Jonathan Davis, the man who as a coroner's assistant "fell in love" with working around dead bodies, nearly became one this summer.

The Korn singer was midway through a European tour when he began noticing bruises on his body and feeling weak after shows. He checked into a London hospital and was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, with a rare blood disease.

While people typically have somewhere between 140 and 400 platelets in their blood cells, he had five.

"If I continued to headbang onstage, I could have had a brain hemorrhage and dropped dead on the spot," Davis blogged from his hospital bed. Since then, the Bakersfield, California, native has made a full recovery. "If it comes back, the worst case scenario is they take my spleen out," he says now, rather casually.

Korn's follow-up tour, the return of Family Values, was a colossal critical and commercial success, and Davis has since put plans in motion for his first solo tour. And literally right after he finishes this Risen interview, the band is reconvening to start recording its eighth studio album.

At the moment, though, all that really matters are Davis' own family values. One-and-a-half-year-old Pirate, his younger son, is playing at his side. And to quote a Korn album title, life is peachy.

Risen Magazine: How did becoming a father change you?

Jonathan Davis: It's the most amazing thing you can ever do. It's the reason for living, pretty much. Just seeing these little people whodepend on you and you see yourself in, that's a way of immortality in itself. The day [11-year-old] Nathan was born, I was a complete starkraving drug-addict-alcoholic nutcase, and I didn't give a crap about anybody but myself. I lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle full on, excess chicks, everything. One day I came home completely sloshed and he was probably 2 at the time. He knew I was f—ked up and he gave me this look that I'll never forget. It made me feel like an inch tall. And I went on this tour when Follow the Leader came out and my grandfather passed away and those two things put me over the edge. I quit drinking, smoking, doing drugs, everything, that day, August 22, 1998. I haven't touched anything since.

RM: And that was cold turkey?

JD: I didn't do anything.

RM: Is that the hardest thing you've ever done?

JD: Yeah. And it cost me. I was messed up mentally for about a yearfrom the alcohol and drug withdrawal and the chemistry getting back to normal in my body. I had horrible panic attacks, I got schizophrenic for a while. I thought people were trying to poison my food. The whole first Family Values Tour, I only came out of my bunk to play shows. Then I went right back in. Once it cleaned all out, my mind got straight and it was great. I had to be around for my kids.

RM: The Family Values tour was such a success this summer. Did the incident in Atlanta [where a fan was killed during the Deftones set] take some of the wind out of the sails?

JD: It frustrates me when dips—ts act like that. People act like that whenever they get in large crowds, like monkeys, marking their territory and proving they're tougher. Poor guy died over a hat. I'm sure the guy didn't punch him intending to kill him, but that's just being a dips—t. People should come to a show to have fun, but I see it all the time, these idiots just fighting each other. It's ridiculous. Our shows have always been really safe. We get the extra security out there to take care of things, but it bummed me out really bad. Someone died. He had a pregnant girlfriend, so his kid's going to grow up without a dad. I guess that's life. It's not fair.

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