Gregg Talks Disturbed!

Gregg talks to David from Disturbed

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, twenty three years, eightstudio albums, five of which have gone
to number one, seventeen million copiessold. And let me tell you,
a guy looks pretty cool. Onthe cover of Decisive, we have David
Drayman in studio today. Welcome tothe program, Da, thank you for
having me. Brother, oh man, I'm telling you the list of accomplishments

(00:22):
and accolades, it just keeps goingon and on. For a guy who
didn't think that he could cut itas the singer of Disturbed back in the
day. You didn't think that thatyou could be in this band. I
didn't think that my voice was gonnabe able to be powerful enough for what
they were doing at the time.When I first auditioned for the guys,

(00:44):
and they were called Brawl back then, they were doing stuff that was much
more Pantera esque, and the singerthat they had had before me was much
more of a fellow Enselmo type ofa guy. I'm not talking about like
Cemetery, gatesvilleins right, right,like the right, right right, more

(01:07):
more more aggressive, more aggressive,much more aggressive. And I had never
even attempted to sing aggressively up untilthat point. So going into the situation
I walk in and you know,the guys basically looked like a skid row
at the time. You know,they had, you know, flannel shirts

(01:27):
and the feathered, tussled hair andyou know, the the acid wash jeans
ninety six okay, yeah, AndI walk in and like jean short sandals
and like a white T shirt.You know, we were two app completely

(01:49):
opposite ends of the spectrum. Andyou know, they wanted to do some
cover tunes and I'm like, well, like you guys are in a cover
band, Like, oh no,we're not, And like, well,
why don't you play me original material? They're like, well, what are
you gonna sing? I'm like,I don't know yet. Yeah, let
me let me hear what you got. They're like, really, yeah,

(02:10):
pa work, this's microphone work.Let's go. Let's let's let's see what
you got. And they were takenaback and did you improv? I did?
I did? I did? Imean? Truth be told is that
if you can't at least try tocome up with something that is uh,

(02:30):
you know, that can fit arespective musical bed out of the gate,
even if it's not like a keeper, maybe you shouldn't be trying to write
it so they started playing something andtook me a couple of minutes and I
had a pre written lyric that Ihad written for a different tune and came

(02:53):
up with an entirely new melody,And that first session of ours ended up
the coming a track on the Sicknesscalled Want the first time we ended up
playing. And you know, ashe tells his story, folks, he
is all lit up, the bigsmiles you. It's a very happy,
very joyful experience for you. Goingback to that first audition, it it

(03:16):
makes me remember my old friend whounfortunately has passed since then. His name
was Jordan, and he was myroommate at the time. He came to
the audition with me, and Iremember leaving thinking exactly what you alluded to,
that I don't know if I canhandle this. This is stuff is

(03:36):
really heavy. You know, I'mnot used to singing to it. I
just don't know if I can bethat guy. And it was my buddy
Jordan who had introduced me to thewhole new age of metal that was coming
out at the time of hard rock, because what were you listening to,
well, I mean, I wasthe previous bands that I was in.

(03:59):
We were very pung or like funkinfluenced, like as far as more chili
peppers, Okay, I've no more. Type of vibe wasn't really as heavy
as what they were doing. Butit was my buddy Jordan who introduced me
to that first Deftones record, thefirst tool EP, the first typo negative

(04:21):
record, the first corn record thatyou know, very influential roommates. Yes,
yes, and and so he hecame in with me to the audition,
like I said, And as Iwas leaving, I was sharing my
reservations with him and he said,you know, dude, you've got to
do this. He's like, he'slike, I've seen a lot of bands.

(04:42):
I listened to a lot of thestuff in this genre. And he's
like, there's no doubt in mymind that if you keep at this with
these guys, you guys are goingto get signed seventeen million copies later.
Thank god. Here we sit now. I read something you look great,
thanks. I read something that youyou thirty four pounds. Yeah, you
got a little large over the Yeah. Yeah, you know. Depression will

(05:04):
do that to you sometimes. I'mgoing to bring that up. I would
it would combine it into our healthsegment complacency. Yeah, I mean at
the tail end of my marriage,I wasn't happy, and yeah, it
was taking its toll on me.And when I went to our bass player's

(05:25):
wedding, John Moyer's wedding, Iwas like two hundred and fourteen pounds and
I'm looking at the pictures and that'spretty big, because what are you I'm
about eighty right now. Okay,so it uh, you know it.
My I wasn't healthy and I wasn'thappy with it. And so it's been

(05:46):
about a six months journey of tryingto get to where well there's a lot
of weight thirty four pounds or sodropping in six months. That's pretty good.
And what did you do? It'sbeen a lot you know, my
U I have severe acid reflux disease. Yeah, I'm with you on that.
So I don't have a valve atthe top of my esophagus anymore.

(06:09):
It's gone. It's completely eroded.And had a surgical procedure done in O
nine where they tried to reconstruct thevalve out of existing tissue. It's called
an endoscopic cinch, and that repairjob ended up rupturing again during when I
was on tour with corn at thetime, so I haven't had a valve

(06:30):
up there. So my diet isincredibly restrictive, typically especially during the touring
cycle. So on a show day, I can't eat four hours prior to
the set. I can't eat twohours prior to going to bed, so
which basically means that my last mealof the day is a late lunch,
no after show snack. That's gotto suck. Oh, it leaves you

(06:54):
one thing that's for damn sure,but that lends itself to enter it and
fasting. So there's sixteen hour periodsevery day for the most part where I'm
not eating. In addition to that, I try to eat as cleanly as
possible. I work out about fouror five days a week. Three of

(07:15):
those days I do high intensity intervaltraining for my cardio. Every night I
perform, I easily burn through fivehundred to seven hundred and fifty calories.
Yeah, you guys are pretty activeon stage, so it's it's a combination
of things. I do muscle confusionwhen we're not near a gym. There's
a couple of different apps I use. One of them is called muscle Booster,

(07:38):
where I can do isometric stuff inthe hotel room and it's like that
chair yoga that you're pushing, veryvery similar. Yes, yes, but
yeah, it's just a combination.Is that how you feel a lot of
your downtime on the road. Imean, you're right, you're still writing,
you're still busy in the head,But what do you do physically sides.

(08:00):
It's from morning till night. Literally, I mean I'll wake up in
the morning and the first thing Ido is a is a morning warm up.
Vocally, I'll hit the gym fora couple hours. I'll eventually eat.
It's got to be so precise.It does. And I have to
time my last meal, like Isaid before the set, and and and

(08:22):
and I have to avoid dairy onshow days. I have to avoid spicy
stuff pretty much every day. Ican't eat fried foods too much. It's
it's exhausting, you know, whenyour body is your instrument and you can't
go ahead and get yourself all messedup like the rest of the boys in
the band every given night. Butyeah, this is this is part of

(08:43):
what the distal with and you're delivery. I do because of the changes that
you made, and we thank you. I'm sure the rest of the band,
Thanks you too. Sucks for day, but I'm glad you did it.
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that'spretty much how it is. Yeah,
let's talk about your other health scare. I know that you made reference
to it on stage, that thatyou were severely depressed, and you alluded

(09:05):
to it had something to do withyour your marriage coming to an end one
of the things I think, yeah, I had to do with a bunch
of things. I mean, youeven said that you contemplated on Susie I
did. I did. That wasin February. I had just moved out
of the home where we were livingtogether in Miami, and I had moved

(09:28):
into a new place with my dog, Gabriel, who was he and he
ended up. I got the houseprimarily so that I could accommodate the dog.
There were He's one hundred and tenpound mail aquita. A lot of
places wouldn't rent to me having adog like that. A lot of apartment
complexes wouldn't rent to me with adog that size and of that breed.

(09:52):
So of the places that were availablein the Miami rental market at the time.
Because our previous house hadn't sold yetand so I didn't know exactly how
long I was going to be whereI was going to be. I ended
up renting this place and which hada nice big lawn, you know,
for for him. And he had, you know, he had really bad

(10:13):
hip dysplasia and a number of vertebraethat were out, and some bulging discs
in his back and really bad arthritis, and it had gotten to the point
where he could barely get up.And he was fourteen years old. So
that's a life for an impeta,especially a large dog like that. So

(10:35):
in February we made the decision tosay goodbye and to euthanize him. And
and being in this house all bymyself, you know, and still saw
him everywhere, you know. Andthere was this one week where I didn't
have him, I didn't have mykid, and there was I couldn't stop

(10:56):
crying, like for a whole week. Like literally i'd get up from morning
till night it was falling. Myface was a mess, My whole house
was a mess. And here Iam trying to get ready for this tour
that we were about to start inCanada, and I couldn't even get through
a song without choking up. AndI'm like, how the hell am I
going to do this? And Icried out for help. You know,

(11:18):
I tried looking for a therapist,and that is much more difficult of an
undertaking than you might imagine. Somebodylike me can't just call on eight hundred
number. This is David, right. And I didn't feel right doing these

(11:39):
virtual zoom therapy sessions. It seemedvery cold and impersonal to me. So
I finally found somebody through some friendsof mine that were able to hook me
up because otherwise nobody was accepting newpatients. No, everybody's busy, everybody's
got their stuff, and at theend of the day, it's still a
business and they have to vet you. I needed to be vetted ahead of

(12:03):
time. Oh can you qualify forthe I'm like, this is ridiculous.
So I finally get in to seesomebody and sat with her for two hours
and she ends up telling me atthe end of the session that she doesn't
have enough time to treat me.Well, that's great, you got too
much going on. I don't haveenough time to treat you, and then
pawned me off on three other potentialtherapists who also didn't have enough time to

(12:24):
treat me. So I was leftcompletely hanging, knowing that I needed help,
wanting to get help, and notgetting me turned away. And so
I was terrified, just absolutely terrified. And there was definitely a bunch of
moments where I'm like, you knowwhat, for the sake of the future
of my family and my kid andeverything, maybe it's just best that I

(12:48):
let them collect the life insurance.I didn't know what else I could do
at the time, and I forcedmyself to go out on the road anyway,
not knowing how I was going tofeel. The rest of the band
know how severe this was. No, not, I mean pretty much,
not all of it. I mean, they knew it was bad, they

(13:11):
didn't know how bad. But younever alluded that it would be a chore
to go out on the road.No, I did, Oh I did.
I didn't know what I was goingto do. I told him,
I I you know, at leastmy guitar player I had been pretty candid
with and you know, I gotout there and I was able to suck
it up through a little bit ofrehearsal and the minute that I at least

(13:33):
could feel that I could at leastget through part of a song without losing
my cool and losing my composure.It helped, But what helped more than
anything else was getting in front ofthe fans and baring my soul to them,
because there was nobody else I coulddo it too, and nobody else

(13:54):
that could feel it the way thatI was, no one that could be
as receptive and understanding and that youknow, there's there's something incredibly liberating about
being able to set your burden downin front of thousands of people. I

(14:15):
know that's a weird thing to say, but it just comes right off your
shoulders. It really was, andyou know it was. It was difficult
to do. But the more Idid it and the more that it seemed
to be helping people, the moreit helped me. And you know,
I'm so much better, you knownow than I was in February, for

(14:37):
sure, And I, oh,you look great. Thank you. I
appreciate it. You know that helpstoo, you know, to to get
physical again. That just started doingthat cardio extra. That was part of
the problem too. I mean,I you know, I had I wasn't
feeling good about myself. You know, try to go get back out there

(14:58):
and be social and you go aheadand you I had a buddy of mine
in Miami who invited me out tohis restaurant and his club, and yeah,
it reminded me why I hate clubsso much. And I'll rig and
or all of it. But youknow, you're not feeling confident about yourself.
That energy comes off on people andpeople are shut off right away,

(15:20):
and it just makes things worse.It compounds it, especially when your job
is a front man. Yeah,I mean, you you need that confidence,
you need a bit of that ego. You have to have that.
That's part of the job. You'vegot to be that guy. Yeah,
and it's not always easy to bethat true. Yeah. I had somebody
attempt to poison me during my birthday, which was wonderful that intentionally. Yeah,

(15:45):
really tell me about that. Iwas at this so I had my
buddy Mark, who was the bestman at my wedding. He's one of
my best friends. At my buddyTommy, who we go back, you
know, very long time time tolike early wax Trax era of like Chicago
days. And and then I hadmy guitar player, Danny, I'll come

(16:06):
and visit me in Miami and uhwe went to this, uh you know
place called sexy Fish. It's moreof a club than a restaurant. And
some guy recognized me and he decidedthat, yeah, let me go ahead
and buy you guys around to drinks. You know, so a lot.

(16:29):
Why not, it's my birthday.Go ahead. They bring you know,
waiter brings the rest of the guystheir drinks. And this guy who offered
us to buias around brings me minepersonally and sets it down in front of
me, and I go ahead,and I bring it to my lips and
I sniff it and it was liketequila or must call or something like that,
and I can't stand that stuff,So like, anybody want this?

(16:52):
And my buddy Tommy was like,yeah, I'll do it. He shoots
it right away. And Tommy,Tommy's a double lung transplant recipient and COVID
kicked the hell out of him andhe's on anti rejection meds in the whole
nine yards And thank god, wehad a full belly at the time.
But by the time I got backto my house and the other two guys
are sleeping upstairs and the only othertwo beds that are available, Tommy comes
knocking on my door, like aboutthree thirty in the morning and he's having

(17:15):
an incident. He's pouring sweat,his blood pressure is plummeting, he's shaking
like a leaf. He's like,I don't know what's wrong with me.
I'm like, dude, we gottatake you to the hospital. And he's
like, no, no, no, it's not going to the hospital.
Will be on the news the nextday. I'm like, I don't care
about the news. You're gonna diehere. We gotta do something. And
he starts vomiting all over my house, like all over the place, in

(17:37):
my son's bed where he was sleepingat the time, all over my hallway.
Get him into my room, puthim in my bathtub. He's still
vomiting all over himself in the bathtub, And like, dude, if I
can't get you to drink some water, stop vomiting and get some sleep,
I'm taking you to the hospital.There's no two ways about this. Gon
on to finally calm down and andstabilize somewhat. Put him in my bed

(18:03):
because it was the only clean bedleft in the house, and watched him
for the next twelve hours to makesure he didn't end up choking on his
own vomit. That was my birthday, So that certainly didn't help. You're
just thinking of all these rock starsthat have choked on their vomits, yeah,
and you're like, I'm going tosit up and watch this guy.
Yeah, so it doesn't happen.But that was another, you know,
just another dagger in the hearts,like, this is the world that I

(18:26):
am out in. What was hepoisoned with? Apparently it was liquid g
you remember that stuff Back in theday. It was it's a fat burner
that weightlifters. And there was aclub drug that they used to to like
a date rape drug meant free people, meant to knock me out, meant
meant there was probably some idiot inthe corner trying to film it on TikTok

(18:47):
to be able to brag to hisfriends, Look what I did to this
guy, you know. So uh, it just ended up being one thing
after another, and then there wasthis I had the in your wrist.
Yeah, So that during the Canadianrun was just brutal. I was in
so much pain. The tumor wasalready bursting out of my radius. I

(19:11):
was the time they were doing almostnothing. I couldn't sleep. There was
a period of three days straight duringthe tour where I didn't sleep. It
was painful. Oh my god,I could There wasn't a comfortable position I
could find. It was benign.Thank good. Yeah, they got it
out and I had this wonderful littleyou know scar. It looks kind of

(19:33):
like a tattoo, you know,but thank god, I'm able to pull
full weight on it. And gettingthat thing out of me and the pressure
that was relieved from it being inthere made all the difference in the world,
and so depression away. It helped. I mean it helped. Knowing
that I, you know, didright a huge thing. Yeah, and

(19:57):
and and and finally being able tosleep again decently. I mean it's so
important. It's not overrated, no, I mean, you you know,
that's that's how they torture you.And when you're a captive, you know,
sleep deprivation is a huge thing.That's part of you know, Navy
seal training training. I mean,they teach you to try and deal with
that. Well, there's only somuch of that you can deal with before

(20:19):
you start getting delusional. And Iwas definitely there, so it was it
was tough. What's wrong with Dave. There's all kinds of things wrong with
me. Hey, well, let'slet's talk about this record. Divisive came
out last year. We've been playingtracks off of that, like Hey you
Unstoppable at Bad Man that And Iknow that you know that you're a freedom

(20:44):
loving individual. I am. AndI'm sure you had a lot of conspiracy
ideas about what was happening with COVID, not as many as most, but
but I'm sure that that helped drivethe writing of the record. Well,
it's people's you know, the exacerbationof people's existing fears and the inability to

(21:11):
have any normal human outlet, anynormal interaction with other human beings, and
having this unlimited rabbit hole of theInternet to go ahead and you know,
throw yourself into and try and determinewhy everything that you love in life was

(21:32):
suddenly, you know, stolen fromyou. It made people who were already
nuts go ten times more off thedeep end, and it already aggravated and
exacerbated the divisions that already existed betweeneverybody that have been you know, multiplying
over the course of the past twodecades. You know, there's no greater

(22:00):
tool for propaganda then the Internet,then social media. I mean, Joseph
Goebbels would have, you know,died at having the opportunity to have a
propaganda tool like that. It itit's frightening how much true disinformation gets thrown

(22:22):
about, and it's it's it's soheartbreaking and tragic to see, how,
you know, the age old scapegoatsthat have been the scapegoats since the beginning
of time are still the boogeymen thateverybody like to pin, you know,
all the woes of the world on. It's it's it's not easy being a
Jew these days. I'll tell youthat. Well, you were in Tel

(22:45):
Aviv not that long ago with theband and you had a few things to
say about Roger Waters. Oh yeah, my favorite guy. You know,
when your own bandmate and his wifeall you exactly what you are and they
probably know you better than anybody elsein the world, does you know,

(23:06):
Dave Gilmore and Dave Gilmore's wife knowjust how much of an unabashed anti semi
mister Roger Waters always has been andcontinues to be. I think it's shameful
that so many people that are conspiracytheorists lie conspiracies at the feet of the

(23:29):
Jewish people every single come that thereis one always the biggest scapegoat in the
history of the world. I mean, we're we're we're chosen, We're chosen
to be blamed for everything, forall the world. And that's what it
certainly feels like, you know,the things that we've chosen to do.
We've chosen to educate ourselves. We'vechosen to try and be successful. We've
chosen to triumph or to try andtriumph over incredible adversity. We have the

(23:56):
majority of the Nobel Prize winning mindson the face of this planet in it.
You know, I think that that'sa great thing. We're we're privileged
to be subject to genocide. We'reprivileged to be, you know, put
under the microscope for everything. We'reprivileged that every single bad individual, whether

(24:18):
it's the Harvey Weinstein's of the worldor anybody else, every time somebody Jewish
ends up, Epstein, Weinstein,anybody, you know, every time that
comes out and it ends up beinga jew that ends up being the perpetrator
of some horrific thing. My genitalia, genitalia crawl back up inside my body

(24:41):
and I and I scream internally becauseI just know that every you know,
rabid anti Semite, whether it's extremeleft or extreme right or both wings of
the damn bird are are going tobe pointing their fingers, you see.
You see, this is who theyare, which is nonsense, because there

(25:02):
are bad people amongst every sect ofpeople on this planet. There are bad
actors from every faith, every religion, every color of skin. And why
we get this, you know,incredible level of scrutiny is beyond me.
It's like, we control the banks, we control the media. Really well,
we were obviously doing a really horriblejob of it because Christianity, well

(25:23):
you know, well we killed Christ. Another's right there. That's why all
the bad everything gets blamed on theJewish people is because of that moment in
time, right, it's according toChrist Judas. Yeah, yeah, you
know. It's it's funny if if, if history is actually accurate and memory
actually serves it was the Romans whoactually killed and crucified Christ, and why

(25:48):
we get blamed for doing it.And then afterwards we're like, you know
what he was onto something, We'regonna adapt this, We're gonna make it
our own religion and health here's theVatican after all these years later. I
mean, the irony is so thick. It's insane, but yeah, it's
it's tough. It's tough, youknow, in an age and in an
era where people are increasingly pointing thefinger and you know, to have all

(26:15):
these same people, you know,try and lay the pandemic at our feet.
You know. It's like, forthe love of God, I didn't
realize there were so many Jews inChina. Oh my god, right,
you know, crazy, We're everywhere, you know, we're behind everything.
So it's it. I mean,it's an awesome album title. It says

(26:36):
a lot. It's one word thatsays everything that you just said. Not
just with Jewish people. It's tribalwarfare, it's partisan tribal you're on my
team. I don't, but Iwant to listen to you, and I
don't want to be in the samepresence as you. It's destroyed friendships,
camaraderiees, families, marriages. Imean, it's ridiculous the level to which

(27:00):
it's gotten. People don't understand themeaning of civil discourse anymore, of people
being entitled to their own opinion.They want an echo chamber. They want
to hear the same thoughts that alreadyin their head coming out of your mouth,
or they don't want to talk toyou, right, you know,
they don't want to They handle disagreementswith a gun with a firearm, you

(27:22):
know, and I own weapons,But I would never, under any circumstance
think that an argument of a verbalargument was worthy of me drawing a firearm,
right ever, right ever, unlesssomebody pulled something on me, somebody
was in my house, hurting myfamily. Those are like the reasons that

(27:45):
I would pull a firearm. Orlet's let's take it a step lower,
not quite as extreme, but oftentimesalmost as damaging. This whole nonsense of
cancelation. I mean, you know, if we forget about the fact that
people are actually human beings. AndI know that the term cancel culture has

(28:08):
been you know, turned into thisthing, okay, but and and that
it's been you know, uh,taken by extreme parts of both sides of
the spectrum, and and that they'verun you know, crazy with it.
But how the hell do you everexpect anyone to learn, to grow,

(28:32):
to have teachable moments, to beable to say, you know what,
what I thought fifteen twenty years agowas wrong, and I've learned from it,
and I've grown from it, andI'm a better person now and I've
I've gone past that. Instead,people are have gotten to the point where

(28:52):
one transgression that's it. You're notentitled, entitled to have a teachable moment.
You're not titled to learn from yourmistakes. That one mistake that you
made dooms you for the rest ofeternity and made gets stricken off the face
of existence. You know, somethingthat you did twenty years ago, right,
you know, it's on video taperight right, and something that you've

(29:14):
already commented on, something that youthought you moved past. Then a new
generation finds that video tape and goesthis guy, Yeah, let's do let's
let's let's blacklist them, let's clackcancel them, let's let's let's take down
everything that they've done and everything thatthey've stood for and all the good that
they've done in life, and completelybecause I disagreed with the one thing that
you said here, you know,like I'll never forget, like uh,

(29:38):
you know, like the conspiracy withyou know, John Wayne or Sean Connery
or any number of people. It'slike it was a different era, was
it Okay back then? No,it wasn't. But there were different standards.
Back then there were different measurings.They were living to the standard we
as a society had set. Sowho's the blame. We are correct,

(29:59):
always society's fault. Yeah, we'restill to blame. And and this divisiveness
that was exacerbated, and that thepowers that be continue to reinforce and continue
to gain their own power, fame, wealth from. You know, fear
isn't is the most one of themost powerful motivational tools in existence. And

(30:23):
people in positions of power are hatredand fear mongering morons so that they can
keep those positions of power, andso that people stay afraid, stay unwilling
to drift outside of their respective comfortzones, unwilling to understand anything but their

(30:44):
own respective situations, and unwilling tolearn. And that's no way to be
human. That that's in humanity.You know, that's the that's the diametric
opposite of what it is to beliberal minded. And it's it's shocking and
how things have taken that turn.You know, this whole push for acceptance

(31:06):
is actually a push for denial.It's a push for lack of acceptance.
It's like, I won't accept anythingbut the way I think it's okay for
somebody to be religious if you're not. It's okay for somebody to be an
atheist if you're religious. You shouldbe able to accept different walks of life.
You should be able to accept differentjudgments. Not everyone's going to be

(31:29):
okay with everything that you do asa person in your own household, but
they should be able to leave itin your own household. Leave people alone,
you know, do what you willin harm me none, you know,
just leave people the hell alone.I don't understand why that isn't something
that is more unit accept me oryou know, we're going to legislate against

(31:49):
you. Yeah, yeah, whichis which is ridiculous because that that never
end. Let's talk about the nextsingle that you did with Ian Wilson.
Amazing such about that I did?Were you a big Heart fan growing up?
Huge, huge Heart fan? Youknow, since way way back in
the day. I mean, whata voice from the first time I heard

(32:10):
Barracuda. For God's sake, Imean, you know, I I just
one of the greatest voices of alltime, irrespective of being male or female
or not not confined by genre onany level. I think that and is

(32:31):
a is a is a living,breathing, walking gift and a treasure to
everyone. I'm still awestruck, youknow, in her presence, and I
still have to pinch myself even listeningback to the song, hearing our voices
combined, It's sounds good, verysurreal, toy, it's different. It's

(32:53):
not what I would expect from Disturbed. It's not what we would have expected
either, to be honest, we'rereally enjoying the new avenues of experimentation that
we've undergone. It shows growth.Yeah, well you know that's the thing.
Is like, we're damned if wedo damned if we don't. It's

(33:14):
like, either we get criticized asbeing the ac dc of our genre,
just you know, pumping out songsthat sound you know, similar to one
another, or we'll take a leftturn like we did with the Evolution record
and get criticized for being too folksyinto it's so different and it doesn't even
sound like you. But you knowwhat, it's made for an incredible dynamic

(33:39):
to our live show it and it'smade for this who sings her part.
Well, we haven't figured that outyet because we have yet to play it
live. I'm hoping that we canget a guest voice in from time to
time. I think when we initiallystart for forming it, I'm not sure

(34:00):
when that will be yet. We'renot quite there just yet. It'll probably
be me singing it all the waythrough, because the way that it was
originally tracked was with my voice allthe way through. You would never think
about about having her vocal track andsinging. Oh no no. It was
suggested actually, and you were like, that's cheesy. Oh hell no,

(34:21):
I'm not doing that. No,no, no, no no. I
wouldn't feel right. I wouldn't feelright, I think it. I don't
think it would be fair to theaudience either. I know that would.
It would preserve the integrity of theway the song comes across, but live
it would be weird to me.It's got a as far as vocals are
concerned, you know. Especially.Don't get me wrong, we as Disturbed,

(34:45):
like many other bands out there,have a bunch of stuff that is
effects oriented, that is keyboard orientedor sample oriented, that is on track
that is on what is called digitalperformer, and Mikey will play along to
a click in order to be intime with that, and they'll have certain

(35:06):
samples that he triggers off of thepads on his drum kit as well.
But drums, guitar, bass,and vocals are all live always, and
I will never ever as long asI am still living and breathing. Uh,
succumbed to from a selfish perspective,you know, from my own perspective,

(35:30):
I need the gratification of live performance. I need to be able to
vocalize live. I can't even dreamof singing along to a prerecorded track,
or or or lip syncing along toa pre recorded track, or or singing
along to with another prerecording right right? What I suggest, Yeah, that

(35:54):
I just couldn't see you doing Isee myself doing it either, I mean
so, but we'll definitely have tofigure that out. It may end up
becoming instead of like a regular occurrence, it may really end up being a
truly special occasion that only happens everyonce in a while. So too bad
you didn't have a female fronted openingacting we do well unfortunately, Uh,

(36:16):
you know, but uh, AndI actually talked to Tatiana about it from
Ginger, who is a very butyou know what, she's got a lot
on her plate. She's incredibly talentedand her material in and of itself is
challenging enough. And I don't blameher. Maybe she'll get more comfortable with

(36:37):
the tour and maybe maybe I mean, I Tatiana, believe me, no
pressure, It's all good. Wealready had that discussion. I have the
highest level of respect and admiration forher in the band. But you know,
it's a lot to ask. It'sa difficult vocal part to pull off.

(36:59):
It's Anne Wilson got sick and afteryou know, busting your ass for
twenty five minutes every night opening up. Yeah, with with the level of
aggression that their material requires, weneeds you to hang out. I can
come back on and be chilled.I get I get it, I get
it. I mean it would betough for me too, so I totally
understand. But it's out there.Yeah, and and and I'm hoping that

(37:22):
we can get you know, somecool guests coming in from time to time.
I'm hoping that we can get into come out a few times.
Yeah, that'd be great at somepoint. So, and she reached out
to you after she had heard yourversion of Sound of Silence. She did
was she? She? She postedabout it? Okay, I was blown
away that she even knew that.Yeah, So that was unbelievably gratifying and

(37:46):
and and humbling beyond words. Andit was a discussion I was having on
Twitter with a number of my colleagueswith Bruce Dickinson, who it's still weird
for me to even be able tosay that I can call him your peer.
Yeah, I know about that.Yeah, one of the greatest front
mentean you're up there. I appreciatethat, brother. I still it's still

(38:09):
very, very surreal to me.I still get very starstruck by the people
that I've looked up to for solong. He was my very first interview
when I got into radio, BruceDickinson, and I was so, I
was nineteen years old and I'd grownup a big iron maid in Judas Priest,
you know, all that British heavymetal invasion stuff in the late seventies.
That was my that was my mymusic in the early eighties. He

(38:31):
is a freak of nature, thatman. They came and he played soccer,
He did a fencing exposition. It'sinsane. His physical capability is mind
boggling. To have gone through thesurgeries that he's in right to still sound
as powerful. I mean, Iremember seeing him at the Universal Amphitheater in

(38:51):
Los Angeles with cracked ribs, runningaround on stage like it was nothing and
still pull off every note and stilland I'm like, damn it, dude,
it's last fall. And they wereunbelievable. He's he's as as good
as they get, one of thebest to ever do it, and he's

(39:14):
a tremendous source of inspiration. Butit was all of us commenting on who
we thought was the best female rockvoice of all time, and we all
said, Anne, I mean,she's one of the greatest voices of all
time, period and she responded,you know, very graciously, and she
was humbled by it. And Itook my shot, you know, like

(39:37):
I slid into her DMS on Twitterand like I'm like, okay, you
know you. I'm like, wouldyou be interested in collaborating at some point?
And she responded and so what keepsher relevant too? And I'm sure
she didn't do that, because I'msure management said that to her, Hey,
this keeps your relevant, you know, do this with Disturbed. They're
still pretty but the kids. Idon't know how I could make Anne any

(39:58):
more relevant than she already is.But if if I did, I'm happy
to have done it. I mean, she she's she's a goddess, you
know, she's what's that song about. It was originally about my guitar player
Danny's divorce. It was his ideathematically to begin with. He even wrote

(40:21):
a couple of the lines in it, and I had no idea how prophetic
it was going to end up becomingfor years, truly. It Uh,
it's strange how similar divorces can be. Oh god, it's just a big
basket full of suck. There's notwo ways about it, you know,

(40:42):
don't get me wrong. Yea,my ex really kind of did me a
favor. We were my honor,My personal honor is so strong and so
dumbating that no matter how unhappy Iwas, I would have never been the

(41:06):
one to pull the plug ever.You know, I toured the world for
eleven years as a rock star andnever even put myself in a situation where
my honor could even have been quitehard to do, anyway to do.
And believe me, there were opportunities, and I know I never ever put
myself in a situation where it couldeven be questioned. But I mean,

(41:32):
she knew it and I knew it. And you know, she's still an
amazing mother to our son, andI couldn't be you know, happier to
have her continuing to be able toco parent with me. And you know,
I I I needed to be setfree. She needed to be set
free. And it took the strengththat she has that I don't to be

(41:58):
able to do it. So inmany ways I owe her a dead of
Well, I'm happy for you thatyou're in this place that yeah, you
don't see, you seem a lotbetter than you did in February. Yeah,
by leaps and bounds, by leapsand bounces. This is great.
Now you're ready to just you know, kick the shit out of North America
as long as my body cooperates,Yeah for sure. All right, no

(42:21):
eating, uh, you know,four hours before showtime, two hours before,
hydrate the hell out of myself,Watch the spicy stuff, watch the
dairy fried stuff, watch everything andcan't have chocolate, caffeine and all the
all the all the things that arewonderful in life. You know, man,
Yeah, people don't realize. Youknow, It's like they think that

(42:45):
the life of the singer, atleast the singer who actually still sings live
is what they see from you know, the snippets of what bands are like
in the eighties, or what theyhear about on you know, on social
media, and the mythology that goesalong with it. When there really is

(43:07):
so much discipline and so much sacrifice. I mean, there's a reason why
this way of life kills people.In my position, it's not easy.
You know, we are the modernday gladiators. Literally, we have to
struggle and sacrifice and hone our bodiesand our craft to such a level,

(43:34):
and to maintain it at that levelrequires such strength and determination. People don't
get it. And you're not,you know, doing two hours a ballot.
You are stressing your voice out,no it, And that's another thing,
and I'm my own worst enemy whenit comes to that. You know,

(43:54):
our material, disturbed material is very, very very vocal heavy. My
voice is part of the instrumentation froma rhythmic perspective, from a percussive perspective,
and so when it isn't prevalent throughoutthe entirety of the song, it

(44:16):
feels like something's missing. And soyou know, not to be not that
I'm being judgmental or or talking negativelyin any way. But if I can
make a comparison, let's take thebiggest band in the world that's Stigmatallica,

(44:37):
okay, and listen to any numberof their songs. James is a lot
of space in his vocalization. There'shuge pieces of just pure instrumentation. There's
vocals that come in and out witha lot more instrumentation. I think that
just from a amount of vocal withinthe song, it's just less vocal and

(45:02):
it's not as rapid fire, it'snot as staccato, it's not as demanding
from a physical perspective. And it'salso nice that he at the stage of
the game, gets to play oneshow a week. That makes things a
lot easier too. But I mean, no matter who you want to look
at in the genre, and wecan even go away from Metallica. Maiden

(45:23):
is a good example too. Bruce'svocals are far more intermittent. They're not
constant throughout the song. Take takeany band in existence, take you know,
take the Deftnes, Take seven doestake Corn Take I take tool Tools
a great example, right, Okay, there's so much less vocal. I

(45:47):
mean, how many times you gowhere's Maynard? I mean you're not even
on stage. And and don't getme wrong, I am not i tool
and I'm not trying to speak inthis lightest way any of these. The
audience understands what it's just a differentway of crafting the songs. And it's

(46:09):
become part of when you said yourvoice is percussive, right that you're saying,
and you also provide instrumentation with yourvoice. You do a couple of
things that most bands do not,and it's tremendously demanding. So an hour
and a half to two hours ofour material is like many other bands playing

(46:29):
for three hours easily, if notmore. You've got to take a vocal
nap after that. Oh dude.The breath control required that more than anything
else, Even more than having thatflexibility of vocalization. The breath control is

(46:49):
incredibly arduous, and especially now,just because if you lose that, then
you're playing ketchup and then and thenyou're like, yeah, how does that
work for you? Like in Denver, and you're well, now we're here
at in the Mile High City,right and now we're playing with Pyro and
what does what do you? Whatdoes fire do? It soaks up all

(47:09):
the oxygen, it gets rid ofit. A good multi tiered fire pyro
burst on that deck takes all myair. Everything is just dry, so
I have to time that too.So it's it's challenging. It's challenging.
If you're a good one, well, all you can do is give everything

(47:29):
you have up there. Thank you. That's IM. I try to maintain,
you know, as much humility aspossible in the face of adversity and
in the face of the challenge thatwhat we have crafted is. But I
wouldn't have it any other way.You know, I've seen you guys over
ten times and you have never oncedisappointed me. I appreciate it. And

(47:51):
it's amazing when you go and yousee a disturb show and you're like,
I know a few songs, andthen all of a sudden you're like,
I haven't stopped singing. You leave, have two ours, and I didn't
do my vocal nap and I didn'tbreathe right, and I'm all after singing
along, probably you know, annoyingthe hell out of people next to me,
but you know, going full blast. Everybody. You look around,

(48:12):
everybody's got their fish in the air. Everybody knows the words it's song after
song after song that you know,and you didn't realize how much influence that
you had on rock music over thelast two decades. It's pretty incredible,
bro, It's pretty surreal. Whatdo they call you, guys? You're

(48:34):
not classic rock, heritage, heritageor legacy lea, that's what is that?
What the folks that you prime callyou? You know, they can
call us anything they want at theend of the day, as long as
they call us to stir, it'sfine. What really brought it full circle
for me is now seeing when weperform live at these festivals, to see

(48:59):
how many of the younger bands arewatching us, and there's a lot of
that's it feels so good. Igotta say it, because you're the reason
why some of these kids are aremegan music. I don't know about that,
but I definitely get incredible gratification offof seeing our colleagues and peers enjoying

(49:23):
what we're doing and hopefully inspiring themin some way. It's a different level
of gratification than even the fans canprovide. It's you know, it's this
acceptance, it's this family, andit feels really great. David Draymond from

(49:43):
Disturbed everybody, thank you so muchfor being on the show. Good luck
with Divisive. I know you know. The next single with and is going
to be huge. Don't tell meis the name of that. In a
matter of fact, we're going toplay that right now on the Great Stone
Program. Catch Disturbed their jeez,how many dates are you doing annoy America
right now? Starting? You start? Many too many? So they're coming
to a town near you. Ipromise you can always find out more at

(50:07):
disturbed dot com. Thank you,brother David Dreaming, everybody, thank you
so much. Thank you man