Album: Follow The Leader (1998)

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Songfacts®:

• This song has a gruesome meaning. Lead singer Jon Davis used to work as an autopsy assistant at a coroner's office. One day he saw a dead baby come in. She had been raped and beaten by her father, and her legs were bent behind her like a doll. Davis recalled:
  
  "She was an 11-month-old little baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her, and he had raped her like a toy doll and chucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing I've ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it.
  
  I was about 17-1/2 at the time. It was heavy, man. I went through all kinds of therapy. I found out I have post traumatic stress disorder from seeing all those bodies, like how American veterans in the Vietnam War got it from seeing all the death around them. When you see someone dead it traumatizes your brain. You don't know what to do with all this s--t. It's like one of the reasons I'm so f---ed in the head is because I was so young and my brain couldn't store the stuff. It didn't know what to do with it, so my brain freaks out and causes trauma." >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Kevin - Webster, MA
• "Pretty" is part of Korn's third album, Follow The Leader. It's a very disturbing album (another morbid song: "Dead Bodies Everywhere") but it found a huge audience and went to #1 in America. Most Korn fans were young and had the thrill of discovering the band early on, often by seeing them at festivals or learning about them through internet-assisted word-of-mouth (AOL, baby!). Korn's heavy rap-metal sound also found favor around this time and was described as nu-metal, which peaked in popularity over the next two years. Korn's next album, Issues, was released in 1999 and also went to #1.

Comments: 12

• CivilianThey are referring to the ‘Korn’ album released in 1994, this song is not in that album, it is in the ‘Follow the Leader’ album released 4 years later. No, the album cover for ‘Follow the Leader’ is not about the unsuspecting girl but instead a cult.
• AnonymousWhere are you guys seeing the man’s shadow I can’t see anything like that?
• Kevin from Indepence, Mo"It's a story about this little girl that came into the coroner's office when I was working there and she was f--ked by her dad. She was an 11 month old little baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her and he just f--ked her like a toy doll and chucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing I've ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it."
  -John Davis
  Need i say more.
• Jake from Houston, TxSuprisingly enough, Jon said that it was their favorite track from that album.
• Martin from Belfast, Irelandi agree with danielle and heather. but if you notice in most of their album covers and videos dolls are apearing in the backround this could also relate to the little girl being raped back like a rag doll hense korn issues the rag doll. follow the leader the little girl at the edge of the cliff just playing not knowing that she would die of rape the cliff is the death hazard relating to the rapest. but the one thing that haunted me was the life is peachy cover when the boy is fixing his tie and then when you turn the page you see a bigger boy weird looking freaked me out big time.
• Harley from Auckland, New ZealandAlso I forgot to add that Freddy used to pick on little children especially, and the shadow looks like him in a way.
• Harley from Auckland, New ZealandWhen I first saw the cover for this, I thought freddy krueger. He has metal claws attached to his hands. Incase none of you know, he enters peoples dreams and kills them in their sleep. He scares them. When they are awake and asleep. Does this relate to Jonathans thoughts? Being scared? Dreaming and hallucinating about it all?
• Danielle from Northumberlandhmm... observant you are... yet not the full story. When Jon was working in the autopsy job, he did come across the victim. But after he was -really- freaked out by it, and got nightmares, hallucinations, delusions, the lot. he started to become schizophrenic. he was going so deep in to this, that he believed that he knew everything about the victim as if he was there at the time. This song is about what he believed he "knew" and "saw".
• Chris from Manassas, VaIt isn't a horseshoe, he is just hooking two fingers...look in his OTHER hand, and you will know what I mean. He is just hooking his fingers like claws...and Jon said the incest victim was raped by her FATHER, so the shadow doesn't represent the rapist, and the girl doesn't represent the victim, cos the victim was only 1 year old.
• Eric from Nashville, Tni dont really believe that the girl on the cd cover of their self-titled album was the girl that he wrote about in this song. i dont think the shadow of the man is the guy who was planning to rape her either - it just dosnt fit with the story somehow.
• Nick from Paramus, NjJust a little tidbit: the object in the "shadow man"'s hand on the cover of the s/t album is actually a horseshoe. It has not been said who the shadow person actually is though.
• Heather from Fruita, CoJon wrote this song about the worst image he'd ever seen. It IS about a small girl who had been violently raped and been disfigured. Some people have said the girl on the cover of the KORN cd was her, and the shadow is the person planning to rape her.

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