Q&A with Korn's Fieldy

"Hey," somebody must've asked Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, "if you like marijuana so much, why don't you marry it?" And then Fieldy checked the local laws and settled for writing "Are You Talkin to Me." This fantasy about some chatty ganja is one of the many high points of Rock N Roll Gangster (Epic), the first solo album from the Korn bassist. You've never heard a love song like Fieldy's duet with his leafy green love interest. "From the earth I grow/I'm green and pure," croons female rapper Heluva, and Fieldy responds with much romance in his rap.

This kind of sets the tone for Rock N Roll Gangster, released under the band moniker Fieldy's Dreams. The album is a celebration of living largely stupid in Los Angeles. Whether he's out clubbing or moping in his mansion, Fieldy provides a compelling look into the rock star life. Anyone who's seen Fieldy play live knows that he's the cartoonish spirit of Korn. That same animated attitude drives these hiphop stylings. There are also a lot of inspired pop moments. Korn frontman Jonathan Davis adds a great chorus to "Just for You," and the gossipy "Comin from a Friend" has Fieldy talking shit about your girlfriend to a fun ska beat. Sadly, this mix isn't getting Fieldy's Dreams much attention. It doesn't help that the artist is out maintaining his day job with Korn. Still, Fieldy recently took time from touring in Mexico to talk about his one great passion. He also mentioned the solo album.

So you really seem to enjoy smoking marijuana.

I love it. I'm in South America right now, and I haven't smoked in five days. I can't wait to get home and do a fat-ass bonghit.

There's no pot in South America?

Well, there's pot everywhere. I don't know if you smoke, but?man, everyone smokes. I'm the type of guy who, if I see some guy in an elevator in a suit, I'll ask him if he has any weed. You'd be surprised how many times people say yeah. But I won't smoke this brown-ass weed they've got down here. I don't want to smoke any dirty weed. I only want to smoke chronic.

But in your rap "Just for You," you talk about the importance of us treating our bodies with respect.

I think pot is like?well, you're not treating your body badly, believe me. I think pot does your body better than it does any worse. If you're a high-stress person, you know, it's like medication. I need it all the time. If I get anxious, or if I get an upset stomach, I take a bonghit and it goes away. It's like a cure-all, especially for the ladies. If they have bad stomach cramps because they're having their period, give them a bonghit. That'll make it go away.

It's good to hear you mention women. The album suggests that you might prefer hitting the bong over hitting it with the ladies.

No, no, no. Having women and weed is like putting icing on the cake. That's almost a fetish of mine. If a girl is a pothead, that's a real turn-on for me. And I love girls who wear the hiphop clothing. Women in saggy baggies and wearing Adidas. That's another big turn-on.

Your rapping has a nice normal-guy vibe. Were you trying to avoid sounding like another whiteboy rapper?

Whatever I'm writing, the words just come out however they come out. If the lines have to be read fast, then I read them fast. You can be the hugest rapper in the world, and there'll still be people who don't like your style. What it comes down to with me is that I'm more of a storyteller. I tried to stay on a topic instead of just talking nonsense. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make rhymes. Anyone can say, "hey," "pay," "'kay." It's not that hard.

Of course, your day job gives you the freedom to pursue your own style.

That's right. I did this record more for myself. People will get misled and buy this record expecting some heavy crossover rock, but it's a hiphop record. It's like a Sesame Street meets Cheech & Chong record. If a Korn fan buys it and think it sucks?well, I didn't write it for Korn fans.

How does the hiphop community treat you?

I just flew to Oakland to E-40's house and rapped and produced a track for his new album. I feel like I'm getting some respect in the hiphop world. I've laid down basslines for the Neptunes and Ice Cube and Shaq's hiphop album. I know there's going to be a couple of rock critics who aren't digging my album. That's okay. The more respect I get in the rap world, the happier I'll be.

But you're not afraid to screw around with your image. "You Saved Me (from Being Crazy)" even starts with you on the phone feeling sorry for yourself.

I didn't even know I was doing that. I was just writing about going through some rough times. I was totally stressed out, but you can smoke some weed and it saves you every time. Weed never lets you down. Some people say they can't do weed because it makes them feel this way or that, but that's just people who haven't gotten high since high school. If I smoke weed and I get paranoid, I just go along with being paranoid. It's funny to me, because I know I'm high. I wish I had some weed now. My stomach's all fucked up from being here in South America.

There's still more to your lyrics than craving the chronic.

That's why I think of myself more like a writer. A lot of people think the record's all about weed, but it's also all songs about my personal life. If something happens to me that's totally sad, then I write a sad story. There's no fairytale crap on that album. I was married when I started it, so maybe I was more limited at the beginning. There's no way I could have written some of those songs when I was married. Basically, they're about me being a whore.

So the album's narrative covers your marriage and your divorce?

Probably about three songs into recording, I was married, and then we got separated and I was still finishing the album. I don't know if I could have finished it if I was still married. I wouldn't have been able to put something like "Baby Hugh Hef" on it, or "Put a Week on It." That's just about me fucking everything that moves. After I got divorced, I went on a rampage, clubbing every night and looking for girls. But I'm not on a rampage anymore. The next album will be different.

The song "Bleu" has you rapping about murder and how "You think you got it bad and your neighborhood sucks/Come to my hood, it's just as fucked." You living next to the Menendez boys?

That song came from when I was driving my car around my hood. I've got a lot of nice cars, and I blame that on hiphop. If I didn't like hiphop, I wouldn't have a Rolls-Royce and a Suburban and all those stereotypes. So I'm driving in my neighborhood and looking at all the houses. Where I live, all the houses are a million-plus. And I know some of my neighbors, and they've got more fucking drugs than in the hood. Not that they're selling, but I've seen some of my neighbors just pouring out kilos of coke. I could go next door asking for drugs like asking for eggs. "Hey, you got a kilo?" And they beat on their kids, and they've got enough money to knock off their wives. It's all so sugarcoated. When I was married, I had my wife's little brother and sister living with me, and I would listen about the stuff they do, and I saw how fucked up they are. It's just so corrupt and fucked in my neighborhood.

All of your samples seem to be from old-school classics.

I was never into old school, but I was around it. I wasn't breakdancing, but I was in the circle. I was more into Rick James and James Brown and Kool & the Gang. My first rap record I ever bought was the Sugarhill Gang.

You also seem comfortable with old-school rhymes. For example, you don't miss many opportunities to rhyme "insane" and "brain."

Everybody has their favorite rhymes. I've noticed that Jonathan always likes word that end with "-ollow." "Swallow," "follow," "hollow," you know. All writers have rhymes that they use all the time. The hard thing is to rhyme a whole song and stay on the story. A couple of my songs took years to write, because I tried to stay on topic instead of talking shit.

So you put a lot of discipline into your writing?

Writing is like getting a tattoo. I hate the pain, but I love the results. It's hard, because you have to sit down and go into a zone. Pot always helps. But I can tell you about a lot of rappers out there who don't even write their own rhymes. They've got rhymes being written for them. Go back to the old school. Tone Loc didn't write his own rhymes. Once you get a certain level of respect in hiphop, it doesn't even matter. It's like Dr. Dre. He doesn't write his rhymes, and he's got a lot of respect.

Still, hasn't there always been an understanding that rhyming "bong" and "Cheech and Chong" is just too obvious?

Well, the only reason I did that was because Cheech is a good friend of Korn. Cypress Hill couldn't get Cheech & Chong for their record, but I could call Cheech up right now. That's him on the other end of the phone for the intro to "You Saved Me." He usually won't do anything that has to do with pot, but it's not like I even had to pay him to be on the record. I pretty much watch Cheech & Chong movies every day. So he's a good friend of mine, and I figured I could say anything I wanted to about him. It's personal.