Thoughtless

Background

"Thoughtless" is about the Columbine High School shooting through the eyes of the murderers. Jonathan Davis, the vocalist of Korn, said that "Thoughtless" is "a song about people who are constantly ridiculed and the collateral damage it can cause".

Live performance

This song was introduced to fans during a live show at the Hammerstein Ballroom, in NYC on June 10, 2002, which celebrated the release of the band's fifth album, Untouchables. This performance appears on the DVD release entitled Live. "Thoughtless" has been played during the Untouchables promotional tour, in 2002, but it was scrapped from the band's set list one year later. It eventually returned in 2006 on the See You on the Other Side World Tour as a part of a medley. The full song was played at the 2006 Family Values Tour and the Escape from the Studio Tour. It has most recently been performed within a medley at the Music as a Weapon V tour. The song was well received.

Music video

In the beginning, a high-school aged boy (who is revealed to be called Floyd Louis Cifer in a yearbook) (portrayed by Aaron Paul) is walking through the hallways of his school. Four girls are teasing and looking at him in disgust. A group of jocks on the other side of the hallway give him dirty looks and then beat him up. In the next scene, the boy is in his science class drawing strange pictures of his pain in his notebook. Song titles from Untouchables can also be seen. He goes to the pool to swim and the jocks see him there and bother him. After that, he is in the locker room wrapped in a towel and is seen sweaty and increasingly agitated. We then see him in his room looking at his yearbook. He throws the year book at his window and looks in the phone book for a service that says "Fantasy Escorts." He calls the service then shows up at his prom with a woman (portrayed by Aimee Sweet). He vomits on everyone who had bullied him and gets his revenge. Korn performs inside his brain throughout the video. Aaron Paul's character's name appears in his yearbook as "Floyd", which was the working title for "Thoughtless" on the unmastered, leaked version of Untouchables.

There is also a "performance version" that only shows Korn performing the song in the room featured in the original video.

Evanescence cover

The song has been covered by band Evanescence, both on tour and for the 2004 live album Anywhere but Home, with a different intro that features piano arrangements. Lead singer Amy Lee said to the crowd at the beginning of the performance, "We're going to do something completely different now. This is by a band that we all like very much. I'm not even going to announce it; you ought to know what this is." .

Track listing

Enhanced Maxi CD Single

1. "Thoughtless – 4:32
2. "Thoughtless (D Cooley Remix featuring DJ Z-Trip) – 3:52
3. "Thoughtless (Dante Ross remix) – 4:21
4. "Here to Stay (Tone Toven and Sleep remix) – 3:28
5. "Here to Stay (Remixed by Mindless Self Indulgence) – 3:45
6. "Thoughtless (video) – 4:32

DVD Single

1. "Thoughtless" (video) - 4:32