DISTURBED Frontman Working On Autobiography

DISTURBED frontman David Draiman has revealed via Twitter that he has written the first three chapters of his forthcoming autobiography. According to the singer, the book's release will coincide with the arrival of the debut album from DEVICE, his new industrial-style collaboration with former FILTER guitarist Geno Lenardo.

In January 2011, Draiman gave a lengthy interview to the Jerusalem Post in which he spoke in detail about his Jewish upbringing, spending part of his childhood and teen years in Israel, and how he confronts anti-Semitism among rock fans. Draiman recalled, "I came (to Israel) many times as a kid with my family. I think the first time I was six. I used to come here for summer camp a couple times in my childhood, and I spent the year after high school here studying at Neve Zion yeshiva."

Draiman told The Pulse Of Radio that during his year of religious study, his life could have taken a very different course. "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," he said. "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."

Draiman also told the Jerusalem Post that he attended five different Jewish day schools as a teenager, including the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee — where he was asked to leave after the first year.

The singer admitted that the strict religious code at the school led him to rebel, revealing, "I'd set my friends up on dates with girls that I knew, in defiance of the school . . . Or I'd smoke a little bit of weed here and there, I'd get my buddies high, so I was the drug dealer on campus even though that's not what I was doing."

Asked by the Post about running into heavy metal fans who are anti-Semitic or sometimes even neo-Nazis, Draiman replied, "I'm incredibly defiant against neo-Nazis and skinheads," adding that he convinced one fan who used to come to the band's early shows in Chicago to get a swastika tattoo removed from his head after he learned that Draiman was Jewish.

A song called "Never Again" on DISTURBED's latest album, "Asylum", deals with the Holocaust and calls out people who deny it.

DISTURBED went on an open-ended hiatus last fall, with Draiman saying at the time that all four members wanted some time to pursue other endeavors. "We've got other things that each of the band members wanted to pursue individually, outside of DISTURBED," he said. "There's other businesses we have, there's other interests. We've got futures hopefully to help cultivate for our families and our children, and they can't all revolve specifically around DISTURBED."

DISTURBED has not indicated when it plans to return, although all four members say they're likely to come back.

Aside from Draiman, DISTURBED bassist John Moyer has branched out recently by joining ADRENALINE MOB, a new group also featuring ex-DREAM THEATER and AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer Mike Portnoy.