DISTURBED Frontman Talks About Upcoming 'Music As A Weapon' Tour

Rick Florino of ARTISTdirect recently conducted an interview with DISTURBED frontman David Draiman. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect: Where did the idea for [the 'Music As A Weapon V'] tour [with KORN] come from?

Draiman: We talked about it the last time we saw the guys, and everybody thought it was a good idea. Nowadays, it's even more important to unite strengths and join forces to give the fans a little bit more for their money. In a troubled economy and taxed touring environment, you've got to pony up. We tried to assemble the strongest bill that we possibly could. We had no issues co-headlining with a band as fantastic and great as KORN. Certainly having SEVENDUST and IN THIS MOMENT added to the bill really helps round it out very powerfully. We're really looking forward to this tour.

ARTISTdirect: It's a reunion for you and KORN since the Pop Sux Tour in 2002.

Draiman: We've also done an Ozzfest together; we're old friends. There's a huge amount of mutual respect and admiration. Jonathan [Davis, KORN singer] is an influence of mine and a source of inspiration as vocalist. Hell, when that first KORN record came out, it was one of the reasons that I felt compelled to delve into the world of metal again. They're a huge source of inspiration, and we couldn't be more honored to be sharing the stage with them. There's a great camaraderie between us.

ARTISTdirect: Will you go deeper into [the new DISTURBED album] "Asylum" on this tour?

Draiman: We can't go that much deeper unfortunately because our set is only 60 or 65 minutes [Laughs]. We are going to put in at least another new song or two, which means we're going to have to end up sacrificing one of the classics. It's a really good problem to have though [Laughs]. Which one of our eight number one singles do we leave out of the set in order to put in some new material? [Laughs] We never wanted to be one of those bands that tours and exclusively plays new material. I know that as a fan of other bands I'm always disappointed when I don't get to hear the classics or the old hits. It's really a delicate balance you need to achieve.

ARTISTdirect: Are you expanding the stage set from Uproar for this tour?

Draiman: That would be really hard to do [Laughs]. We're hoping to maintain it. Uproar was about as big as we've ever gotten. As far as what's been developed more with our video three-dimensionally staggered monolithic video wall we've constructed, we have some additional pieces we're hoping to display that the crowd did not get to see on Uproar. That comes in the form of some of the new pieces of music. There are no pieces of footage comprised for it. As far as expanding beyond that, that's kind of impossible within the confines of what we've got. Fans are definitely going to get the ultra-big rock show experience. There's no doubt about that.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.