What You Believe

Album: Black Labyrinth (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • "What You Believe," along with the majority of Black Labyrinth, was actually penned by Jonathan Davis back in 2007-2008. At the time the Korn frontman was questioning organized religion after the departure from the band of Brian "Head" Welch to focus on his Christian faith. He told Kerrang:

    "The album is about enlightenment, why I belong in this world, what religion is, and my journey of trying to find the meaning of life. I want it to be like an art experience. I don't want people to take it too seriously, though – it's all entertainment."
  • The lady you hear talking is sometime Korn producer Ross Robinson's mother, speaker and author Byron Katie. She teaches a method of self-inquiry known as "The Work" which teaches that all suffering is caused by believing our stressful thoughts. "The Work" is a method of identifying these reasons for our anguish. Davis explained to Kerrang:

    "Ross told me to go online and listen to one of her speeches, so I looked it up and this is the first thing she said: 'What you believe is your religion, and everything you believe in, and love is just that - there's no room for God in it.' That was the most prolific s--t I've ever heard in my life, and it knocked my d-- k in the dirt. I wrote What You Believe there and then. I later called Ross and told him to bring his mum over. She started pumping her fist in the studio when she heard it."

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