Tucson’s KFMA Day will be a headbanger’s banquet this year, featuring rocking sets by Hollywood Undead, Escape The Fate, Anberlin, Red and Ph8 -but the mouth-watering main course will be a healthy serving of Korn.

In a recent interview with the Daily Wildcat, Korn bassist Reginald “”Fieldy”” Arvizu (so nicknamed because of a purported resemblance to Garfield the animated cat) expressed optimism for the upcoming show, saying “”This time around we’re just going out and playing a bunch of our classic songs. We’re just gonna strip it down raw and rock out.””

This year’s event, being held April 25th, will mark the official beginning of a new tour for the nu-metal pioneers. Korn’s current tour includes almost fifty dates, slated in over fifteen countries worldwide including Australia, Holland, the Czech Republic and Russia, making it one of the band’s biggest outings to date. Despite that, there’s little new territory to be conquered for the acclaimed Grammy-winning metal act; Fieldy reported, “”The only new place we’re going is … Serbia. It’ll be interesting to see how that is.””

When asked about the band’s motivation for kicking a world tour off in the Old Pueblo, Fieldy was quick to qualify that the current string of concert dates isn’t an official Korn tour, per se; it’s actually a sort of international festival-hopping road trip. “”We just go wherever the festival’s at,”” he said smoothly, “”It’s almost like chasing a fair around the worldððð -a big fair.””

This upcoming global exploration falls in the middle of a busy year for the rockers; not only is their ninth album currently in the works with veteran Korn producer Ross Robinson (the work in progress is described by frontman Jonathan Davis as “”old-school””), but the boys just recently finished a collaboration with hip-hop star Lil Wayne for his unexpected new rock single “”Prom Queen””. Though the collaboration is not likely to happen again, it proved to be an enjoyable and eye-opening experience. “”I expected him to be, you know, little,”” Fieldy said, “”but he was actually a little bit taller than me. And you know, he came out with a guitar, and Munky (guitarist James Shaffer) was all, ‘you see that guitar there? That’s a ten thousand dollar guitar!'”” It seems that grand things do come in Lil packages.

Though Wayne’s new single has been met with mixed (and often confused) critical reviews, Fieldy expressed his enthusiasm for the underlying trend of rock/hip-hop synthesis that has become increasingly popular in mainstream music lately. “”We’ve always been involved with the rock and hip-hop since the beginning of Korn,”” the bassist said, “”so it’s always been cool with us. I think it’s cool the direction hip-hop is taking today because it’s so much more musical with live instruments, live drums, you know … it’s taken a great direction.””

Tours and recordings aside, this year has been especially eventful for Fieldy, who has recently become a born-again Christian. “”I’m more clear-minded now and more focused, and I love to play music now more than ever, now that I’m not clouded up with a bunch of partying,”” he said when asked about the impact his faith has had on his music. In the midst of his new cloudless perspective, Fieldy has also come out with his autobiography “”Got the Life””. When asked about this literary venture, Fieldy was enthusiastic to say, “”It was pretty cool to dig down deep like that -and it took some diggin’ to remember a lot of that stuff … Some of the things in there aren’t just like an autobiography where you just talk about partying, it’s more like talking about after the partying and how I felt when I was alone in my bedroom ð- real personal, deep, and honest.””

With two Grammys, eight popular albums and a constant string of live shows, what’s left for Korn to achieve? At least for Fieldy, “”It’d be great if we could do a tour that was like selling-out stadiums; we’ve always done arenas, but stadiums is the next level.”” Perhaps the tour kicking off at TEP this Saturday will be the key to that next level. According to Fieldy, only the fans can control Korn’s fate from here on out: “”As long as the fans are there, we’re gonna keep coming to rock out for them.””