Host Abe Kanan recently welcomed frontman David Draiman of Disturbed for a special Audacy Check In, just before the band hits the road on their North American trek in celebration of 25 years since the release of their debut album, The Sickness.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with Disturbed
Looking back at 25 years of The Sickness, Abe remembers vividly purchasing Disturbed's debut CD at Tower Records, which happened to have two concert tickets stuffed inside for the release party at Chicago’s Metro.
“We put ‘em in there,” Draiman admits. “We were trying to get people to come. It was kind of an important show, you know what I mean? So, giving them away, selling them… we weren't about making money at the time. We weren't about selling our own tickets, we’d give them away. We didn't care.”
"We just wanted bodies in the room and we were definitely our own street team in many ways,” he explains. “If there were four shows going on in Chicago at a given night, if there was one at the Aragon, one at the UIC Pavilion, one at United Center, we'd hit them all. The band would split up with all of our promotional materials and, to me, that was always the easiest way to get directly to the fans. Here are the fans coming out of another great rock show… ‘Well, here, if you want some more of this… different flavors, same kind of family, come on over and check us out. It fostered this great sense of community… this great sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, and I loved it. Those days were really, really magical days back then.”
Touching on the artists he’s looked up to over the years David tells us, “I definitely had a tremendous amount of inspiration from guys like Jonathan Davis. That first Korn record was massive for me. Chino Moreno from the Deftones, you know, both those guys wielding rhythm in their vocal deliveries the way that they did were hugely inspirational for me. Guys like Maynard James Keenan from TOOL, you know, those first couple TOOL records, his power, his resonance, his ethereal nature to his vocal delivery. All those guys were definitely huge influences, in addition to The Aussies, the Hatfields, you know, the Dickinsons, the Dios of the world. They definitely were a huge part of who we became and who I became, for sure.”
David also spoke about missing the adventure that at one time came with being a music fan; Traveling to record stores, searching for the album you wanted to buy, waiting in line for concert tickets -- “I feel that we have a generation of fans that unfortunately will never ever get to experience that,” he says. “We've become so detached and so disconnected from everything with the help of technology. You know, we don't have physical packaging anymore. I used to really get into getting records, opening them up, reading all the liner notes. Who were they thanking? Who was behind it, you know, what inspired them? What were the lyrics, what were they saying? What were they trying to make me think? All of that. And I think a lot of that is now lost.”
“I think our tendency to consume faster and faster, and more and more rapidly and our attention span, which gets shorter and shorter over the course of time, in many ways, it's enabled so much more music to get on the table and to be heard,” he adds. “But on another level, there's so much that's getting missed, and there are opportunities that will never ever be able to be duplicated or replicated that really do feel bad that people won't ever get to experience.”
“I miss a lot about the old days. I missed the vibe of the old days. I missed the sense of rock community that we had back in the old days for sure,” David says. “Everything that we alluded to, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about this 25th anniversary run. It's a ton of nostalgia in a bag… It's gonna be massive. I’m very, very excited about it, very excited about both halves of the bill. Incredibly strong, from Sevendust and Three Days Grace, to Nothing More and Daughtry, I mean we definitely aren't inviting laid back bands on the bill.”
Ahead of the tour, Disturbed dropped their brand new track “I Will Not Break," the band’s first release on their own label, Mother Culture Records, and first new music since their acclaimed 2022 album, Divisive.
“When we create these days,” Draiman says, “we're not trying to target any particular era. We're just writing from our hearts. We can't help but gravitate towards the rhythmic, syncopated, heavily melodic type of big anthemic chorus things, we love that. That's what Disturbed is, so going back to our wheelhouse is a very comfortable and very empowering thing to do. We have fun doing it, and that song was just a blast to play. I just rehearsed it with the guys this past week. It sounded amazing. We've all got big a** grins on our faces as we're playing it… it's a trip and there's a lot more where that came from.”
“We have a whole new record’s worth of material that we are going to be releasing piece by piece over the course of the next year or two until we finally released the whole thing,” David adds. “It's as strong as anything we've ever put out. There's definitely some more surprises in the body of work too. I'm not gonna give too much away, but this lead track, ‘I Will Not Break,’ I have every confidence is going to end up taking its place among the strongest of our singles out there.”
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This coming July, Draiman will be performing at the final Black Sabbath concert in their hometown of Birmingham, UK. He’s “honored beyond belief,” he says, to have been asked to take part in the celebrations. “There's no individual in the world who I revere more than Ozzy. He's like a father to so many of us, and the Godfather of Metal,” he explains. “Between Ozzy and Sabbath, the most seminal frontman and band for hard rock and heavy metal in existence. I've been a fan since I was a little boy… it's still very, very surreal to see my name on that list, to be honest.”
“I couldn't be more humbled and honored to be a part of it,” he adds, “and I'm gonna do all I can to make my contribution as powerful as everyone else's. I wish it could be the whole band, to be honest. I wish all of Disturbed was coming there, but I will do my damnedest to represent us in their stead.”
Disturbed is set to kick off their 34-date The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour on February 24, with plans each night to perform two sets, first opening with with their 5X-platinum The Sickness in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. The first half of the tour will feature support from special guests Three Days Grace, featuring the return of original singer Adam Gontier, as well as Sevendust, with the second half featuring special guests Daughtry and Nothing More.
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Following their North American dates, they have plans to hit the U.K. and Europe in the coming months. Take a look at the full list of dates, plus grab your tickets and browse VIP options right HERE. Additionally, in celebration of The Sickness, the band's special 25th anniversary edition will be available on March 7 featuring b-sides, demos, and previously unreleased songs. Pre-order your copy now.
Don't miss Abe Kanan's special Audacy Check In with David Draiman of Disturbed above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite artists on Audacy. Plus, listen to Venom and more on the free Audacy app.