When Korn created the Family Values tour in 1998, the concept represented the group's reaction to the political and musical landscape in the US. Since then, it's sort of driven off course, according to frontman Jonathan Davis.
"When we first started it, it went for two or three years, then it kind of got away from what we originally wanted to do -- keep the crowd involved and having a lot of things to do," Davis said during a recent teleconference. "It kind of got away from that. So we didn't do it for a few years.
"
We decided this year to bring it back," he continued. "
We were able to make it more of a festival-style tour and bring it outdoors. It was successful last year, so we decided to do it again."
Guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer, the teleconference's other participant, added the tour will impact every fan.
"I think there's still something for everybody to do even if there's a lot of bands that they don't like on the bill," he said. "This year, we added a second stage. We want to keep the fun all day long. We don't want to just be about, 'OK. You're going to see these bands' and the day's over."
This year's line-up includes Korn, Evanescence, Atreyu, Flyleaf, Trivium, Hellyeah, Neurosonic, Droid, Five Finger Death Punch, Invitro, Twin Method, Through You, The Vanished (select dates), The Changing (select dates) and Otep (select dates). Davis explained that Evanescence's inclusion in the festival harkens back to Family Values' infancy.
"The whole Evanescence thing is it's in the same vein in what we started Values for - a diversity of bands on the tour. Like with [original participants] Limp Bizkit and Ice Cube: at the time, rap-rock was really big. We were showing rock kids hip-hop and hip-hop kids rock. That's just how it was.
"I think in this day we grabbed them because they are so different than what we do, along with Hellyeah's different from Evanescence and Atreyu's different than Trivium," he continued. "They're all different kinds of bands. I think we're just keeping in the same vein as what we started."
Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee, during a separate teleconference, said that joining Family Values this year was a no-brainer.
"There are so many festivals going on, and I think Family Values is a really, really great one to be a part of because not only are there a ton of great bands, but it's $10 [for lawn tickets]," she said. "So, I think if I was going to choose which show I would go to this summer, it would be Family Values. So that's the one we jumped on."
However, Lee did stress that fans shouldn't expect her to join Korn on stage to regurgitate their "MTV Unplugged" rendition of "Freak on a Leash."
"People keep asking if I'm going to do the acoustic version of 'Freak on a Leash' with Korn and it's, obviously, totally up to them and I haven't heard anything about it. I've seen the set that they've been playing this summer. We played three shows together in Europe and it's awesome and heavy and I wouldn't be surprised if they just wanted to play their songs heavy and sort of skip the whole acoustic thing. So don't plan on it. But if they ask me, I'm totally willing."
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