{"id":6082,"date":"2005-02-28T16:02:01","date_gmt":"2005-02-28T21:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2005\/02\/28\/from-meth-to-methuselah\/"},"modified":"2005-02-28T16:02:01","modified_gmt":"2005-02-28T21:02:01","slug":"from-meth-to-methuselah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2005\/02\/from-meth-to-methuselah\/","title":{"rendered":"From Meth to Methuselah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is an update to the story<\/a> of Korn’s Brian "Head" Welch<\/p>\n

BAKERSFIELD, California — Kids in Korn T-shirts crowded around a stage for what looked like a hometown concert but was actually quite the opposite: This was not the return of the Family Values Tour, but rather a gathering of families hearing a lesson on values.<\/p>\n

Two months after his first visit to the Valley Bible Fellowship, Brian "Head" Welch, who announced his departure from Korn last week (see "Brian ‘Head’ Welch Explains Why He Left Korn"), held a sort of Christian coming-out party here Sunday in front of an estimated 10,000 churchgoers in three separate services.<\/p>\n

"Brian has found out that God’s real, and he’s stoked," Pastor Ron Vietti told the third service.<\/p>\n

Welch — wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with his signature long, curly hair in his face — sat down with Vietti for discussions that found the guitarist displaying a mix of emotions, from stoked to somber.<\/p>\n

"I thought I had it all, everything I thought was important when I was a kid — money, fame, pretty women — but I came to a point where I didn’t want to live," he told the congregation.<\/p>\n

Welch confessed to coming to the church as a last-ditch effort to kick a drug addiction. "When I came here I was hooked on meth," he said, stopping to wipe the tears gathered in his eyes.<\/p>\n

…"More people came up and gave their lives to God than I anticipated, but that’s good," Welch said after the services — and after signing hundreds of autographs. "I’m tripping out a little bit, but it’s cool. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me."<\/p>\n

"Do you guys think I’m crazy?" he added, gesturing to reporters. "Everything on MTV is 50 Cent, Eminem, diss this, diss that. This is something positive."<\/p>\n

When he returns from Israel, Welch plans to launch a solo career, with music about his experiences as a new Christian, and then give the money to charities and to Valley Bible Fellowship’s plan to build "rock and roll churches" across America.<\/p>\n

"Every dime I make is going back to the people in a positive way," he said. "I’m gonna change the world or die trying."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is an update to the story of Korn’s Brian "Head" Welch BAKERSFIELD, California — Kids in Korn T-shirts crowded around a stage for what looked like a hometown concert…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}