Russell Crowe has praised David Draiman's performance on DISTURBED's cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's "The Sound Of Silence" as "perhaps the greatest rock vocal ever."
The Oscar-winning actor, best known for playing Gen. Maximus Decimus Meridius in "Gladiator" and Sgt. Wendell "Bud" White in "LA Confidential", made the comment on Twitter while sharing a new fan-created music video for the DISTURBED's version for the song, featuring imagery shot during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
"Perhaps the greatest rock vocal ever. New video." Russell wrote.
DISTURBED caught wind of the tweet, responding "Thank you" and including a "folded hands" emoji.
This isn't the first time Crowe has given his stamp of approval to the DISTURBED cover. Back in 2016, he stated about the track: "every now and then someone comes along and redefines genius."
"The Sound Of Silence" originally appeared on DISTURBED's sixth studio album, "Immortalized", which was released in August 2015.
Last November, video of DISTURBED's performance of "The Sound Of Silence" on the March 28, 2016 episode of Conan O'Brien's nighttime talk show, "Conan", surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, becoming the first "Conan" clip to reach the milestone.
DISTURBED's studio version of "The Sound Of Silence" went to No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hard Rock and Mainstream Rock charts and became the band's highest-charting single ever on the Top 100. The accompanying music video has had over 599 million views. It's also been used in the soundtrack for "The Blacklist" and the video game "Rock Band 4".
Draiman told the Colorado Springs Independent that he and his bandmates didn't have a clue that any of that would happen when they recorded the song and decided to issue it as a single and music video.
"How could we?" he asked. "It really, within the genre, was unprecedented. Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed it would be that massive and be used in all the places I've heard it used, figure skating, 'Dancing With the Stars', with the 9-11 Memorial and getting the blessing from Paul Simon, when we met him last year on Maui. The thing, surreal doesn't cover it."
When Disturbed released their debut album, The Sickness, in 2000, it was a game changer. The band’s penchant for mixing raw, in-your-face metal with soaring melody stood out among other acts on the radio at the time. As Disturbed’s early singles “Stupify” and “Down with the Sickness” took off, the group helped usher in a new era in modern rock and metal.
The Sickness celebrates its 20th anniversary on March 7th. In honor of the milestone, Disturbed will hit the road with Staind and Bad Wolves in July for a North American tour that will see the band performing a range of songs off The Sickness, as well as other tracks from their full catalog. (Get tickets here.)
Disturbed singer David Draiman spoke with Heavy Consequence about the 20th anniversary of The Sickness and what the album means to him. Read the full interview below.
On whether he can believe The Sickness is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year
No! (Laughs) In many ways, it feels like it’s been that long, and in many ways, it doesn’t. It really doesn’t seem, in my head, all that long ago that we took the stage at 10 a.m. at our very first Ozzfest in 2000, and nobody was there! After 10 minutes of us playing, there were about 3,000 people there, which was nice, but I don’t know how, all of a sudden, we became heritage artists. (Laughs) I hate the term, but in a way, it’ s what we morphed into. The whole thing is weird.
On what he remembers about the first recording sessions for The Sickness
It’s broken into two different sessions in my head, because we did these demos for The Sickness that ended up becoming actual tracks on The Sickness. That’s the part I hearken back to. That was so experimental for me and formative and so very, very early on. Those demo versions of the songs didn’t really change much from what we did on the album. Part of the reason is that those demo versions were done with the same producer, Johnny K, and we did them as best we could the first time. That was the first period of really putting our creations through that level of recording, and to finally hear those songs we had been playing on the South Side of Chicago for a couple years — to finally get the chance to spread them as a recording and use them as a marketing tool, that’s what I really look back on. That was the exciting part. That first period of creation for those songs was really unique.
On whether there was a song off The Sickness the band knew would be something really special
We always felt the way we did about “Stupify”. That’s why we pushed very hard for it to be the first single. To be honest with you, none of us, and I repeat, none of us — I don’t care what anybody tells you … if they tell you otherwise, they’re bold faced liars (Laughs) — none of us ever intended for “Down with the Sickness” to be a single. We never in a million years thought it would get through, because the subject matter was so dark and abrasive and the language in it. We thought there was no way! But the “ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah” that was heard around the world got it there. (Laughs) I think radio ended up making their own edits, and they fell in love with it and made it work. We knew what tracks from the record we got the biggest response from live, and those were always the ones we thought could be the biggest contenders for singles. “Stupify” was one. “Down with the Sickness” was another, even though we didn’t think it would happen. “The Game” and “Voices”– those were some of them. There was another one, the first song we wrote together called “Want” that I felt could have been a single, but it never saw that opportunity.
On whether he thought The Sickness would become the monster success that it did
No. We had very modest aspirations. I didn’t think this career would become the monster it did. We didn’t plan or anticipate any of this. We hoped, just like starry-eyed daydreamers do. I remember when we were starting out and couldn’t get gigs in the inner city of Chicago because we were a metal band and not cool enough. You had to be more alternative to get a gig in the inner city Chicago clubs at the time. I think that spirit of lack of acceptance and feeling like we were the outcasts when we started out forged our attitude in a lot of ways.
On what it was like seeing “Stupify” take off
it wasn’t an instant thing at all. It was a hard fight at radio. There wasn’t anything like it at radio at the time. There was stuff close to it, but not close enough. You had people over at Giant Records that signed us who considered it a personal mission and battle to make that song break. They believed in the hook and what the song could do, and eventually, it started climbing, but it wasn’t an instant thing by any means. It took six months to get it to where it was really cooking and getting in the top 10. I remember hearing it in my car for the first time in the middle of downtown Chicago, stopped in the middle of traffic. I got out of my car and stood on the hood and screamed at the top of my lungs! (Laughs) It was an amazing, amazing moment, hearing it on the radio back in the day.
On what fans can expect from the upcoming tour in celebration of The Sickness‘ 20th anniversary
A dark trip down memory lane. (Laughs) Some nostalgia, some surprises and a good chunk of material from The Sickness, but not the entire record, because we, thankfully, have more than 120 songs in our discography, and lot of the fans came along later down the line, and we don’t want to forget about them. But, you’re definitely getting more Sickness material than you’re used to, and we will accentuate that fact with the appropriate levels of production that will hearken back to that era.
On having Staind support the tour
I’m incredibly excited about it. We all are. We’ve been friends with the guys of Staind for many, many years. They exploded and are one of those bands that came up the same time we did, and they’ve been away a while, so when we heard about the reunion, they were way at the top of our list. I was like, we have to do something with those those guys. I think it’s amazing. I love all those guys and their songs from back in the day, the aggressive ones and especially the ballads. Those guys are fantastic songwriters and players, and we’re very happy to have them touring with us.
On the tour’s opening band Bad Wolves
With Bad Wolves, I’ve been a fan of them and a friend of [singer] Tommy Vext for a very long time. Back in the day when he was helping out with the In This Moment camp when they were on tour with us, we’d go to the gym together and be on the treadmill, and all the guys would watch him mouth the words to whatever song he was listening to on the treadmill while making wild stage moves and posing, and we were like, “Somebody get this guy a band!” (Laughs) And he finally found one, and they came up with amazing material, and it’s not just a fluke. It’s not just a cover song [The Cranberries’ “Zombie”] that they did an amazing job on, by the way. Now they’re three singles deep into their career, and they’re here to stay, and I’m so proud of what they’ve accomplished.
There’s a bunch of stuff we’re messing around with, but nothing set in stone yet. There are lots of ideas we have, but we haven’t tracked anything yet. At some point later down the line, we will. We’re in no big rush right now.
On what’s next for Disturbed
After this round of tour dates, we’re going to spend some time with our families and be human beings for a little bit until the itch is so bad, we can’t ignore it anymore. Then, we’ll figure out when to get back into the studio to record these ideas and get this big machine started back up again.
Our thanks to David Draiman for taking the time to speak with us about the 20th anniversary of The Sickness and Disturbed’s upcoming tour in commemoration of the album. See the dates below.
Disturbed’s “The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour” Dates: 07/15 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre 07/16 – Cadott, WI @ Rock Fest 07/18 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Upheaval Festival 07/21 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre 07/23 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre 07/24 – West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre 07/26 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live 07/29 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center 07/30 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center 08/01 – Hershey, PA @ Hersheypark Stadium 08/02 – Hartford, CT @ XFINITY Theatre 08/04 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center 08/06 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater 08/08 – Syracuse, NY @ St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview 08/10 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater 08/11 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage 08/13 – Burgettstown, PA @ S&T Bank Music Park 08/15 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center 08/16 – Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre 08/20 – Tinley Park, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre 08/21 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center 08/23 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center 08/26 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP 08/27 – The Woodlands, TX @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 08/29 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater 08/30 – Phoenix, AZ @ Ak-Chin Pavilion 09/01 – Chula Vista, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre 09/02 – Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheatre 09/04 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre 09/05 – Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre 09/09 – West Valley City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre 09/11 – Ridgefield, WA @ Sunlight Supply Amphitheater 09/12 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre
Disturbed Talk Chester Bennington's Legacy
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DISTURBED vocalist David Draiman recently spoke with Brent Porche of the Philadelphia radio station 93.3 WMMR. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On 2020 marking the 20th anniversary of the band's debut album, "The Sickness":
David: "This entire touring cycle — this section of the touring cycle, if you will — is going to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of 'The Sickness', so you'll be getting a lot more material from the record. You'll be getting some surprises. We're very proud of it. It's amazing looking back that it's been that long. It doesn't feel that long, but I guess that's a good thing. We definitely want to pay tribute to what started it all for us, and we're looking forward to really digging deep."
On whether the band plans to record more music in the near future:
David: "We're always toying with stuff, always working on things. I don't think we're ready to unleash an entire new record any time soon, but you never know – a song here, a song there, and then we'll see what happens."
On the band's 2020 touring plans beyond their currently announced spring concerts:
David: "We've definitely got some interesting stuff cooking. It's not just going to be a spring thing for us, that's for sure. How much longer? That I can't talk about. [Laughs]"
On his now-defunct side project, DEVICE:
David: "It was a great experiment. It was incredible to collaborate with so many other legendary artists. I was truly, truly blessed, but it's so tough to build something from scratch these days, especially when you come from the big machine and you go to the smaller machine, and you're at this stage of your life and your career. It's, like, 'Why am I doing this?' It didn't make sense. When you get to a point when you're more than six figures in the red and you're still going because you're not sure why, you stop. You have to do stuff that makes sense. I always feel terrible for new and struggling artists these days who really have to put their shoulders to the grindstone and just do what they have to do to survive. It's not easy out there for anyone. Even with somebody who has the pedigree, it's tough to get things done."
On whether DISTURBED will ever resurrect its "Music As A Weapon" tour:
David: "I don't know. I doubt as a traveling entity. I know that we've toyed around with the idea of making it something location-based in the right situation and scenario, but it's tough because the market is so flooded with location-based festivals at this point, particularly in the rock genre. It's tough to find the right spot and the right time. Who knows? Never say never. There's so many other organizations that are already doing a decent job, it's, like, 'Why take it all on yourself?'"
On the advice he wishes he could give his younger self:
David: "I would have told myself to just take it easy. I took too many things maybe a little too seriously over the course of my career, and I think if life experiences taught me anything, it's, 'You know what? Enjoy life. Take it easy.'"
On feeling bullish about DISTURBED's future:
David: "I think that one of the beautiful things about DISTURBED and its development has been that it's always been this nice, gradual, upward climb. It's nice to be a part of something that's continuing to grow over the course of its lifetime. I really don't need too much else other than my family and my career, and I'm very, very blessed with both things."
DISTURBED — whose latest album, "Evolution", was released via Reprise in October of 2018 — recently released a music video for the song "Hold On To Memories". The clip was directed by Matt Mahurin, who previously helmed the video for the band's cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's "The Sound Of Silence".
In September, DISTURBED's song "No More" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs airplay chart. The track marked the group's seventh straight No. 1 on the chart, and tenth overall. Each of DISTURBED's last seven singles has reached No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Songs, a feat unmatched by any other artist.
