LOUD KRAZY LOVE, a new documentary that details the harrowing journey of KoRn co-founder Brian Welch will be released exclusively in Australia at Event Cinemas May 15, 2019.
The sound Brian “Head” Welch helped pioneer with KoRn in the early ‘90s provided identity to a generation of misfits and made him a global rock star. Famous, wealthy, and worshipped in the spotlight, an adolescent self-loathing relentlessly haunted him – until the day a tiny miracle was born. By the time he walked out on a $23M record deal in 2005, desperate to kick a devastating crystal meth habit, all he wanted was to become a good father.
LOUD KRAZY LOVE follows the experiences of Brian and his daughter Jennea growing up together with chaotic courage and unconventional faith. Far beyond a rock documentary, this fearless coming-of-age story grapples with teenage depression, the quest for identity, and the hope of a father willing to do anything for the one he loves.
We got to talk to Brian before he headed down to Australia to do some Q&A screenings of the film on the East Coast – take a listen below or read the part transcript.
Click here to find out more details about where you can see the film.
On turning the camera on himself and his daughter
I actually had some entertainment people contact me and they said that they were doing a reality TV show that MTV was funding and it was about spirituality and they asked if I could be on the show and I said sure, and then they filmed all this stuff. I went to Israel and they filmed me going there and they filmed all the stuff, you know, and so what happened was the show didn’t end up coming to fruition, so I ended up with the footage and I thought it would be cool to use it in some way later. I kept hold of it and then I had all my home videos of Jennea when she was little and I was gone on tour so much, that I had my friends film things that were going on with her, so we had all these hours and hours and gigabytes of footage, until we got this green light to do it.
How life is today for him and Jennea
The documentary and everything that was in it, as far as like the drama and the hard times and the difficulties and so that stuff is even though life is hard, you know that most of that stuff is behind me. You know, my daughter’s right here with me in the other room and she’s doing wonderful. We have great times, we don’t argue, you know we have some stressful days sometimes, but it’s like we’re past all the things, all the hard things you saw in the movie, which is amazing.
Jennea’s response to being in the documentary
Well, it was cool because me and her mentor that works at her boarding school that she’s been at for years, we got together and we were like, okay, this is the opportunity and I want Jennea involved and she was like “OK, let me talk to her and then we can both talk to her” And so we set it up, where we submitted the plan to see if she wanted to be on board, so her story helps other young people, we told her that if she didn’t like the footage, we didn’t have to use it; that she basically owned it herself and she will be in charge of what to use what not to.
On not holding back with the footage in the documentary
We wanted to show that you can get really far gone, you know and still bounce back and that’s why we left it in. I’ve had people tell me it’s too uncomfortable to watch at times, you know where you’re just like, well that’s too much info, but it’s all for a purpose to show that you can get past anything, if you just keep walking. Keep going through it and keep trusting, believing and forgiving.
God, Spirituality and moving forward.
It’s really important to my life, it’s number one for me and but it’s um, very well balanced now because I was really like, what do you call it, intense with it before and I think I scared a lot of people away, rather than make them want to hear about it, you know, so I was I was kind of like a Jesus fanatic, and now I have a lot more peace. I love to contemplate and meditate and it’s all Christ-based but I’m less intense. That’s it from the outside, but inside it’s everything to me still
Seeing the first cut of Loud Krazy Love
It was pretty crazy to see my life put together in such a professional manner and in the documentary, I watched it in, a what do you call it? It’s was a movie editing place in Dallas, Texas and they and they had of like a mini-movie Auditorium thing and they played it for me while I sat in the movie seats and was just blown away. It was actually two-hours-and-fifteen minutes, so we had to trim a lot of the fat in there, so to speak, but I was always blown away. I thought it was really a piece of art and that was the first edit and then once I started watching it more I was like, okay, we need to take some of this stuff out, it’s too long, there was too much of about me going back to the Korn and less about me and my daughter and so we found some more footage and made the father-daughter story stand out more.
Advice for his younger self back before Korn hit it big
I would sit there and give advice for like two days. We’ll just be like; you know don’t fall into the traps. You’re going to fall into the traps and you think you’re not going to fall into the traps, but you’re going to fall into every single trap out there and I’m telling you this now because you have to stop it now because you will.
On re-joining Korn for the first time on stage in 8 years to play Blind.
It was surreal bro, ’cause you’ve got to think I was gone for 8 years and all I was playing was clubs and I had like maybe one or two big shows a year if that and that was just luck because I had like so many people not care what I was doing. I’d play empty rooms a lot, so like playing with Korn was just so huge to me and I couldn’t remember how big it was, because it’s been so long. I was drunk and high on methamphetamines like the last two years I was in the band, so it was a blur and then next thing you know they asked me to play with them and I played and I was just like, woah this is crazy. I was so nervous and me and Fieldy were talking and he’s like, you should come out the other side and then he looks and I’m walking with the head of the guitar over my head and he’s like, wow this guy, and it was just really dramatic. Some people were in tears and like all the other bands that we were friends with, were watching and they were just so excited and so it was really surreal because a lot of people got emotional, a lot of people that cared about Korn got really emotional and that’s why I felt like it was a spiritual reuniting, not just “a band of brothers” and stuff. It was more like something is happening like a reconciling, spiritual thing is taking place with a family, that’s what it felt like and because everybody was healthy then, and it was just like, wow it was such a mess before.
On Korn coming back to Australia
Yes, we’re talking about doing some type of tour and we’re just trying to check the options, because everybody in the band absolutely loves Australia and it’s just about the making it work financially and packaging it with another band and the availability. We have new management. Since we got them it’s constantly in communication with our whole team about going back there and doing something and making it work. We don’t have anything firm yet, but we’re continuing to talk about it. So hopefully, it’ll be next year or at least the one after, for sure.
To listen to full edited interview, you can hit the play button above.
