the top of the charts and fronting the nu metal phenomenon. Fieldy was thrust into the fast-paced, hard-rocking spotlight. Korn began to tour incessantly, creating intense live shows fueled by wild offstage antics. Fieldy became a rock star, and he acted like one, notorious not only for his one-of-a-kind bass lines, but also for his hard-partying, womanizing, bad-boy ways. The more drugs he took, the more booze he drank, the worse he became: He was unfaithful, abusive, mean, and sometimes violent.

By all appearances, Fieldy had the life. But he was on the dark path of excess, alienating friends, families, and loved ones, nearly destroying himself and the band. It took an unexpected tragedy to straighten him out: the death of his father, a born-again Christian, to a mysterious illness. Following his father’s dying wish, Fieldy found God. Filled with the spirit of his new faith, Fieldy quit drugs and drinking cold turkey, and found the best part of himself.

With never-before-seen photos, and never-before-heard stories, Got the Life is raw, candid, and inspiring-the ultimate story of rock and redemption.

Whether of not Fieldy’s “ultimate story of rock and redemption” makes Brian Welch‘s book the penultimate story is up for debate—the stories do sound remarkably similar, which means that those never-before-seen photos will probably prove the difference-maker. The question, then, becomes whether or not Fieldy will stay in Korn, or if he’ll take a break from the rock and roll lifestyle that’s just long enough to make a reunion tour of the original lineup that much more profitable.

Got the Life: My Journey of Addiction, Faith, Recovery, and Korn [Amazon]

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