Turns out that the origins of how Korn got its band name was far more disgusting than changing the “c” to a “k” in “corn.”
The generally accepted origin story of how Korn got its band name is that James Schaffer suggested they spell “corn” with a “k” and a backwards “r.”
But according to lead vocalist Jonathan Davis, that is only part of the story and the origins of “Korn” is far more NSFW than anyone would’ve ever guessed. Brace yourselves because this is going to get disgusting.
Appearing on the Steve-O’s Wild Ride podcast, Davis revealed that his band’s name was inspired by a party he attended from “back in the day” where he witnessed “two gay guys talking about how they loved felching each other [sucking or eating semen out of someone’s anus].”
Things then took a turn for the disgusting as Davis recalls: “And the one dude was talking that he was felching his lover and the guy shat all over his face, and he had a corn kernel on his tongue. So, people that knew the story, they were there, and we just go, ‘Corn….’
“And they would be like, ‘Shut up, dude! Oh, god damn, no, no…’ And that’s how the name came about.”
Well that’s… certainly quite the story indeed.
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After that whole “felching” story thing, Davis told his band about it and they all thought it was “such a cool name” that they went for it despite massive resistance from their manager.
Wild NSFW origin story aside, Davis also talked about why the band decided to call themselves Korn: “The whole thinking behind it was like, ‘It doesn’t matter what you’re called.’ It’s like a punk rock thing; it’s like, ‘Fuck, we’ll call it Korn – who cares – I don’t need any mysterious, weird fucking name.'”
Well thanks for that enlightening tidbit about Korn and how its band name came about, Jonathan Davis. I’ll never look at a cob of corn in the same way ever again.
Check out Jonathan Davis talking about the origins of the “Korn” band name:
