"I like reading Ball Tongue lyrics and all that stuff. And they published a book, and I wouldn't give my lyrics, and it's all wrong in the book, and I giggle. It's funny"
About this Quote
Jonathan Davis is describing a very particular kind of joy: watching the world try to pin down something he never meant to be pinned down. The setup is petty on purpose. A lyrics book comes out, he refuses to contribute his own words, the printed version is “all wrong,” and instead of outrage he “giggle[s].” That giggle is the point. It’s a musician taking back control by letting go of it, turning a potentially exploitative act (packaging an artist’s pain and weirdness into merch) into a joke on the packager.
Nu-metal lyrics, especially Korn-era Davis, were never just text on a page. They’re breath, spit, stutter, mutter; they’re performed trauma. Strip them of voice and you get something that looks like certainty but isn’t. Davis knows that. By withholding “my lyrics,” he’s refusing the tidy, authoritative version of himself. The wrongness becomes proof that the work lives in sound and in the listener’s messy reception, not in a sanctioned transcript.
There’s also an undercurrent of mistrust toward the machine that monetizes intimacy. A book wants to freeze the “real” words so fans can consume them like scripture. Davis delights in the failure because it punctures that fantasy. The humor isn’t just Schadenfreude; it’s a quiet critique of the idea that art should be legible, collectible, and correct. In his telling, misinterpretation isn’t a bug. It’s the most honest part of the whole transaction.
Nu-metal lyrics, especially Korn-era Davis, were never just text on a page. They’re breath, spit, stutter, mutter; they’re performed trauma. Strip them of voice and you get something that looks like certainty but isn’t. Davis knows that. By withholding “my lyrics,” he’s refusing the tidy, authoritative version of himself. The wrongness becomes proof that the work lives in sound and in the listener’s messy reception, not in a sanctioned transcript.
There’s also an undercurrent of mistrust toward the machine that monetizes intimacy. A book wants to freeze the “real” words so fans can consume them like scripture. Davis delights in the failure because it punctures that fantasy. The humor isn’t just Schadenfreude; it’s a quiet critique of the idea that art should be legible, collectible, and correct. In his telling, misinterpretation isn’t a bug. It’s the most honest part of the whole transaction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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