David Draiman
Individuality is a personal thing. It's based on your own personal feelings and expression of self. So, really, it's nobody's business to judge you but yourself. And if you feel that you're expressing yourself as an individual, and you feel confident in it, then that really should be all that matters.Collection: Business
I try not to mix the politics as much with the band, per se, because my political views are my own; they're not necessarily the band's.Collection: Politics
People who are divided are easier to control.
I'm a fan of Genesis prior to Phil Collins. I don't really like Phil.
I'm incredibly defiant against neo-Nazis and skinheads.
I had a motorcycle accident, and I had my garage burn down with most of my vehicles. And I've had really bad relationships that I've been in and out of. They've left their mark.
I'm done. Done with social media. Done.
The God's honest truth is that, being the singer, my body's my instrument.
'The Sound Of Silence' taught us that we shouldn't be afraid of pushing the boundaries.
I have a real estate development company. I have investments in all sorts of things, and I dabble all over the place.
I'm a very active angel investor in a number of different companies.
I used to have, and I still do have, really bad acid reflux. I had a surgical procedure done... that repaired a valve at the top of my stomach that had completely burned away.
One of the degrees I have is in business, and I was a healthcare administrator that ran a 365-bed skilled nursing facility for years and generated several million dollars a year profit for them. So I have a background in business.
To be perfectly honest with you, I think that The Darkness is a joke, and that's, unfortunately, exactly what the world wants.
I will always be a proud defender of the Jewish people and of the State of Israel.
I always feel it's not a parent's role to either allow or to deny, but merely to guide.
There's still anti-Semitism everywhere, and unfortunately, what has happened with our people no longer being the underdogs in this region, peoples' perception of Israel has changed dramatically.
I think that people are too... They've become genre snobs.
There's nothing that can lock a memory in your mind more distinctly than with a piece of music. It's so easy to remember something so vividly and so perfectly when you score it to something.
I'm a fan of the 'Underworld' films, but I don't necessarily consider them horror.
What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.
The media continues to spin the State of Israel and Jews as war-mongering, evil people, which we are not.
I've been blessed with a platform and a voice, and I owe it to myself and my family and our people to use it responsibly.
The fans who know us, and me in particular, know the type of people we are. I like the finer things. We've gone through our McDonald's and Burger King phase.
I just wanted to do the things that all normal teenagers wanted to do. So I did become quite rebellious.
I'm still a businessman. But what I do for my primary living and what is my life is music, and that will never change.
Look, it makes sense to be able to take part of what you've earned in this life and have it grow. And I hope that other musicians out there that do have their moments of profit and of success are wise enough not to squander those profits and that success.
There are definitely confines within the style of Disturbed that we needed to stay true to, but we've always pushed that envelope. We always continued to develop with each successive record.
Ninety percent of the time, I'm a laid-back teddy-bear dude.
I hate all politicians equally.
Every politician, in order to be a politician, has to be adept at the art of one and one thing only, and that is lying.
The Internet, sadly, has become a preying ground for trolls and just predators. And when you're in the position that I'm in, and you have a wife and a child who had just come into this world not too long ago, you start wondering whether or not that continued interaction and some of the threats and some of the nonsense are worth it.
I was never the guy who was going to try to use my social media to be a source of promotion for myself... It was always trying to use whatever kind of a voice in the position that I have been blessed with for good.
The level of study that I was at, I was probably only about two or three years away from being ordained as a rabbi, so I really needed to figure out in my head where I wanted to go with things. And I just couldn't do it habitually anymore.
I grew a very strong dislike for the organized aspect of religion over the course of time.
The Device experience was amazing. I enjoyed working with everyone that I was blessed with the opportunity to work with, and you learn so much going outside of your normal world and outside your box, so to speak.
'Savior Of Nothing' calls out the would-be social justice warriors of the world who become so enveloped in fighting so passionately that they become exactly what they're trying to correct. They preach acceptance so much they become unaccepting.
'In Another Time' talks about our addiction to technology.
The forces that precipitate the vicious cycle of conflict on this planet do not pledge allegiance to either the left or the right or the center. They take advantage of everyone.
It's impossible to utilize your right to free speech in the way you truly deserve and not suffer repercussions on any level.
The power, the complexity, the aggression - there's so many things that would attract anyone to Metallica. I think that they are the prime example of a metal band.
'Creeping Death' - that was a special song for me as a kid, because that was the one that every single Jewish kid thought, 'Oh, Metallica wrote a song for us. He wrote it about the exodus of the Jews from Egypt under slavery.'
'Fade To Black' - just this amazing construct: a song that defied the definition of what Metallica was perceived to be at the time.
Other music that 'Ride The Lightning' led me to discover was to start really kind of sinking my teeth into some of the thrash of the era that I literally had no exposure to - whether it was Slayer, whether it was Testament, whether it was Megadeth. It was the opening of a doorway, for me, to a whole new palette of music.
I can't deny the impact of, obviously, becoming a father and having my son come into this world, and even becoming a husband. The irony is that, when people think that in certain ways it softens you, in many ways, I'm more defensive and more on guard and more frightened and more angry at everything in this world now that I have them to worry about.
There's everybody in the world who is always trying, time and time again, to proclaim the death of rock, or hard rock and heavy metal. Not if I have anything to do with it, not if we have anything to do with it.
'Immortalized' is hopefully what music does for everyone in terms of emotions, in terms of experiences, in terms of being people who create it.
For whatever reason, the mainstream media, for the most part, affixes itself to progressive or liberal propaganda.
I'm all about freedom to go ahead and practice whatever kind of religions you want, have whatever sort of sexual preference you want, freedom in terms of being pro choice for women.
I support liberty; I support true freedom.