In case you missed it, American heavy metal band Disturbed is coming to Israel. And the Jerusalem Post has published an entire article around the fact that the band released a video showing leader singer David Draiman speaking in Hebrew.
https://www.facebook.com/Disturbed/videos/612302479271974/
Disturbed, the best selling American hard rock / heavy metal band, promoted their debut in Israel in a video message in Hebrew.
Lead singer David Draiman, who is of Jewish heritage, spoke in Hebrew on a video message on the group’s Facebook page. “Shalom, we are Disturbed and we will be at Rishon Lezion’s Live Park on July 2nd.”
Although he has visited the country in the past, this is the first Disturbed concert in the Jewish state.
Formed in 1994, the band has released seven studio albums, and is probably best known in mainstream rock circles for their 2015 cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence.”
The 44-year-old Draiman, who was on a career path to become a rabbi before secular music changed his direction, has long been a staunch defender of Israel. In a 2011 interview with The Jerusalem Post while vacationing in the country, he claims to have close to 200 relatives in the country, including his Jerusalem-based brother Ben Draiman, also a musician.
Draiman wrote a song on the band’s 2010 album Asylum called “Never Again,” directed at Holocaust deniers and antisemitism.
“I never pull any punches and I will never apologize for who I am or where I come from,” Draiman told the Post.
David is a friend of mine and a huge supporter of Israel (who has even written a guest post here) so while it is great the Post is clearly excited about David’s Hebrew proficiency, Israel support, and Disturbed’s upcoming concert, I feel the need to correct a few things.
Firstly, while their rendition of The Sound of Silence is truly epic (with over half a billion views on YouTube alone!), to imply this is their claim to fame takes away from their other impressive achievements. Among them: 17 million records sold, 2 Grammy nominations, 12 #1 singles, and 5 back to back #1 Billboard 200 debuts. Not too shabby!
Secondly (and perhaps I am reading into it), mentioning “Although he has visited the country in the past, this is the first Disturbed concert in the Jewish state” seems almost like a chastisement. Plus David did not “just” visit a few times – he has spent a significant amount of time here, including a stint learning in Yeshiva (Jewish seminary). So the reason for not having performed here until now is purely logistical in nature, and not borne out of some lack of desire to do so.
As I mentioned, David is a huge Israel advocate – which cannot be easy when you are a high profile person in the entertainment industry. And he was actually one of the first entertainers to go after the vile Roger Waters:
Jewish heavy metal rocker David Draiman asked his 120,000 plus Twitter followers to condemn British rock musician and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters and his latest stunt, after the musician released a giant pig shaped balloon emblazoned with a Star of David into the sky at a July 18th concert in Belgium, as reported by The Algemeiner yesterday.
On Twitter, posting a link to The Algemeiner’s article, Draiman wrote: “I URGE ALL MY FOLLOWERS COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS TO CONDEMN ROGER WATERS’ FLAGRANT DISPLAY OF ANTI-SEMITISM. RT.” He also Tweeted: “ROGER WATERS…ANTI SEMITE.”
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In Thursday’s emotion-filled Twitter-sphere, Draiman went on to engage Twitter users who challenged his comments. “Seriously its not anti-Semitism he’s against the actions of the state nit the religion or the people as a whole,” wrote user Curtis Deck.
“HE CAN GO F*** HIMSELF. THE STAR OF DAVID IS A JEWISH SYMBOL. HE DIDN’T PUT THE ISRAELI FLAG ON THERE (WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN–JUST AS OFFENSIVE) HE PUT A STAR OF DAVID. HITLER USED A STAR OF DAVID TO IDENTIFY JEWISH PRISONERS. THERE’S NO MISTAKING–HIS INTENTIONS,” Draiman wrote in three separate tweets.
“You guys could be right but I’m not sure that the crowd he draws cares, or even understands anti-Semitism. Ignorance abounds,” wrote user Jack Durrell, to which Draiman responded, “HIS CROWD IS DIVERSE AND HUGE AND THEY SHOULD CARE.”
So there are plenty of reasons for Israelis to be excited about Disturbed’s July concert. I am certainly looking forward to it.
And David: keep on rocking!
