Returned Korn guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch has recalled the moment he came close to behaving like jailed As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis – and tried to have his wife killed.
Lambesis last month began serving a six-year jail sentence after admitting an attempt to hire a hitman, explaining he’d become unbalances as a result of using steroids.
And Head, who descended into his own drugs hell before leaving Korn in 2005, admits to having behaved in a similar fashion in 2000.
Head recently told Loudwire: “I was going through a nasty divorce. My wife had asked her new boyfriend to move into our home, and I was full of anger, rage, sadness, bitterness and revenge. Honestly, I wished they were dead.
“One of our road crew had been involved in gangs in the past, and at one point was very high up in the chain of command. Eyes bulging out of my sockets, high as a kite, I asked him, ‘What would it take to have my wife and her boyfriend hurt really bad – or worse?’
“At that moment, I honestly wished I could have hired someone to kill them. I had already murdered them in my heart.
“Looking back, I am so thankful for what came out of that dude’s mouth. He stared into my eyes with the most dead-serious look I’ve ever been given and said, ‘Head, if you cross that line, you can never go back.’”
He reflects he’d have ended up “in a very similar position as Tim Lambesis” if the roadie had decided to profit from his request.
And it inspired his sympathy for the singer, he continues: “I tried to visit Tim right away, but couldn’t work it out. I felt horrible for how completely shocked and scared his wife must have been to hear the news – but my heart went out for Tim because so many people immediately wanted to lynch him.”
Head managed to spend a short time with Lambesis before he was sentenced, and believes that, despite finding himself in the darkest moments of his life, the jailed musician has a bright future – especially if people give him the space and support he needs.
‘We believe in second, third, even one hundred chances, if that’s what it takes,” Head says. “We’ve been given countless chances – so why not Tim? He’s a normal dude who had fallen into the darkest, most confusing, empty place.
“He needs brothers, not more enemies.”
