Early career Davis formed his first group with other members in a mysterious formation called Buck Naked, of which only two songs were recorded on demo tapes and distributed to his friends in high school; including the new wave-influenced song "What I Have Done", and a love song titled "Come With Me". Davis, who worked by day in a mortuary, got free haircuts at a college where guitarist
Ryan Shuck was a student. Davis agreed to join Shuck's group called Sexart, which was formed in 1991. Davis described the experience by saying "I had no clue what I was doing, I didn't know what the hell to do with my voice". Early in 1993, ex-band members of
L.A.P.D. who had started a new group named Creep, noticed Davis at The John Bryant club in
Bakersfield, and were overwhelmed by his performance with
Sexart. Davis, who was already a friend of
Reginald Arvizu's, was reluctant to join Creep, although he was flattered by the obstinacy of the musicians to integrate him into the group. Nevertheless, he only made the decision to audition with Creep after meeting the psychic who told him that it would be beneficial for him to leave Bakersfield, move to Los Angeles and join them. Enticed by the prospect of a musical career, Davis resigned from his employment at Bakersfield judicial police, and moved to L.A. with his girlfriend to live with
David Silveria and
Brian Welch in the same house in
Huntington Beach. Davis proposed the idea of naming the band as 'Corn'—the spelling would be renamed right after as 'KoЯn'—in reference to the horror film
Children of the Corn and a sexually explicit story from his gay friend.
Korn Solo career in
Netherlands in 2008 Davis first began working on a solo album in 2007, forming the group
Jonathan Davis and the SFA (Simply Fucking Amazings). Although he released two live albums with the group, no studio albums were completed and the band disbanded in 2014 In December 2017, Davis began announcing solo tour dates and festival appearances and the launch of his solo album planned for 2018, which would mark Davis's first billed simply as
Jonathan Davis. On January 26, 2018, he released the music video for "What It Is", while the single was included on the movie's soundtrack for
American Satan. At that time, Davis said he was "a big fan" of science fiction movies such as
Blade Runner and
Dune, and noted being an admirer of
Vangelis. The beginning of the writing process of
Black Labyrinth—whose thematic focuses on "religion, consumerism and apathy"—was initiated on the road, back in 2007. Davis contributed mainly to the sound of the album, playing guitar, keys, and "anything else he could get his hands on to the record". At 16, before he joined Korn, Davis started out as a DJ working for Pacific West Sound and spun at high school dances and parties on the weekends in Bakersfield. In 2009, he began to DJ again and he introduced JDevil to the world in 2011 at
Infected Mushroom appearances. In 2012, JDevil collaborated with Sluggo and California producer Tyler Blue, and while touring, he started working on an EP and writing every night in the studio of his tour bus. While on a short break from touring with Korn in July 2012, JDevil had a short four-day club tour which consisted of The Junkyard in
Nashua, New Hampshire, Pufferbellies Entertainment Complex in
Hyannis, Massachusetts, Lizard Lounge in
Dallas, Texas, and The Garden in
El Paso, Texas. In July 2012, JDevil had signed on to perform at select
Identity Festival dates throughout North America. He only performed at two shows,
Comcast Center (amphitheater) in
Mansfield, Massachusetts, and
Jiffy Lube Live in
Bristow, Virginia. In 2012, JDevil was supposed to open for
Rob Zombie and
Marilyn Manson on their
Twins of Evil Tour at select dates in North America, but had to drop out of the tour due to exhaustion. Davis stated it was very important for him to evolve in different styles after two decades in Korn, he said in
Rolling Stone: "It keeps me motivated. It keeps me being creative and not getting bored with music."
Other projects , composing on the road for the
Queen of the Damned film soundtrack backstage at
Wembley Arena, London, 2000 In the early 2000s, while on tour, Davis was looking for artistic hobbies to satisfy his creative impulses and decided to team up with composer
Richard Gibbs to write film soundtracks. Davis and Gibbs were introduced to each other through
Zomba Music Group, Shortly after,
Warner Bros. asked them to work on the movie
Queen of the Damned, Ten songs will be composed by the two men, and sung by the band
The Vampire Lestat in the movie.
Aaliyah, who died during filming, was supposed to record a duet with Davis. In 2000, he created an original fighting game,
Pop Scars, which pits popular musical personalities against each other in one-on-one combat. Participants included members of
Limp Bizkit,
Staind,
Marilyn Manson, and Korn itself. Each celebrity has its own personality and sports character designs sketched by comic book artist
Marty Emond, while stages feature environmental traps that impede opponents as they fight.
Pop Scars never made it past the early design stages, as Davis himself pulled the plug on the project in late 2004. In 2002, Davis was hired by
New Line Television to write and record the theme music of
UPN's
The Twilight Zone television series, hosted by
Forest Whitaker. In 2007, he recorded original songs with Korn for the video game
Haze. In 2011,
Konami hired Davis and Korn to compose the theme song to the video game
Silent Hill: Downpour, which led to an online petition to stop the pairing. He also created the title track for the 2022 video game
ELEX II. ==Cameo appearances and acting==