Jonathan Davis recently sat in on Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta's 400th episode, and the duo talked for over an hour about many topics including the wild rollercoaster year, his solo album and just how massive Korn were in the late 90s.
Davis discussed that he doesn't think rock bands could ever reach those heights of popularity anymore. Here's what he said:
"Can, whatever the big bands that are out now, can that have an impact — having that cosign?" in reference to the smaller groups like Incubus, whose careers were launched when titans like Korn took them on tour, Davis responds, "No, not to the same caliber as like, we could … I've always said this last batch — Korn, Deftones, Bizkit, all those bands from that time — that was the last guard of that time of the big, real rock bands. That time has come and gone. No one's ever gonna do it like we ever did. No one's ever gonna have that experience. It was larger than life. We were up against pop bands, dude."
"I'm not trying to be arrogant or nothing, but it was like … us against the pop bands, us against the Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, and then we were so embraced by the hip-hop community. When we played The Apollo, Puff Daddy was there, Busta Rhymes, Lil Kim, you name it. All the East Coast rappers came and … it was really embraced by all of them. We did stuff with Dre, stuff with Snoop … At that time, that crossover — I haven't seen that, and I don't think I'll see it again."
I don't think Davis is trying to slight any bands that came after him. Korn and Limp Bizkit were right there on TRL battling against the boy bands of the era, something that just seems unheard of today. Can you imagine Ariana Grande and Ghost being spoken of in the same breath?
The only bands I can think of that truly broke out into the mainstream since the late 90s would be Slipknot shortly after this (although arguably part of the same wave), System of A Down (also, same wave) and then a few years later, Avenged Sevenfold, right at the end of when MTV showed music videos.
So perhaps Davis is onto something here? What do you think?
Listen to the full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/jameyjasta/episode-400-jonathan-davis
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