DISTURBED Frontman Reveals His Favorite OZZFEST Moment

Kevin C. Johnson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently spoke to DISTURBED frontman David Draiman about his band's participation in this year's Ozzfest. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On DISTURBED's first-ever Ozzfest gig, back in 2000, at 10 a.m. on the second stage:

"There were maybe 15 people in front of the stage, but we were appreciative. But by the end there were maybe 3,000. They piled in pretty fast."

On his favorite Ozzfest moment ever — involving none other than metal godfather, former reality TV star and Ozzfest founder, Ozzy Osbourne.

"About 25,000 people were crammed into an area meant for 10,000 [when DISTURBED headlined the second stage in 2001]. It became so chaotic they had to move us up to the main stage the next day. SLIPKNOT and MARILYN MANSON were to the right of me, and stage left was Ozzy, watching our entire set. We've been on four Ozzfests now and we've yet to see Ozzy watch (anyone else's) entire set. After the set he ran up to me and gave me a hug and told me how much he loved the band."

On bands he hates:

"I was a fan of the CURE and DEPECHE MODE, but these trendy, whiny guys from the mama's boys bands with the eye makeup and the Christian Dior clothing don't hold a candle to them. It's embarrassing. They've taken everything that's cool about rock and made it vanilla."

On the KILLERS' response to his statements:

"I never named anybody and I'm not going to. But they know who I'm talking about and I don't give a (expletive) if they respond or not. I'm not looking for a response from them or anybody else. We're big boys, and lots of people say negative things about us too."

On the state of metal/hard rock today:

"Rock was heavily populated by hard rock and metal five years ago, and now it's dominated by these (expletives). It's almost equivalent with what happened to hair metal when grunge came out. But at least grunge had value and depth."