Jennea Welch was born into fame. Her father, Brian “Head” Welch was the guitarist in one of the most popular nu metal bands in the 1900s-2000s, Korn.
Their journey is chronicled in the documentary Loud Krazy Love, out on DVD now.
At the height of the band’s fame, Jennea’s mom left and Brian had no choice but to bring his toddler daughter on the music circuit.
“There’s no consistency,” Jennea says. “It’s like a circus. I was 3, 4 years old. But my dad is the absolute best. He did such a good job parenting me, even in that environment, like I would always get to go to playgrounds all over the world.”
But Jennea was still scarred.
“There were some things she couldn’t avoid seeing because the other guys were doing their thing,” Brian says. “It was no place for a child.”
Brian thought life would get better for he and his daughter once he accepted Christ and was set free from addiction. He left Korn and wanted to focus on his family. He invested in a Christian business only to lose all his money and be subjected to a lawsuit.
Still, Brian pursued the Lord.
“I just [dealt with the wounds of my past] by the Spirit of God,” Brian says. “I wanted Him to fix me, not man. I went through hard emotional things, a lot of depression, pretty much everything you can go through except losing somebody. But I lost all my possessions. I was almost homeless, and I had to call a family member to stay with me and Jennea, and it was pretty bad with all the emotional stuff. It was a test of faith.”
The trauma affected Jennea in painful ways.
According to the documentary, she began acting out, cutting and cursing.
Brian was devastated, so he sent her to a program that changed both of their lives, Awakening Youth.
“It’s a boarding school right now, but really it’s a movement,” Jennea says. The founder, Tiffany Claywell, became the mother figure Jennea craved.
The Welches see Awakening Youth as the defining point in the relationship that allowed them to experience healing.
“Holy Spirit used a lot of people to help us,” Brian says. “The Claywells really helped us communicate with each other, to be patient and forgive and love. The Holy Spirit is always working in our lives, and sometimes we don’t see it. … I look back over the six years of her being there now, it’s just so much fruit. She’s got more peace, more self-control in our relationship. And I do, too. I was worse than her, even as a Jesus follower. I would snap, [punch] holes in walls, break computer keyboards, and I would get so mad and go into a rage. I don’t have that anymore.”
Jennea agrees.
“God is gracious enough to change those hard times into beauty, and we have come out stronger,” she says.
Listen to the podcast for more of their powerful testimony.
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