Jonathan Davis's Biography And Facts'
Christopher Ramos
Published Jan 16, 2026
Jonathan Davis Biography Facts
Jonathan Davis has been appeared in channels as follow: Sumerian Records.
Born 18 January, 1971 (52 years old).
What is the zodiac sign of Jonathan Davis ?
According to the birthday of Jonathan Davis the astrological sign is Capricorn .
Career of the Jonathan Davis started in 1987 .
Jonathan Davis Wiki
| Jonathan Davis | |
|---|---|
| Davis performing with Korn in 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jonathan Howsmon Davis |
| Also known as | JD JDevil J Devil |
| Born | January 18, 1971 Bakersfield, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Nu metal alternative metal heavy metal industrial metal alternative rock |
| Occupation | Singer songwriter musician producer |
| Instruments | Vocals bagpipes |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Sumerian Immortal Epic Virgin Roadrunner Prospect Park eOne Dim Mak |
| Associated acts | Sexart Korn Jonathan Davis and the SFA Limp Bizkit Killbot Linkin Park Suicide Silence Motionless in White Amy Lee |
| Website | kornofficial.com |
Jonathan Howsmon Davis , also known as JD,JDevil, or J Devil, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of nu metal band Korn, who are considered the pioneering act of the nu metal genre. Davis' distinctive personality and Korn's music influenced a generation of musicians and performers who have come after them.
Davis co-founded Korn in Los Angeles in 1993 with the dissolution of two bands, Sexart and L.A.P.D. He had led Sexart during his years as an assistant coroner. Davis rapidly gained notoriety for his intense and powerful live performances with Korn. Anchored by his personal, passionate lyrics and unusual tenor vocals, Davis launched a successful career which has spanned almost three decades, although his popularity declined in the middle of the 2000s. Davis' vocals, which alternate from an angry tone to a high-pitched voice, switching from sounding atmospheric to aggressively screaming, have been the trademark of Korn throughout the band's career.
From 2000 to 2001, Davis and Richard Gibbs wrote and produced the score and soundtrack album of Queen of the Damned, his first work outside the band. He began his side project called Jonathan Davis and the SFA in 2007, and continued to experiment with musical styles. He released his first solo album in 2018. He has collaborated with various artists over the course of his career, ranging from metal to alternative rock, rap, world music and electronic music. Davis is a multi-instrumentalist musician who plays guitar, drums, bagpipes;piano, upright bass, violin, and the clarinet. He is also versatile in many genres, mixing tracks and performs DJ sets with his alter ego JDevil. For decades, Davis has been passionate about visual arts, horror films, comics, and video games.
Fourteen of his albums reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200, including MTV Unplugged and Greatest Hits, Vol. 1. In the U.S, he was awarded fifteen platinum album certifications by the Recording Industry Association of America . In Australia, he received eight platinum album certifications by the Australian Recording Industry Association , and in the UK he received six gold certifications. He won two Grammy Awards out of eight nominations throughout his career. As of 2018, Davis has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.
Early life
Jonathan Howsmon Davis was born in Bakersfield, California, on January 18, 1971, the son of Holly Marie Chavez and Ricky Duane "Rick" Davis . His parents married on February 27, 1970. He is of English, German, Scottish, and Welsh descent. He has a sister, Alyssa Marie Davis , a half-brother, Mark Chavez , and a half-sister, Amanda Chavez , by his mother. His father was a keyboardist for Buck Owens and Frank Zappa, while his mother was a professional actress and dancer. His parents divorced when he was three years old and he was raised by his father and former stepmother in Bakersfield at age 12. Davis suffered severe bouts of asthma as a child, which forced him to stay in the hospital every month from the age of 3 to the age of 10, and survived a near-fatal asthma attack when he was five years old.
He attended Highland High School, however he was persistently harassed for wearing eyeliner, baggy clothes, and listening to new wave music. He was constantly called homophobic names, which later inspired the Korn song "Faget". Davis' "HIV" tattoo on his upper left arm was also inspired by his experience of being bullied. At the age of 16, Davis found employment as a coroner's assistant, and after graduating high school immediately enrolled in the San Francisco college's one-year program. He enjoyed his time in San Francisco, where he spent his days poring over embalming textbooks and his nights living and working in funeral homes. Nevertheless, he dropped out after two semesters to apprentice at a mortuary closer to home, in the Kern County Coroner's Department and was also a professional embalmer for a funeral home.
Davis commented in Kerrang! :
"I had post-traumatic stress from seeing dead babies, and young kids that had died after finding a parent's stash of drugs – shit that I shouldn't have been seeing at 16 or 17 years old. I had to have a lot of therapy to make the nightmares go away, but I got through it and it made me appreciate life a lot more."
Davis also spoke of having a horrible relationship with his former stepmother. He said she used to harass and torture him; she gave him tea mixed with Thai hot oil and jalapeño juice to drink when he was sick, locked him in cabinets, and put cigarettes out on his arms. Though she was later divorced by Davis' father, the Korn song "Kill You" was nonetheless written about her. In an interview for The Guardian, Davis said he left home when he was 18 because he felt like "public enemy number one", since his stepmother—quoted as "twisted and sadistic"—hated him, and his own father was too embarrassed by the situation to do anything.
Personal life
Family
Davis' childhood is a major influence on Korn lyrics—the song "Daddy" gave rise to a rumor that he was molested by his father, Rick Davis. However, Jonathan has gone on record in many interviews saying he wrote the song about a female family friend who sexually abused him. He said that when he tried to turn to his family as a child to tell them about the abuse, they shrugged it off and didn't believe him.
Davis has been married twice. His first marriage was to his high school sweetheart Renee Perez. They were married in 1998, they had one son named Nathan in 1995, and divorced in 2000. Jonathan married Deven Davis in 2004. The couple have two sons, Pirate and Zeppelin. He filed for divorce in October 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. In 2018, a domestic violence restraining order was issued, blocking any child custody or visitation by Deven, whom Jonathan alleged was deep into drugs. Deven Davis died on August 17, 2018 at the age of 39 of combined drug intoxication from heroin and various prescription drugs.
Substance abuse
Davis had a history of excessive methamphetamine and alcohol consumption during the recording sessions of Korn and Life Is Peachy. Subsequently, he recorded Follow the Leader under the influence of methamphetamine, cocaine and heavily reliant on alcohol, especially Jack Daniel's. In an interview with The Ringer, Davis described the album's creation "fueled by cocaine, speed, and just constant gallons of Jack Daniel's". Davis got himself off methamphetamine addiction and sober when he was 28, since August 22, 1998, during the fall's inaugural Family Values Tour. But sobriety has increased his anxiety and depression which co-occurred with his substance use, exacerbated by the death of his grandfather at that time. During this period, from the late '90s to the early 2000s, Davis was put on suicide watch. In 2010, he admitted that he missed his past vices, Davis said "I know if I did , I would be dead and I want to be with my children. It's a deterrent". In 2013, Davis was treated for Xanax addiction although he smoked marijuana until 2015. In 2018, Davis stated in Forbes that he continues to struggle with chronic anxiety, depression and insomnia but has replaced drugs and alcohol with medication such as Prozac, Halcion, Benadryl, ZzzQuil, NyQuil, and Melatonin.
Art and serial killers collectibles
In the early 2000s, Davis began collecting serial killer art and memorabilia, publicly displaying selected items while on the Ozzfest 2003 tour. Some items owned by Davis includes the Volkswagen mass murderer Ted Bundy drove for the duration of his murder spree, the "Pogo" and "Patches" clown outfits worn by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, the 1928 confession letter from cannibal Albert Fish, and original drawings by satanic serial murderer Richard Ramirez also known as the Night Stalker.
In June 2001, the collector of criminal artifacts Arthur Rosenblatt was approached by Davis. Rosenblatt told him of his plan to open a museum of artifacts related to the criminal justice system, which Rosenblatt suggested be named the Museum of Justice & Odditorium or MOJO Museum. Therefore, Davis proposed to him to invest a significant sum of money with another investor. In March 2003, Davis suggested funding the museum through a film or TV production. Subsequently, Davis pulled out of the deal which fell apart, leading Rosenblatt to sue him twice; Rosenblatt accused Davis for having spoken to the media in 2002 about his museum project with artist Joe Coleman, by naming it American Curiosities Museum when he should have used the names provided for in the contract. In the lawsuit, Rosenblatt claimed that Davis and other partners have threatened his life on several occasions. Nevertheless, in December 2005, Davis started selling off his serial killer memorabilia, claiming his desire to move away from this context, he stated: "I don't want that around my kids". In 2006, the litigation was ultimately resolved successfully by Ed McPherson, Davis' attorney. Davis later denounced the items and got rid of them.
Davis made an appearance in Oddities documentary, season 2, in the 4th episode named "Rock Star Embalmer", filmed at Manhattan's Obscura Antiques & Oddities. The episode aired on April 30, 2011 on Discovery Channel.
Davis' home houses a private art collection that spans decades of touring the globe. He has a considerable and diverse collection of works of macabre and dark art, such as a limited edition Ibanez guitar designed by H.R. Giger that looks the same as his mic stand, a human shrunken head from South America and a human foetus, called 'Luther'. His art collection includes religious art from all over the world and a variety of religions, such as 600 years old Buddhist sculptures and owns "tons of crucifixes", especially Mexican Jesus—"I wouldn't say I like religion, but I like the art", reaffirms Davis. He has also developed an interest in collection of taxidermy art. In 2015 during an interview with Gavin Lloyd for Metal Hammer he said "the taxidermy I got on the walls, I got when we were touring in South Africa. I hired a guide, stalked those animals, shot both of them and donated the meat, which fed families for months. I had to wait a year to get those heads back from Africa, but they're top notch, they're amazing."
Political views
In 2006, Davis explained his political views, saying, "I'm political to a point where it affects human life, from global warming to abortion issues to my gun rights", but expressed no interest in issues like taxation, saying, "I don't really care. Obviously even going out and voting doesn't really count, it's all based down to these Electoral College votes." Davis has expressed support for same-sex marriage and transgender people.
Davis has expressed support for libertarian Republican Party candidates Ron Paul and Rand Paul. Davis once described Barack Obama as an "Illuminati puppet" and told Billboard that Obama had "basically dragged this country down into the worst it's ever been." In 2014, Davis said that the United States was becoming a "police state".
