The past couple years have been remarkable for Brian “Head” Welch, guitarist and founding member of one of the most successful metal bands of all time. Korn, the group Welch formed with friends from Bakersfield, California, spawned the nu-metal revolution in the ’90s and sold more than 25 million records worldwide. Their rocket trip to the top came at a price, though; one that included loneliness, depression, self-destruction and a desperate drug addiction for Welch.
The 36-year-old guitarist unpacks it all in his new autobiography,
Save Me From Myself: How I Found God, Quit Korn, Kicked Drugs and Lived To Tell About It (Harper One). From his early childhood in a typical, if not idyllic American family, through his formative teen years and his discovery of heavy metal, right through to the birth and success of his dream band, Welch pulls no punches. While certainly not your usual “tell all” (He, in fact, shows remarkable restraint and respect when discussing anything related to the band.), the memoir is also not a typical testimony account.
Welch’s book reads like the reluctant but thorough confession that it is—one spurred by obedience to a calling. When originally approached about the idea of writing out his testimony, he flat refused. “I don’t even think I really prayed about it,” Welch tells CCM via phone from his home in Arizona. “I just said, ‘No.’” In fact, after a flurry of media interest and exploitation following his public confession of faith and departure from Korn, Welch disappeared from the public eye and went into a two-year seclusion during which he focused on increasing his understanding of the Bible and worked out his new faith with anonymous fear and trembling amidst a small and devoted community of believers.
“I was fresh off drugs when God revealed Himself to me,” Welch explains of his first days as a believer thrust into the spotlight. “It was such a real encounter that I had, and I was just so happy that God was alive and that life meant something different now. I was so excited to leave the band because I wasn’t happy there. I wasn’t happy being rich and famous. I was done with it. After I got saved, I just went full force. I wanted to do interview after interview. But now I know I was saying stuff that wasn’t really right sometimes. There were some people that were warning me and suggesting that I needed to grow in the Lord and take some time with Him. I went into seclusion until very recently. I’ve been in hibernation.”
The seclusion turned out to be a difficult but important part of the journey for Welch. “Pain, pain, pain,” he says of the process God took him through. “I went through brokenness, and I went through tears. I cried. I’m still in a phase of healing and brokenness. I had to learn about the cross. I had to learn about love. I had to learn about suffering. I had to learn about all that stuff of the Kingdom, and I’m still learning. I thank God for the seclusion. I thank God that He settled me down to just chill for a while and learn about His ways.”