Jonathan Davis

This article is about Jonathan Davis, the lead singer of Korn. For people with similar names, see Jonathan Davis (disambiguation).

Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis performing live.
Background information
Birth name	Jonathan Houseman Davis
Born	January 18, 1971 (1971-01-18) (age 40)
Origin	Bakersfield, California
Genres	Alternative metal, nu metal, Electronic
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, singer, producer, actor
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, drums, piano, harp, bagpipes, violin, harmonica, bass
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Immortal/Epic Virgin/EMI Warner Music Group Roadrunner Records
Associated acts	Korn Jonathan Davis and the SFA Sexart J Devil
Website	www.korn.com

Jonathan Houseman Davis (born January 18, 1971)^[1] is the lead vocalist and frontman for the nu metal band Korn. Davis was ranked 16th on Hit Parader 's list of "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists".^[2]

Early life

Davis was born in Bakersfield, California to Rick Davis and Holly Chavez. He has a sister named Alyssa, and a half brother, Mark Chavez, (the former lead singer for Adema) by his mother. His father was a keyboardist for Buck Owens and Frank Zappa, while his mother was a professional actress and dancer. His parents divorced when he was three years old, his mother leaving Rick for an actor, and was raised by his father and stepmother Lily in Bakersfield. Davis suffered severe bouts of asthma as a child, and had survived a near-fatal asthma attack when he was five, when he was pronounced clinically dead for several minutes.^[3] He also spoke of having a horrible relationship with his stepmother. Davis has said that his earliest musical inspiration as a child was the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar,^[4] and his favorite musical group was The Cure. He graduated from Highland High School in 1989. He also attended the San Francisco School of Mortuary Science for a period of time.

Acting

He has a cameo in Queen of the Damned as a ticket scalper. Davis plays a minor role as Ricky, a crack dealer, in the film Seeing Other People. Davis also has a role as a store clerk in the indie film The Still Life. Davis is billed to appear in the upcoming horror film Sin-Jin Smyth where he will be playing the lead role.^{[citation needed]} According to Bloody-Disgusting, Jonathan Davis is currently working on a script with writer/director Clive Barker entitled Oblivion. Davis describes it as a "dark opera about the end of the world" and that it differs greatly from Korn's style of music.^{[citation needed]} The project has been postponed for an indefinite period of time.

He has also been featured in many other bands' music videos, sometimes with Korn and sometimes solo. He has appeared with Korn in Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" and "Faith", Deadsy's "Brand New Love", Ice Cube's "Fuck Dying", Videodrone's "Ty Jonathan Down", Sugar Ray's "Answer the Phone", and Lil' Wayne's "Prom Queen" as a cameo appearance. He has also appeared in, Cold's "Give", and Busta Rhymes' "Fire." He has also worked with Infected Mushroom, a psychedelic trance and electronic music group, in the song (and video) titled "Smashing the Opponent".

Davis and the rest of Korn appeared in a 2005 episode of the comedy-drama television series Monk, titled "Mr. Monk Gets Stuck in Traffic". As well as appearing in Monk, Korn also made an appearance on The Man Show in which hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla claimed to be two members that were kicked out of the band in the style of a VH1 Behind The Music special.

Davis and Korn voiced themselves in season 3 of South Park in the episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery", which features them as Scooby Doo-esque characters, driving a Mystery Machine-like van and trying to solve a mystery about pirate ghosts.

Personal life

Davis' childhood is a big influence in Korn lyrics. The song "Daddy" gave rise to a rumor that Rick Davis (Jonathan's father) had abused his son, even though Jonathan has gone on the record in many interviews saying it was written about a family friend who sexually abused him. He said that, when he tried to turn to his family as a child to tell them about the abuse, they ignored him. (Neither Jonathan nor Rick Davis will say who the person was, though both say it was a woman.)^[5]

Davis has married twice, marrying his high school sweetheart, Renee Perez, in 1998 in a Medieval-themed ceremony. Together they had a son, Nathan Houseman Davis, but divorced in 2001. On October 5, 2004, a decade after the release of Korn's first album he married again in Hawaii, this time to former pornographic actress Deven Davis.^[6] In 2005, his second child, Pirate Houseman Davis, was born.^[7] Davis's third son, Zeppelin Houseman Davis, was born on April 28, 2007.

Davis has not used alcohol or other drugs since 1998.^[8] On the band's Deuce DVD, Davis's bandmates all say they are proud of him for his sobriety. On August 19, 1998 Davis went on a three week drinking binge with his Irish cousin Colin "Diggie" Dignam, which lasted for days at a time. He has since said that it was this session that led to his abstinence.

Davis has stated that Untouchables is his favorite Korn album and that "Do What They Say" and "Hollow Life" are his favorite Korn songs.

In late 2006, Davis was recognized and honored at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California, by Buddy Alan, son of the late Buck Owens.

While Korn performed at the Download Festival in 2006, Davis was unable to perform, as he had developed idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare bleeding disorder. This left him bedridden for days after his band's performance. Assorted other artists also at Download filled in singing for Korn during the performance including M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold, Matt Heafy of Trivium, Jesse Hasek of 10 Years, Benji Webbe of Skindred, Dez Fafara of Devildriver and Corey Taylor of Slipknot.^[9]

Davis created an original fighting game, Pop Scars, which pits popular musical personalities against one another in one-on-one combat. Participants include members of Limp Bizkit, Staind, Marilyn Manson, and Korn itself. Each celebrity has its own personality and sports character designs sketched by comic book artist Marty Emond, while stages feature environmental traps that impede opponents as they fight. Pop Scars never made it past the early design stages, as Davis himself pulled the plug on the project in late 2004.^[10]

Equipment

In the early 2000s Jonathan was known for his microphone stand he designed, which was created by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. Before the stand was created, Jon used a normal microphone stand. He has used the microphone stand in Korn music videos and live concerts since. Jonathan is endorsed by Shure, and used many Shure microphones in music videos and live concerts. The commonly used models Jonathan uses nowadays are from the Wireless 'SM' series, and in Korn's older days Jon would specifically be seen with the 'Beta 87a Wireless' model. In the studio, Jon can be at times seen using a Sanken CU-44x. Angel St. Morte

Discography

Main article: Korn discography

Korn

• Neidermeyer's Mind (1993)
• Korn (1994)
• Life Is Peachy (1996)
• Follow the Leader (1998)
• Issues (1999)
• Untouchables (2002)
• Take a Look in the Mirror (2003)
• Korn: Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (2004)
• See You on the Other Side (2005)
• Live & Rare (2006)
• MTV Unplugged: Korn (2007)
• Untitled album (2007)
• Korn III: Remember Who You Are (2010)
• The Path of Totality (2011)

Solo

• Alone I Play (2007)
• Live at Union Chapel (2011)

Other appearances

• First Demo (Human Waste Project) (1993)
• Deadsy (1996)
• Roots (1996)
• Blood Rooted (1997)
• Coal Chamber (1997)
• Candyass (1998)
• Videodrone (1999)
• Significant Other (1999)
• Amplified (1999)
• Black and White soundtrack (2000)
• Break Stuff music video (2000)
• Strait Up (2000)
• Rock'n Roll Gangster (2002)
• Commencement (2002)
• Reanimation (2002)
• Gorilla Pimpin' (2003)
• Linkin Park Underground 4.0 (2004)
• Phantasmagore (2006)
• Criss Angel: Mindfreak
• Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food (2009)
• Legend of the Black Shawarma (2009)
• For Obvious Reasons (2009)
• The Black Crown (2011)

Singles

Solo

Year	Song	US Dance	Album
2003	"Love on the Rocks"	—	Wonderland soundtrack
2007	"Careless (Akasha's Lament)"	—	Non-album singles
2008	"Got Money" (featuring Jim Root)	41
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

As featured artist

Year	Song	Peak chart positions			Album
		US R&B	US Rap	US Rock
1999	"Ty Jonathan Down" (Videodrone featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	—	Videodrone
2000	"Year 2000" (Xzibit featuring Jonathan Davis)	76[11]	28[11]	—	Black and White soundtrack
2002	"The Key to Gramercy Park" (Deadsy featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	—	Commencement
2003	"Cut Throat" (Marz featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	—	Gorilla Pimpin'
2009	"Jerry Bruckheimer" (The Changing featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	—	For Obvious Reasons
	"Smashing the Opponent" (Infected Mushroom featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	—	Legend of the Black Shawarma
	"The Enabler" (Chuck Mosley featuring Jonathan Davis & John 5)	—	—	—	Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food
2011	"Justice" (Rev Theory featuring Jonathan Davis)	—	—	38[12]	Justice
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

See also

References

1. ^ Family Tree Legends
2. ^ RoadRunnerRecords.com, Rob Halford, Robert Plant, Bon Scott, Ozzy Are Among 'Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists' - December 1, 2006, Retrieved on December 5, 2007.
3. ^ Karen Bondowski (2004). "KoЯn's Jonathan Davis alive and well (sort of)". concertlivewire.com. http://www.concertlivewire.com/interviews/korn.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-28. 
4. ^ http://youtube.com/watch?v=-HXN2An2yJ8
5. ^ Chris Page (November 2002). "The Evolution of Korn (Hope on the Horizon)". Californian staff writer. Archived from the original on 2008-02-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20080203183126/http://ww2.bakersfield.com/2002/korn/main6.asp. Retrieved 2008-02-25. 
6. ^ http://worldofdevendavis.tripod.com/id14.html
7. ^ "For The Record: Quick News On 3 Doors Down, KoЯn, Pearl Jam, Tyler Perry, Monica, Mike Patton, The Cure & More". MTV. 2005. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1498902/20050323/3_doors_down.jhtml. Retrieved 2006-12-28. 
8. ^ "RISEN Magazine Interviews Korn Frontman Jonathan Davis". .risenmagazine.com. http://www.risenmagazine.com/category/music/jonathan-davis. 
9. ^ Blabbermouth.net (2006) "BLABBERMOUTH.NET - KORN frontman JONATHAN DAVIS:' I should be healthy to play in a few weeks'" Available at: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=53594 (Accessed: 11/05/2010)
10. ^ "Game Spy:Pop Scars". IGN. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/pop-scars/. Retrieved 2007-08-06. 
11. ^ ^{a b} "Xzibit > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p194771/charts-awards/billboard-singles. Retrieved 2008-03-23. 
12. ^ "Rev Theory > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rev-theory-p1035454/charts-awards/billboard-singles. Retrieved 2011-08-23. 

External links

• Official Korn website
• Jonathan Davis at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview with Jonathan Davis
• Interview with Jonathan Davis at Inked Magazine
• Interview with Jonathan Davis from Rolling Stone
• Jonathan Davis Biography, Video's & more

Persondata
Name	Davis, Jonathan
Alternative names	HIV
Short description
Date of birth	1971-01-18
Place of birth	Bakersfield, California
Date of death
Place of death