Jonathan Davis performs with Korn during the 48 Hours Festival, Las Vegas, Nev., October 2011. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

A lot has changed within the music industry and within your personal life since Korn’s inception, yet you still manage to channel the same sort of rage against society. I know that life is different for you now — you’re sober and you have kids — so how do you maintain this intensely aggro sound?

It’s just different and I just grew up. I’m 40 now. I’ve gotten over all those people who called me a faggot in high school. Or picking on me because I was different. I was listening to my kind of music while everyone else was wearing cowboy boots. I was getting my ass kicked every day in school. You get older and you move past it.

I think everyone gets angry still. I get pissed off ’cause sometimes I feel like I don’t have any real friends and everyone has an agenda. I moved back to my hometown because all my friends here knew me back before I was in Korn. I have two of them. Shit that happens when you get older and I still get pissed off about it.

Speaking of your childhood, I remember reading that before Korn you were interested in musicals. You auditioned for Jesus Christ Superstar?

Yeah, man. I love them. My favorite is Jesus Christ Superstar because my parents were part of a local production here in Bakersville. My mom played Mary Magdalene and my dad was the conductor and a player in the orchestra. It’s a fun story. My mom ran off and left my dad for Jesus. [Laughs.] He’s been my step-dad for thirty years now. So that’s how I got into musicals.

“That’s how they do it. They just push the country to near death — unemployment, nobody can survive — and then some guy comes along with the promise of new jobs or whatever and everyone looks to him. And then he becomes a crazy dictator or whatever.”

But, yeah, that’s a funny story. And then when I got older and understood the meaning behind it and how blasphemous it was for the time. How controversial it was, it just made me want to get more into rock music. One of my major influences was that musical, I think.

Are you still into them? Do you watch them with your kids?

We’ve watched a couple. I like watching TV with my kids. We have a couple of local arts channels that we watch together. Otherwise I’m watching their shows or Nickelodeon. But even when I’m on tour — I’ll watch their shows on my bus to make sure that I can keep up with what they’re watching back at home. I watch cartoons. That’s all I watch. [Laughs.]

When I have my own time I don’t, obviously. I’ll watch weird, interesting movies when they come out too. The last movie I watched was this Korean movie called I Met the Devil. Amazing, amazing horror film. It was disturbing as hell. Yeah, I would never watch that with my kids. That’s for late at night, but, yeah, we end up watching a lot of Spongebob Square Pants.

Do they watch Glee? You know, Glee was supposed to have Javier Bardem guest-star as a Spanish heavy-metal star on the show. I think they canceled because a bunch of metal bands have animosity towards the show. Would you let them use a Korn song?

I’ve never seen that show in my life. I couldn’t tell you what the premise of the show is or anything. If someone wants to use one of our songs and do it well then I don’t care. People take themselves way too fucking seriously, I swear to god. [Laughs.]

Korn was birthed eighteen years ago. That said, if Korn was a person, Korn would be able to vote. Who would Korn vote for in the upcoming presidential election?

I’m just waiting for a non-Illuminati candidate to run.

You think they’re all part of the Illuminati?

I’m all about the Illuminati conspiracies. I read all about it and it makes sense. Watching the things happen that they said they said would happen. The European Union started out and then there was North American Union — Canada, Mexico, us — and the Amero. It’s crazy how many times I watch how they directly put us in recessions so that these other big banking companies could take over banks. Did you notice how many Chase [banks] have popped up since the recession? You know that Chase used to be Standard Oil back in the day? They helped fund hit-men in WWII. It’s all connected. It all makes sense. They do this to try to take our rights away. The biggest one was when they started the Department of Homeland Security. There was someone else who did that. His name was Adolf Hitler when he started the Gestapo. It was the same exact fucking thing. He said it was for the security of the country, the Gestapo would protect him and the security of the country. It’s the same shit if you look back and read it. Look it up on the internet — all this Illuminati shit. All this shit pops up  and you’ll be like, “Oh my god. This is all happening in front of me and I don’t even realize what’s going on.”

I mean, I get date-raped every time I go through a fucking airport. [Laughs.] Just because I have these pants on that have some metal on them, they play with my junk. I’m like, “You must love your job. Touching dicks all day.” It’s like, what the hell?

So basically Korn, the teenager, wouldn’t vote.

Why? It’s rigged anyways. It’s all about electoral votes anyways. The way we set up our elections are by whether the state wins. That’s the electoral vote. It’s like how Bush got elected. His brother rigged the election. It was by two-hundred votes or something ridiculous. You know that his brother did that and that’s how they got in. Listen, I’ve never been a political person but I’m all about what’s really going on.

The introduction of cellphones is our Big Brother now. They can know at any time where you are and what you got when you have your cellphone on. Everyone has one. They can track you and all this other stuff — it’s like having a chip put on you. It’s crazy.

It’s just that everyone is so desperate because everyone is so broke or broken mentally in this country right now. They’re going to chip us all. I mean, we’ll be all chipped and all of our credit, our money, is going to be on that chip. And if you go against the government they can turn off all your money and they can just destroy you. Sorry, I know I sound crazy. People think I’m crazy about all the Illuminati stuff but…

I’m sure there are other people who share your view. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion.

It’s crazy. Obama is Illuminati proper. I did a song on the album called “Illuminati.” He got in and got the most money ever, that any president has ever spent, and why? All the banks are taking over. Unemployment is going down. Shit happened in Germany when Hitler came around. I talk to my tour manager about this all the time. It’s crazy. That’s how they do it. They just push the country to near death — unemployment, nobody can survive — and then some guy comes along with the promise of new jobs or whatever and everyone looks to him. And then he becomes a crazy dictator or whatever. That’s just how it’s done. If you just look at how history repeats itself — it’s been happening for thousands of years.

Just check out the Iluminati. Actually, my family…

…is part of the Illuminati?

Yeah, they were part of the Illuminati; the Davises from Wales. I went on Ancestory.com – that’s another one of my hobbies, looking up my ancestory. I found a Griffith Davis that came over from Wales to America and is part of my family. My son actually showed it to me. They were the Davies at the time and changed it to Davis when they came to America.  Anyways, [my son] was like “Dad, our family at the time was part of the original Illuminati when it was set up back when the Catholic Church was in power … and the masons and all that.” I was like, “Wow, things are getting weird.” Things are getting weirder every day.

Korn are currently on tour with Datsik and Downlink. Path of Totality is out December 6 via Roadrunner.