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Flourishing Korn

These hard rockers aren't headliners this time, but never mind. They have the satisfaction of being innovators, and they're still going strong.

Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park may be better known, but Korn is widely credited with waking up heavy metal when grunge became tired by introducing a funky edge to head-banging.

When the band, which got its start in Bakersfield, Calif., released its self-titled debut album in 1994, it launched a new era in hard rock.

Now Korn is on tour with headliner Linkin Park, a band that followed in Korn's footsteps. That's just fine with Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis.

"It's been 10 years plus, and everything's been great," Davis said by telephone from Washington, D.C., a recent stop on the Projekt Revolution tour, which comes to Tampa on Wednesday. "We ushered in a new genre of metal. It's been a fun ride."

Along the way, Korn has won two Grammy Awards, one in 2000 and one in 2003, and two MTV Video Music Awards.

The band is set to release a greatest hits CD in October that includes covers of Pink Floyd's rock classic Another Brick in the Wall and Cameo's funk fest Word Up.

The band delivers a faithful reading of Word Up that doesn't show a trace of the band's trademark dark side.

Davis said the band recorded several other covers, including Public Enemy's Fight the Power, the Psychedelic Furs' Love My Way and Faith No More's We Care a Lot, before settling on the Pink Floyd and Cameo songs. But Korn may use the material from those sessions for a CD of covers, Davis said.

As Word Up hits the airwaves, a remix of Korn's Ya'll Want a Single, featuring a voiceover by Howard Stern, is available on the Internet. The cut from the band's 2003 release Take a Look in the Mirror takes a shot at corporate giants in general and the band's record label in particular.

"(Stern) appeared on it because it's anticorporation," Davis said. Last spring, Clear Channel Communications yanked Stern's morning show from the company's radio stations, declaring it "vulgar, offensive and insulting."

Davis said he's not political until people start infringing on free speech rights.

"I'm a big fan of Howard Stern," Davis said. "He has chicks on his show and has fun. There's nothing wrong with that."

Once a mortuary student, Davis said he's much happier making his living dealing with happy, screaming fans rather than grieving families.

"I love it," he said. "I would never go back to that."

Projekt Revolution Tour, with Linkin Park, Korn, Snoop Dogg and more, Wednesday, Ford Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. Gates open at 2:30 p.m. $35.50-$49.50. (813) 740-2446, (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

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