As an editorial assistant with The Spokesman-Review, I am able to pitch occasional stories to pursue as a reporter. I managed to get a phone interview with Ray Luzier of Korn days before their show at the Spokane Arena on Feb. 26, 2020. The full transcript follows:
Riordan: How receptive have the crowds been to the new songs from The Nothing while on this tour?
Ray: It’s been really good. I’m a big fan of playing the new material, you get really excited in the studio writing and creating, Korn’s been around 26 years, this is my 13th year in the band, been touring the last 26-27 years with different bands, we all have a lot of time on the water.
When you play the same songs night after night it’s cool because you have to understand people in these respective towns sometimes have never seen the giant old hits like Freak on a Leash and Blind, Here to Stay, all of those. But it’s such a huge catalog now that Korn has over 170 songs–I get so excited to try and play at least one off each record.
We skipped a bunch of records on this tour, and I get kind of bummed out. People say what about Korn III: Remember Who You Are and The Paradigm Shift, but we have to at least have to play the new ones. We’re playing You’ll Never Find Me, Cold, and Can You Hear Me. It’s so fun… they transpose so well live in the arenas, sound so massive. When I record I always imagine what they’re going to sound like playing them live. That’s a good spark for me in the studio.
Riordan: How has the songwriting process evolved over the years you’ve been with Korn?
Ray: My first song I ever recorded with Korn was Kidnap the Sandy Claws, off the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. That was really interesting because we took a classical composition and made it into a heavy song–that was really fun and challenging.
First Korn studio record I did was Korn III: Remember Who You Are–brought back original producer Ross Robinson, everyone knows he did Korn (self-titled) and Life is Peachy. So that was really cool and dynamically way different, because you know he started doing the first two Slipknot and first two Korn. He has ways of working–he rides drummers really hard. So I got ridden pretty hard in that situation, so did Jonathan, lyrically. It was not the easiest record to make but I am proud of it. Head wasn’t in the band yet–so it was just us four in a very small room, writing and doing everything together.
The Path of Totality was a complete dubstep and electronic record. Head still wasn’t in the band then. Quite a different turn–I love the way that Jonathan Davis isn’t afraid to take a left turn, try something different. It definitely keeps it interesting. There’s formulas from bands like Iron Maiden and AC/DC–the record is pretty much gonna sound like the last five and that’s OK, but it’s cool that Korn does turns like that.
With The Paradigm Shift, we had producer Don Gilmore. It was a totally different way of making things. Me, Head and Munky got in a room a lot and wrote a bunch of riffs and grooves, then we had Fieldy come in, then Jon last. That was kind of the formula with The Serenity of Suffering as well.
The Nothing was all five of us collectively a lot. Me and Head live in Nashville and the other three in LA. So we would fly back and forth to our respective studios, get riffs together and ideas. We tried not to rush this one at all, tried to take our time. We had about 25 tunes, and narrowed it down to what you hear on the record.
Riordan: That’s awesome. So regarding this tour with Breaking Benjamin, I did do my research, I know that Head actually has done a lot of work with their guitarist Jasen Rauch producing Love and Death’s record and he also co-wrote the song Love & Meth from The Paradigm Shift–is that personal connection how the co-headliner tour came about, or..?
Ray: Not really. This business is pretty small out here. As many years as we’ve been touring, you get to know people in bands and all these festivals we do. That’s kind of a coincidence. We’ve been fans of them and they’ve been fans of us for many years. I think in the last year we did a tour with them, it went really well–so when it came up to do another tour with them, we were like yeah, sure, why not.
Winter tours are always harder to pull tickets and this one has been going really well. People coming out, the attendance has been really good.
It just happened to be a coincidence that they know each other. We’re buddies with Jasen, he’s actually helped us out with a couple of different things Korn-wise. He’s always been in the fold, a great person to work with.
Riordan: Nice. Besides new songs from The Nothing, has the band been playing any other surprising tunes on this tour? Stuff you don’t normally play, or..?
Ray: There’s some of the deep cuts that resurface–we’re doing Faget this tour, which is a really deep one for the die-hard fans. We have a slot going that we’re putting different songs in. We started with Divine, took that out and put in Clown, now we just added Faget and left out Clown. We’re doing a lot of older and a lot of brand new, a lot of stuff in the middle–I wish we did what Metallica does and play for three hours. Korn, much like a Metallica show, is very energetic and it’s non-stop so it’s hard–We did a medley years ago, and we’re talking about doing it again, there’s so many songs we’re kind of blowing over. Even old hits of theirs’. The song Trash was a big hit for them, but we haven’t done that in probably five or six years. It’s weird when we skip over so many records.
But the set we have together right now is very in your face. People leave the show going, “wow.” With our production and everything. It’s kind of nice this tour not to have pyro and cryo, so many bands are doing that now–and it’s fun and it’s cool to an extent, and we've done it many times, but we just have a great production this time. We have these mirrored walls that move, they project video screens, they can do lights, they can do many different things. I love our show right now–just the production. Some of my friends that wanna come see us, they always wanna watch side-stage, and I’m telling them ‘don’t even think about it this tour.’ You’ve gotta watch it from the front, it’s an experience.
Riordan: Well I’ll be there on the ground floor on the 26th, so I’m looking forward to that.
Ray: Right on.
Riordan: With my wife. Actually, fun side note. You guys can take a little credit for the fact that my wife and I are together. That sounds crazy, but we met on Tinder, and my first picture I have a Korn shirt on. I’m this really clean-cut-looking dude, so she’s looking at this picture like, “does this guy really listen to Korn? He looks so clean-cut, I don’t know.” But she went ahead and swiped–and sure enough, we’re both big fans.
Phone photos I shot of Korn performing at their Feb. 26, 2020 show at the Spokane Arena.
Ray: That’s pretty rad–hey man, you never know. That’s why I always say don’t judge and don’t stereotype people. I’m living proof of it–I was with David Lee Roth for eight years, the Stone Temple Pilot guys before this, played with Jakey Lee… Been with all these people, but I’ve never done a drug, I don’t have one ounce of ink on me. No tattoos, nothing. But I know I'm a rocker for life and I’ll do this until I die. 49 years old and I still don’t look like the typical metalhead, or whatever. I always tell people, you never know. Don’t judge a book.
Riordan: Speaking of that, I’m seeing a trend here–is there some sort of contract agreement in Korn that everyone in the band except the drummer has dreadlocks?
Ray: I know, right? David had like spiky hair, and of course Terry Bozio and Joey Jordison look nothing like… yeah, I don’t know. People were busting my balls for the first couple of years, “when are you gonna get dreads?” I’m like, “David has a surfer cut. Why would I get dreads?”
Riordan: That’s great. How was transitioning from being a four-piece back to a five-piece? Was that exciting, challenging..?
Ray: It was actually pretty awesome. Since I got the gig in ‘07 I’ve always wanted the four original and me. There’s something that Head and Munky have together–an energy, a chemistry, everybody knows they were five dudes from Bakersfield that had no idea what the future would hold. When their music appealed to the masses like that, there’s something special about that. Obviously substance abuse got in the way and Head parted. But it was weird because when I got the gig there were all these sub guitar players for Head behind the amps.
I’ve always dreamed of what it might be like with him back in the band. I know he has a certain thing that he does, and Munky has a certain thing. When they get together it’s just really cool. It’s a super simplistic way they play against each other–but it’s a thing. No one can pick up Head’s guitar and make it sound like him–and no one can pick up Munk’s guitar. It comes through the fingers. You can get 10 drummers to play the exact same beat, but it’s gonna sound 10 different ways, because of the way you hit the drum and the way you make it feel. So I was super excited when he got back in. Just watching those two bounce ideas, and ideas come super quick with us, so. It’s a beautiful thing.
Riordan: Speaking of transitions, what was it like going from a rural town in Pennsylvania to Hollywood?
Ray: That was a big giant shock, slap-upside-the-head for sure. 118-acre farm pretty much away from civilization. We had a mile driveway before you got to the neighbor. It was out there. I really thought I was gonna go to New York, and my guitar player at the time talked me into going to LA, which I’m glad I did–it was a much bigger rock scene at the time. I didn’t know what a neighbor was. Living alone in an apartment, I was like wait a minute, someone lives below me, on the side, and above me? This is really weird, I feel like I’m in a box.
It was a rude awakening. I was very naive, like anyone would be in that situation. Where I come from you trust people, in LA you can’t trust anybody. It took me a couple of years to learn that even the people that–the whole saying, “if we only couldn’t tell a lie,” well, business-wise and friend-wise. I never changed who I was or who I came from, but you definitely put up a wall and defense, build a shell around you. You have to or you get stepped on.
So, 26 years of that. Lived in probably four of five locations. Still have a house in LA. But we moved to Franklin, Tennessee, which is south of Nashville. It’s a nice music scene out there now. Tons of rockers, it’s not country like everyone thinks it is. Nick Mars is my neighbor, he lives up the road, Pete from The Offspring is down the street, Dave Mustaine from Megadeth lives two exits down from me, a lot of the 80’s rockers. They’ve migrated out there. Everyone thinks of Nashville as this big country thing, it’s very stereotyped–but it’s very eclectic now, it’s great for the kids too.
Riordan: For sure. Is that closer to rural then, or is it suburban..?
Ray: It’s weird where we live, it’s kind of suburbia but not really because it’s growing so fast out there. I think it’s up to 130 people a day moving out there. Which is crazy, because we moved out there to get away from the LA craziness, and it’s getting a little sick out there.
Riordan: Speaking on that, how do you manage the work-life balance?
Ray: Honestly I didn’t think I’d be doing this pushing 50, touring the planet like we do–but in rock and roll, if you're not out here playing and selling merch you’re not really supporting your family. It’s quite different now. Rock records don’t sell the way they used to. The music that we work so hard on is given away now, which still kind of blows my mind. Kind of weird when you work four months on a record, it’s only $10, and someone just takes it. I’ll never understand that. That’s the way it is, you either go with the system or you go away.
The whole 'instantly-if-not-sooner' mentality, you release a song and boom, someone in Berlin is listening to it at the exact same time. I love technology don’t get me wrong, it just always baffles me how much work you put into music and the new generation are just like, “what, I’m listening to it, why would I need to pay for it?”
So to balance it is a lot harder, because I gotta be out here touring. We try to get home a lot more, I’ve already flown home twice on this tour so far, and we’re done on the 2nd. I try to see the kiddos more often instead of staying away. When I was with David Lee Roth we’d be out for three months at a time and never see our apartments or homes. You didn’t wanna go home, because you didn’t really have a reason to–but when you have a reason, it’s a lot harder out here.
Riordan: I was going to ask you about the shifting industry. It seems to be going in the direction of musicians getting most of their money from concerts and merchandise, and considerably less money from albums and music. What does this mean for Korn?
Ray: It’s the same thing. The quality of the music’s not going to go down. In fact, we even work harder to put out quality stuff, not just a reason to go on tour. A lot of bands release an album as a tool to go out and play the same songs. We’re really not like that, we love to not be nostalgic. I think Korn has already crossed that boundary–we really try to challenge ourselves and make the best music we can.
You can’t bullshit the fans, they know–they’re not stupid. Especially people–this guy the other day, it was his 87th Korn show. That’s insanity to me. You’re gonna pay to see us 87 times–I’ve known him for years now, never once asked to be on the guest list. He’s buying hoodies, and sticks, and t-shirts–everything at the merch booth and he comes to every show he can within a 3-4 state radius. You get a fan like that, that’s a lifer… we’re definitely not out here going through the motions. We’re still gonna put on high-quality shows and make the best music we can, no matter what happens in the industry.
The pop world obviously is still ruling, there’s all the Taylor Swifts… They’re selling records, and some of them refuse to be on Spotify, but that eventually goes away, because they want to be a part of it as well. You kind of have to conform to it–Korn’s not gonna set the rules for that. It kind of sucks that the rock world suffered a little bit on that, but to me, rock’s at a whole new level right now. The energy… I’m friends with Nick Mars, and I was at his house right before I came out here, and we’re talking about the stadium tour and he’s just laughing, he’s 68 years old and Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard sold out 17 stadiums already–in 2020! Rock’s at a whole new level right now, I believe. Definitely not going anywhere. Korn did a rock is dead tour, Manson did one… It’s never going to go away, just going to change and evolve.
Riordan: What was the inspiration for Korn Koffee? It seems kind of out of left field.
Ray: I’m a coffee freak. The Korn logo is such an iconic thing, when you see it–it sticks out like the Nike swoosh to me, it’s huge. I always had these visions–I was low on the totem pole, obviously, when I got the gig, and I would make suggestions. I would always say ‘you guys should have Korn Koffee with a K, Korn Flakes with a K,’ you can brand this thing in so many different ways. I’ve always had that vision.
When we signed with Velvet Hammer, our new managers, we brought it up to them again. They have a great coffee guy named Jeremy Gursey that we partnered up with. He was Tom Cruise’s personal barista for over a decade, then he worked for Cameron Diaz. How do you get the gig being Tom Cruise’s personal barista? That’s a wacky thing. He made so much money off that he made his own company called J. Gursey Coffee. It’s very great, balanced, not bitter–so we partnered with him, had many meetings, flew out to his shop in Vegas and made some formulas. We have two roasts now: dark roast and wired blend.
I’m really proud of what we did. I’m not just saying that because it’s our coffee, but it’s definitely my favorite. It’s so well balanced, and a lot of thought went into it. We didn’t just put some beans together, saying ‘let’s put this out to be funny.’ We actually took our time with it. People can get it on kornwebstore.com. Obviously the ultimate goal would be to get it into stores and in WholeFoods and stuff like that, but as of now people can get it at our shows and online.
Riordan: I was wondering: if Korn was ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, do you think the band would be able to perform with David Silveria just for that occasion, and would you be willing to let him do that?
Ray: That’s something that happened–they’re not on the greatest terms with him. I honestly don’t know if that’s even going to happen. I’m not one to say, I’m not the founding member. Can’t even tell you. It’s unfortunate that–a lot of fans don’t realize, but that guy left the band. He didn’t get fired from Korn, he chose to leave. A lot of fans got bitter at me for the first few years, and I’m like, ‘if it wasn’t me, someone else would be here doing the drum position.’ This band’s gotta live on. That guy made a really bad decision leaving. I understand, I’m a fan.
I have no idea. I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to playing with him–I have high, high respect for the guy. If it wasn’t for the five original members, I wouldn’t be here.
Riordan: I hate when people get upset about that, because he did leave of his own volition. I’ve actually met him, he was cool, but I don’t know what went on in the band, I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, so it’s not really my place.
Ray: It’s just bizarre to me how much crap I got for so many years. I just wanted to yell out, ‘hey man, he left you!’ He abandoned the fans, and the fans have to understand that. He’s the one who didn’t even give a goodbye or nothing. To me that’s very rude and disrespectful to the people that loved the first Korn records, and all the shows. I would’ve at least made a statement, going ‘hey, you know, I gotta move on, I apologize, thanks for everything.’ There was none of that. So for me to get crap, I just kind of laughed, you know.
Riordan: I know that Jonathan had a really rough year-and-a-half–I think rough is kind of an understatement–how’s he doing on this tour? Is performing cathartic, challenging..?
Ray: I did his solo tour. He released an amazing record called the Black Labyrinth a couple of years ago. They didn’t want any Korn members on that tour, but I did play on the record, so I put a band together for Jonathan with some Nashville guys who are great musicians. Her death happened right in the middle of that whole tour–it hit us all, it affected us all. We’re all brothers and a tight-knit family, it was a huge deal. Usually something like that would devastate you to the point where you go away for a year or two or whatever it takes to mourn and heal.
But in Jonathan’s eyes, the music is his savior. He has to perform or he’ll go completely nuts. That was a lot to swallow. It was very emotional, those first couple of weeks back, but it even is now to this day, you never really get over that, you know. You feel bad for his kids, you feel bad for everyone–it hit us all like a ton of bricks.
But like I said, that guy on stage is no joke–that’s his food, his soul, he pours out everything on that deck. So to not do that–I couldn’t see it. I kind of thought he wouldn’t stop but everyone handles it differently. Some people need to be around what they love to do, and he definitely did that.
Riordan: What’s your favorite Korn album prior to joining the band, and favorite Korn album you have contributed to?
Ray: My favorite Korn album–which is bizarre to some–is Untitled. I absolutely love that record. Terry Bozio is one of my favorite drummers. By far–yeah–straight up, I love it. When I got the gig and we played six or seven songs on that record, that was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. I’m a huge fan of that song Starting Over and Ever Be, a lot of the ones we played... They got experimental, started doing different things. A lot of people are like ‘what are you talking about?’ To me, stepping into it, I love the older records, but… I think besides that, would be Follow the Leader. We did the 20th anniversary a few years back, we did five or six songs off that, and it was really fun to play those tunes. I’d been wanting to do some of those B-sides on there for a long time.
The new ones–The Nothing is definitely the one I’m probably the most proud of, because we put everything we had into it. And I love The Serenity of Suffering too–probably the last two are my two favorite Korn records. The producer has a way of making the band feel like it’s supposed to feel–I believe he achieved that. I’m very proud of The Paradigm Shift and Korn III: Remember Who You Are, too, but there’s something about these last two records that I feel they are just so strong. I can honestly say we gave it everything we got. A lot of bands just go through a process, half-ass things to put something out, but we didn’t do that.
Riordan: That’s so funny. I’m not going to lie to you Ray, I don’t like Untitled.
Ray: It’s all good!
Riordan: It’s the one record you guys have made that I was like, “eh!” But it was very experimental.
Ray: I get it. But that’s what I love about Jon taking left turns like I said.
Riordan: That’s the funny thing. I actually love The Path of Totality, and I was going to ask you: do you think Korn will ever experiment with the EDM space again?
Ray: It’s very probable, you never know. Jon’s older son Nathan is getting a lot of success in that world right now, and he helped Don program a lot of stuff on The Nothing record. If you look at the credits, it says Nathan Davis helped with programming. You never know man, I never say never.
Riordan: It gets me hyped. Every time I turn that album on, and your drumming starts on Chaos Lives in Everything, I get so hyped.
Ray: Yeah, thanks. Right on, man. That’s what’s so cool about different music and different genres, everyone’s got different opinions, and that’s what makes it so cool.
Riordan: Speaking of that record–I got kind of crazy on my research and I noticed that you and Sonny Moore–better known as Skrillex–actually both recorded instruments for 21st Century Cure on the Repo! The Genetic Opera soundtrack. I know it’s a studio, I don’t know if you guys even bumped into each other–but did that ever come up when you guys were recording The Path of Totality?
Ray: No it didn’t. For a while I was a session guy in LA, I’m on so many records I lost count. But I’m a fan, I loved it, that was one of my favorite sessions to do, I loved making that record. I did a majority of it. It was such a fun soundtrack. They were laughing at me because I memorized everything–most people read charts, when you have screwy tunes like that, but I love memorizing musical pieces. It was definitely a fun thing to make.
Riordan: That’s really cool. I know you guys are coming back to Washington state with Faith No More. What’s it like touring with a band that seemed to have a big influence on Korn’s sound from the beginning?
Ray: That’s gonna be great. Munky and them said if it wasn’t for Faith No More, Korn wouldn’t exist. They had such an impact. It’s gonna be great to be out with them. As everyone knows, when David’s hands were really bad, at one point, Mike Bordin filled in for Korn. There’s a lot of brothers out there. Our main stage manager and guitar tech used to work for Faith No More back in the day when Epic came out. There’s going to be a lot of familiar faces, old family members. Not something we thought would happen, it’s a real special tour.
Riordan: Anything you’d like to say in closing?
Ray: Thanks for everything, thanks for all the continued support, please buy The Nothing, buy some Korn Koffee, hope to see everyone show where you’re at. Also, if they want to check out my personal instagram, I’m at rayluzierkorn, Twitter is @rayluzier1 and I have a fan page rayluzier official on Facebook.