More money, more problems

By CHRIS PAGE, Californian staff writer
e-mail: cpage@bakersfield.com

Sunday November 10, 2002, 12:00:00 AM

Francisco Medina / Special to The Californian Korn performs Thursday night in Tucson, Ariz.

Superstardom hasn't been entirely peachy for the members of Korn.

Working hard to create one of the largest empires in modern rock -- including merchandising that runs from standards like T-shirts and posters, plus unique items like Korn character dolls -- has meant struggling with personal relationships.

Davis and Renee Perez had a son in 1995 and the two were married in 1998. But they only stayed together for six months. Now, Davis -- who has boasted a love for pornography -- is dating a former porn actress, Deven Davis (her surname before meeting him), and the two are engaged. Davis recently shot a pictorial of his girlfriend for Playboy magazine.

Welch, formerly wedded to a woman named Rebekkah, ended his relationship and has custody of their daughter, who is 4 years old.

Arvizu Jr. divorced his wife, Sheila, last year. The couple had two daughters together. In the divorce, Arvizu Sr. said, Sheila was given a $1 million house and got an undisclosed amount of money toward the children. The band's current tour will raise another $1 million that Arvizu will pay to his ex-wife, ending his fiscal responsibility to her, Arvizu Sr. said.

People around the Korn members have also taken advantage of the band's name recognition, whether intentionally or not.

Jonathan Davis' younger half-brother, fellow singer Mark Chavez, found his band, Adema, in the middle of a lucrative major-label bidding war based not on the band's music (hard rock, influenced by Korn, though the group hadn't played a live show before it was signed to a deal) but on the singer's relationship to Korn; Adema has since made a point to say that Korn had no help in getting the band signed.

A guitarist, J.R. Goldman, who once jammed with Shaffer and Welch in Bakersfield and taught the pre-Korn duo some informal lessons in the instrument later marketed an instructional video via his now-closed Web site, www.KornGuitarTeacher.com.

Arvizu Sr., 56, divorced Arvizu Jr.'s mother in 1985. He got married to Mindi Arvizu in 1990 and the duo now run a musical ministry out of their Bakersfield home. They've ministered over the telephone to Korn fans who found their phone number, Arvizu Sr. said. One Korn-loving teen-age girl came all the way from Texas to visit them and, inadvertently, embrace Christianity.

And then there's Mandi Arvizu. The 25-year-old sister of Arvizu Jr. moved to Los Angeles after him with a desire to get into professional modeling. She got work as an exotic dancer, and later did a topless photo shoot -- at Arvizu Jr.'s home. Those images ended up on an adult Web site, billed as "Korn's baby sister." That strained relations between the two, as Arvizu Jr. thought his sister was capitalizing on the band, Arvizu Sr. said. The siblings have since patched up their relationship.

In the wake of so much drama, Korn began working on its latest album, "Untouchables," in late 2001. The band brought in a new producer, Michael Beinhorn, after firing an earlier one (the band likes to work at a tireless pace and frowns on working with those who can't keep up), but dealing with personal problems was too much for the band. It couldn't shake its creative block.

Ultimately, the band's record company sent the group to Arizona to work on songwriting in relative quiet. When it returned to Los Angeles, the band and Beinhorn crafted a gem that mixes polished studio glamour with a sound that's bigger than anything the band has done before -- taking Korn's crunchy sound and transforming it into a boneshaking, danceable dirge.

Davis' lyrics reach beyond old favorite topics like emotional abuse at the hands of another. Instead, tracks like "Embrace" hint at the frustration and joy of being in a successful band: "Why do I create just to be swallowed?/... I'll take what's mine."

"Untouchables" is the closest Korn has ever come to a party record. Released in June of this year, the album went platinum by the end of that month, although sales are down sharply from previous albums.

The album also continued Korn's innovative style of promotion, including a contest to pick one fan to co-direct the video for the album's second single, "Alone I Break." The band also simulcast a June live show in New York to 6,000 fans in 40 theaters across the country -- the first time that had ever been done.

"He (Jonathan) is in his element," Rick Davis said. "He's like that athlete that's at the peak of his career."

Being at the peak of their game has allowed Korn's players to reward themselves. Instead of all cramming onto one bus for the current tour (which is dubbed the "Pop Sux!" tour), each member has his own lavish tour bus -- about the size of a cozy two-bedroom apartment.

Of course, being at the top isn't all good. Whenever Jonathan Davis visits family in Bakersfield, he ends up spending most of the time on his cell phone, pacing around the house. Lately, his family has had to visit him at the venue itself, because Davis is too busy to leave. He's a workaholic, for sure, Rick Davis said, just like his father.

Want a visual clue of the intensity inside Korn's singer? Look to his two front teeth, which now feature a triangle-shaped gap in the middle: According to his father, it's a perfect fit for the wire mesh screen of a Shure handheld microphone. Davis sings so hard, he literally eats the microphone -- and the microphone eats away at him.

Being in one of the most popular hard rock bands of today has meant that privacy is virtually nil. The members of Korn, Davis especially, have a hard time being out in public without being accosted by fans and a starstruck public. It's a problem compounded by the fact that Korn has always been open with its fans, sharing stories of its personal lives in order to make fans feel more connected to the group (the message: If your family is messed up, join ours). Internet fan sites track the group's births, marriages and rumors on a daily basis.

Davis and the rest of the band travel with bodyguards.

"I think as they've had their success, there's always been a level of discomfort," RIck Davis said. "I've watched Jonathan want so badly to just go to Valley Plaza and buy Christmas presents, but he's trapped in this bubble. It's a different kind of hell."

Davis lives in a 3-acre compound in Los Angeles that once belonged to actor Patrick Duffy. There, he has four houses, one of which is occupied by his stepsister, Stephanie.

"Honestly, when I read interviews with these embittered rock stars, it's like, what do you have to complain about?" said DeRoo, whose band, Adema, is working on a follow-up to its own 500,000-selling first album. "We're doing what we want to do with our lives. I can sit and complain about the day-to-day things, but we're human beings."

Not that Davis is complaining.

"It's just been kick-back, watching, laughing my (expletive) off that I get paid to do this," Davis said. "It's a dream come true. I can't believe it's my job."

The only thing he hasn't done yet but wants to do is write a dark rock opera. He's planning on devoting time to that when touring in support of "Untouchables" is over.

Davis and company may not know just how they got to be one of the biggest bands in the world, but they're aware of what they'll be leaving behind in the rock history books.

"We just changed everything," Davis said. "It feels really (expletive) good. It's just a big accomplishment. It's wonderful."

His father has a better idea of just how Korn made it, but it's no better of a blueprint for other aspiring bands.

"In the music business, luck is always a factor, and I mean that as being in the right place at the right time," Rick Davis said. "What they (Korn) were offering, the industry was hungry for. And they were dedicated to their cause. They lived in poverty, they lived in hunger and they pursued it at all expense.

"People who say they didn't pay their dues, well, you weren't in Huntington Beach.