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Heavy Metal Guitarist Brian Welch Describes Faith After Drug Addiction

Heavy Metal Guitarist Brian Welch Describes Faith After Drug Addiction

By Movieguide® Contributor

Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch recently shared how a prayer from when he was 12 brought him back to Christ years later.

Growing up, Welch’s family attended church sporadically, but he never learned anything about God. However, the summer before high school, he experienced God’s character through a friend.

“When I turned 12, I was getting bullied and stuff and, you know, it was just I had a really hard time with peers,” he recalled. “I met this kid that lived down the street and we became good friends.”

“It was right before high school and this guy was named Kevin and his family were Christians,” Welch continued. “[He’s] the only friend in that town that really didn’t like turn on me and kind of pick on me, you know, he was just nice all the time.”

Kevin and his family shared with him that Christ was the Savior of the world.

“[Sometime later], I was at home watching some horror flick, and it was, I know it was the Holy Spirit now, but I just stopped, and I was like, if there’s a savior, I should probably ask him in my heart,” Welch said.

“I just turned off the movie, and I went, and I knelt down in my dad’s little bathroom, and I just said, ‘Jesus will you come into my heart.’” And that was it,” he said. “I don’t really remember any magical moment or feeling like much was different, I just did it. It was like I set up – it was like God set me up for my future, and I didn’t know it at all.”

After high school, Welch found success through his band Korn and put his worth in fame and drugs.

“The problems in life weren’t fixed,” he said. “I still, you know, had drug addiction…When we got to the top, it was like we changed. Whether it was from pride or from insecurity and self-doubt, everything mixed together, I don’t know, but all I know is that we changed.”

However, Welch still had that seed of Jesus inside of him, and it made itself known when an opportunity finally presented itself.

Welch had been trying to get sober for a long time and moved home to escape his partying lifestyle. There, he met a group of real estate tycoons who he became friends with. They were Christians and invited him to church.

“I said, ‘All right, I’ll go with you,’ and [they] picked me up, I was on meth all night long,” he recalled. “I’m a feeler and I started feeling the love of God and I didn’t know [what] it was. I thought it was just the music. I was like, ‘That song’s peaceful,’ you know. But I felt something that day and it just felt good and thin I started having these signs and wonders.”

Welch’s 12-year-old prayer sprouted in his heart that day, and he gave himself over to Christ. He started seeing changes in his life and overcame his drug addiction through the strength of Christ.

“I am high on the most high,” he said of his sobriety journey. “He’s poured his love into my heart by the Holy Spirit. I traded in my ashes for beauty. I traded in my addictions for relationship, for love.”

Welch now uses his platform in Korn to share the Gospel with his fans. He is an incredible light in the heavy metal scene – a place largely filled with darkness.

“What I will never regret though, is giving my entire being to Christ and I will share my story until the day I die,” Welch declared previously.

Movieguide® previously reported:

Brian Welch, lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Korn, shared how God saved him from addiction and the work he is doing now to spread the Gospel. 

Like many entertainers, Welch became addicted to drugs during his rise to fame. He would often perform while on cocaine, methamphetamine, or another heavy drug. These substances allowed him to cope with the heavy metal lifestyle and endure the difficulties of long nationwide tours. 

When he first got into the drugs he expected to keep control over his usage, however, he quickly got to the point that he was unable to quit, even though he wanted to. After his daughter was born, he got serious about getting sober but was told by multiple rehab facilities that they would be unlikely to be able to help due to the extent of his usage. 

“By that time, I was like, ‘I do not want to exist anymore,’” Welch told TBN. “’I’m a shell walking around with nothing of substance inside. And I got all kinds of money in the bank, but I just don’t want to wake up when I go to sleep. I just with that I could stay asleep.’” 


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