“Steve created that”: Korn’s Head says Steve Vai inspired them to play seven-string guitars
“I went towards the greats: Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, and Warren DeMartini. My friend, Munky, went to Steve Vai and Joe Satriani”
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Korn’s Brian “Head” Welch has shared that Steve Vai inspired them to play seven-string guitars.
During the early days of his journey into becoming a musician, Head and friend James Shaffer – who later on became his Korn bandmate, “Munky” – would share the music they liked with each other. In fact, Head says he was the one to provide Munky with his first ever electric model.
In an interview with WSOU 89.5FM, Head remembers how the two of them influenced each other when they were just starting out (via Ultimate Guitar): “There wasn’t any Metallica [or] darker-edge bands – the darkest bands, at that point, were Dio and Judas Priest.
“I was a guitar student, and I went towards the greats: Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch, and Warren DeMartini. My friend, Munky, went to Steve Vai and Joe Satriani; the more jazzy stuff. It was a thing where we were just discovering music…” He says.
“James came over one day, and sure enough, I put [on] Dokken’s Under Lock and Key. And I played it note for note, rhythm-wise; when we got to the solo, I faked it as much as I could, but I could definitely hit a lot of the most important notes. [Munky] was playing acoustic guitar, and I was the first one he saw in person playing an electric guitar successfully. And so, he was like, ‘Whoa, man, I want to do that!’”
Head says he ended up selling an electric guitar to Munky, his first ever one. “I influenced him,” he explains. “But later on, about 10 years later, he got into the seven-string guitar because of Steve Vai. Steve created that, and James bought one.”
At this point, it felt like things had really gone full-circle: “I wasn’t playing with James at that time, but he invited me to come back and jam with him. That’s when I started playing seven-string. So I influenced him early on, and then he influenced me. I started playing seven-string because of him.”
Check out the full interview below:
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