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At the turn of the New Millennium, Korn were still an absolutely huge deal, but their status as the kings of nu metal was being seriously challenged by the likes of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and more. Tensions in the group were rising, the effects of a half-decade of living the rock star high life taking its toll on a band that were riding high in the charts but falling apart behind the scenes.
It took some time away, some sobriety, a few private mansions and a boat load of money, but they roared back with one of their greatest ever anthems.
1998’s Follow the Leader album established Korn as the hottest rock band on the planet. A Billboard chart-topping classic that sold over five million copies in the US alone, it was quickly followed by the band's fourth album, Issues, just over a year later. That too entered the US Billboard Chart at number one and went on to sell 13 million copies worldwide.
While this was all going on, Korn had launched the hugely successful Family Values Tour and found themselves regularly appearing on magazine covers, rock radio, MTV and even an episode of South Park. They had gone from five outcast freaks from Bakersfield to globally recognised rock stars in just five years. Inevitably, for these young men, acclimatising to their newfound status was a bumpy ride.
I used to drink a bottle of Jägermeister a day. When I cut that out I was drinking thirty Jack and Cokes
Jonathan Davis
“I used to drink a bottle of Jägermeister a day,” vocalist Jonathan Davis told Kerrang! In 2002. “When I cut that out I was drinking thirty Jack and Cokes. It was pretty fucking bad. I think I was trying to deal with the cliche of being a rock star.”
By the time the touring commitments for Issues was over, it was clear that an exhausted Korn needed to take some time to regroup; drummer David Silveria had injured his wrist and missed an entire European tour, bassist Fieldy’s drug problems were so bad that conversations were had about removing him from the band and the rise of the genre the band gave birth to was giving them a serious identity crisis.
"If we don't open up another musical door, Korn has had its day," Davis remarked to Revolver in 2001. "So many bands have come out and copied our shit, it's become not special anymore. We've just gotta do what we've always done, which is keep a step ahead. Us and the Deftones were the bands that stared all this shit, but now you've got your Stainds, your Disturbeds, your Godsmacks...you can't even keep up with all of them.
"It pisses me off. We had to work so hard; nobody understands how hard we had to work to fucking get accepted. People were originally scared as shit to play our records."
The sessions that went into making Korn’s fifth album, Untouchables, have now gone into legend: the renting of individual mansions for each band member, in Phoenix, LA and Canada, at $10,000 a pop; Fieldy installing a stripper pole in his mansion and admitting he “came in to write every day hungover and I’d throw up every single day”; Davis working alone in isolation; producer Michael Beinhorn’s anally retentive, obsessive and costly process to get the right sounds resulting in the record taking two years to finish, costing over $3 million and making Untouchables the ninth most expensive album ever made.
“Beinhorn's whole vision was to make an amazing sounding rock record that could never be made again,” Jonathan said to Noisey of the album's recording in 2015. “We spent so much money on the drums alone. We spent a whole month just getting drum sounds. Usually I do my vocals and it takes me a month or two weeks, but just vocals took me five, almost six months. With Beinhorn, sometimes I'd walk in and sing and he'd just say, ‘Go home, your voice ain't right."
Beinhorn himself has defended his work on the album, shifting the blame onto a band who were racking up personal expenses all over the place before they had ever begun recording.
I came in to write every day hungover and I'd throw up every single day
Fieldy
"I realized at a certain point that the costs were just spiraling way out of control,” he said to the BREWtally Speaking podcast in 2019. “Even before I got started, the band tacked a million dollars' worth of expenses - their own expenses - on to the production costs. Which, essentially, I had to accept contractually if I wanted to work on the project. So already I was coming in a million dollars short.”
Chaotic though it may have been, there was one thing that everyone agreed on: opening song Here to Stay.
“I love Here To Stay,” Welch told Rock Sound in 2022. “That opening, that riff, those guitar tones we got, you can't match 'em - it's our sound forever.” “Here to Stay is my favourite,” Fieldy agreed when speaking to NYRock.com in 2002. “It kind of represents everything that Korn is about.”
The song opened with one of Korn’s greatest ever riffs, with Davis’ wailing melodic performance giving way to a crushing yet anthemic chorus. It was an obvious pick for Untouchables' first single and Korn’s big comeback.
Unsurprisingly, it came with a slick and expensive looking promotional video, directed by The Hughes Brothers, best known for their directorial work on critically lauded movies like Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, showing the band performing inside a TV set surrounded by static.
"We're all big fans of the Hughes Brothers," said Fieldy to Hit Parader in 2002. "We love their whole style of filmmaking and Menace II Society is one of our all-time favorites. They had never done a rock video before, so it was definitely a very cool and different experience for everyone involved."
When Here to Stay was released as a single on May 20 2002 it showed that Korn still had what it takes to be nu metal’s top dog. The song reached number 12 on the UK singles chart, their highest singles position to this day, and topped the Billboard Rock and Metal Chart.
Shooting the video was a very cool and different experience for everyone involved
Fieldy
Buoyed by its lead single, when Untouchables was released on June 11 of the same year it sold just shy of 500,000 copies in the US alone in its first week, entering the Billboard Chart at number two, only kept off top spot by the mammoth success of The Eminem Show. It also peaked at number four in the UK - again, Korn’s highest ever charting position in this country.
It got even better by the start of 2003, as Korn found themselves onstage at the 45th Grammys accepting their first ever award for Best Metal Performance for Here to Stay, having beaten off competition from Slipknot, Rob Zombie, P.O.D. and Stone Sour. It was undeniable: Korn were back and bigger than ever.
They’d face more trying times in the future, but it says much about Korn that the first time they faced a challenge to their popularity, they replied with a song that remains one of their most famous, iconic and beloved still to this day. Untouchable as ever.
