David Draiman (Disturbed) addresses spiritual roots and their impact on his professional journey

David Draiman, the frontman of Disturbed, speaks with podcast host Andrew Fox in the most recent episode of The Brink podcast about antisemitism, Israel, Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks, which killed more Jews in a single day than at any other time since the Holocaust, and why he has refused to keep quiet despite the possible consequences for his career, as per Blabbermouth. Draiman discusses why protecting the Jewish people has always been essential to his identity by drawing on his personal encounters with antisemitism and the history of his family, which includes relatives who served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and grandparents who survived Auschwitz and Dachau.

He considers how that battle changed on October 7, 2023, and why the response that followed made him extremely worried about the future of Jews in the West. Draiman also discusses one of his more contentious activist moments, when he wrote “Fuck Hamas” on an Israeli artillery shell. In addition to openly discussing Palestinian suffering, his aspirations for peace, and his conviction that Israelis and Palestinians could eventually have a future free from endless conflict, he explains why he has no regrets. Lastly, after Disturbed’s “Hold On To Memories” was played at Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas’ funerals, Draiman considers the power of music and his friendship with Yarden Bibas.

He explains why being allowed to act in accordance with his conscience is more important than being “the next metallica,” regardless of the professional repercussions of speaking out. When asked how his Jewish heritage has influenced his career as a Disturbed member, Draiman responded as follows.

Well, my mother’s side of the family, we’re a family of Holocaust survivors. My grandmother on my mother’s side was a survivor of Auschwitz, and my grandfather on my mother’s side was a survivor of Dachau. So, it’s meant a lot for all kinds of reasons, whether on my mother’s side, my father’s side, for a very long time. And in fact, we wrote a song called ‘Never Again’. It’s one of our anthems. It’s something that every time… I’ve only been blessed to have played Israel twice, but every time we’ve played there, it’s one of the songs that absolutely must be played live. It’s a call to arms for our people. It’s a refusal to back down. It’s a refusal to cower in the face of adversity and in the face of the most dangerous bullies in existence. So, it’s been a part of who I am, and since I am, I would think, a significant part of the band, that it’s a part of who we are, truth be told, whether we like it or not. And believe me, in today’s environment it would be a lot easier to not have the association. It’s a burden to carry that a lot of people don’t realize.

You’ve seen, I’m sure, or you’ve read the play or seen the play or seen the movie ‘Fiddler On The Roof’, yeah? Tevye, the character. There’s a breaking point for everybody, and I couldn’t bend far enough. I was required to bend too far to try and be vanilla, to try and ignore things, I can’t be the ostrich. I can’t put my head in the sand. I can’t pretend that the world isn’t on fire around me. I’m, like, ‘Oh, no, everything is fine.’ I’m not one of those people.

Draiman responded as follows when asked where the pressure to not break originated.

Like I said, it would always be easier if you don’t have things that add to the friction of trying to move forward in an already questionable and uncertain road that there is for any artist in their development. But when you throw things like this into the equation, it turns into an entirely different animal. And, truth be told is, the greatest reservation and the greatest guilt that I carry isn’t even from my family regarding all of this. It’s for my brothers in the band who have to bear a burden that has really little to do with them other than the fact that I am their friend, and I appreciate immensely that they’ve been as supportive as they have been. And it hasn’t been easy, and there have been conversations.

It comes down to this. It comes down to my son. It comes down to, what do I tell my son? How do I tell him to navigate this world that we’re in? He’s got the best of both sides of ethnicities that right now in this world are some of the most hated. He’s part Asian and part Jewish. And so it’s a tough mix for the boy. And thank God where he is in school and in his environment, he’s a social dynamo and he thrives, thank God. But it’s important for me to impart to him that we do not cower.

We do not cower to bullies, that we stand up for those who are weaker than us, that we have honor and integrity and all those things that unfortunately for so many this world are a lost art, are incredibly important to me and incredibly important for me to teach my son. And when I explained that to my guys in the band, I think they had a better understanding of it because on the outside, and unfortunately too many in the space, and this is gonna be something that probably many don’t like hearing and they’ve heard me say it before, and I really… I have the luxury at this point of my career and my life that to not really care if there’s backlash to me being truthful about something.

And the truth is that too many view the defense of our people as a business, and too many try to profit off of it, and too many go ahead and enjoy having their backs patted in echo chambers everywhere and it reverberates and it leads to higher speaking fees and you name it, and it’s just insanity. I am a part of it to an extent, just to the extent that I will do it for absolutely nothing. I never ask for anything. And for me, it’s a detriment. It’s other people in the space that have kind of taken advantage of it and made it part of their persona and made it part of like…

If you are blessed with a platform, if you are blessed to influence and be an influencer, you’re given a gift. Use it responsibly, use it honorably, use it without trying to self-enrich, without trying to take advantage of a situation that is dire. And I see a lot of people taking advantage, and they should be ashamed of themselves, with all due respect. I wish people were more centrally focused on the fight and on the defense of our people and less focused on themselves.