Follow the Leader Tracklist
In early 1998, Korn began work on their third album Follow The Leader in an atmosphere loaded with excessive alcohol, drugs and sex. Instead of using producer Ross Robinson as they’d done on their first two albums, the band chose Steve Thompson and Toby Wright and recorded at NRG Recording Studios in LA.
Follow The Leader, featuring cover art by award-winning comic book artist Todd MacFarlane, debuted at #1 in the US on the strength of the band’s already-established following combined with the success of the new album’s lead single “Got The Life”. Despite the track only reaching #15 on the Rock Chart, it became so popular on MTV’s fan-fueled Total Request Live that the channel eventually forcibly retired it from the show.
The album’s second single “Freak On A Leash” surpassed its first single, reaching #10 on the Rock Chart. The track was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance that year and its video, featuring more artwork by MacFarlane, won for Best Short Form Music Video.
Both singles reached the top 30 in the UK and were certified gold in Australia, pushing the band into international stardom and moving them out of clubs and into packed arenas. Frontman Jonathan Davis commented:
(The album’s success) freaked everyone in the band out. We went through a crazy adjustment period. We used to be able to go out in the crowd and talk to people and suddenly I needed a bodyguard to go anywhere.
In the fall of 1998, Korn set out on their first annual Family Values Tour with openers Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, Rammstein, Incubus and Orgy. It is credited with helping Follow The Leader reach 5x platinum in the US. As of 2016, the album had sold over 14 million copies worldwide.
“Follow the Leader” Q&A
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What have the artists said about the album?
Frontman Jonathan Davis told Noisey in 2015:
It was insane, brother. Making that record, for one, almost killed me. Our booze and alcohol budget… like, we spent $60,000 on alcohol to make that record. [Laughs] Last record of me getting fucked up, and it was insane. First we started out and wrote “Freak on a Leash” and “Got the Life” and all this other stuff in a rehearsal studio in Gardenia or some shit like that. We did it all ourselves, and we had all these producers come in trying to sell us shit, and we ended up going with Steve Thompson. We picked him because he actually did his homework and came into the studio with a couple cases of Coors Light. And because he did that, he got the job. [Laughs] Eventually we got in the studio with Steve and he’s a great guy but it just wasn’t working out. So we had the engineer Toby Wright come in and he got us through everything. It was also the first record without Ross. Like, that record would’ve never been made without Ross. He’s into that guttural and emotional real shit. I love it too and I appreciate it, but it was time for us to do different types of songs. And it paid off, man. It worked.
