Brush With Death Inspired Korn Frontman While Writing New Album

Band Photo: Korn (?)

Korn frontman Jonathan Davis has revealed that his hospitalisation on the eve of their Download 2006 appearance has formed the basis for many of the songs on the band's forthcoming album 'Untitled'.

Davis was unable to perform at the festival after he was admitted to hospital with idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura, a disease that makes it difficult for sufferers to form blood clots and stop bleeding.

"I almost died," Davis tells Kerrang!. "Death was completely on my mind when I was writing the lyrics for the new record. It really made me think about life, where it's been and where it's going.

"It made me rearrange the things in my life that I hold dearest and changed the way I thought about my family and my family in Korn," he adds. "I remember thinking to myself 'What if I couldn't be in the band anymore? I've got to do this. It's who I am.'"

Davis' near-death experience has inspired the song 'I Will Protect You', a heartfelt message to his sons, Nathan, Pirate and Zeppelin.

"While I was sick, all I could think about was that I might die and then my sons would be growing up without a dad," says the vocalist. "That was really hard. The song is for them and it's really, really heavy."

Davis tells Kerrang! that the Bakersfield nu-metallers are hoping to bring their 'Family Values' tour over to the UK in early 2008.

"We're hopefully going to come back in January and February," smiles Davis. "We're going to try and bring a cool package and and play shows up and down the country because we haven't done that in seven years. We want to do it so bad."

The album - produced by Atticus, who worked on the band's 2005 release 'See You On The Other Side' - will be released on July 30 through Virgin. A new single, 'Evolution' will be released on July 16.

Source: Kerrang!