David Draiman has spoken at length about his family history, his public positions and what both have meant for Disturbed, in an interview with Andrew Fox on “The Brink” podcast.
Asked directly how being Jewish has shaped his professional life, the singer began with his grandparents.
“Well, my mother’s side of the family, we’re a family of Holocaust survivors. My grandmother on my mother’s side was a survivor of Auschwitz, and my grandfather on my mother’s side was a survivor of Dachau. So, it’s meant a lot for all kinds of reasons, whether on my mother’s side, my father’s side, for a very long time. And in fact, we wrote a song called ‘Never Again‘. It’s one of our anthems. It’s something that every time… I’ve only been blessed to have played Israel twice, but every time we’ve played there, it’s one of the songs that absolutely must be played live. It’s a call to arms for our people. It’s a refusal to back down. It’s a refusal to cower in the face of adversity and in the face of the most dangerous bullies in existence. So, it’s been a part of who I am, and since I am, I would think, a significant part of the band, that it’s a part of who we are, truth be told, whether we like it or not. And believe me, in today’s environment it would be a lot easier to not have the association. It’s a burden to carry that a lot of people don’t realize,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He reached for a stage character to explain why he has not kept quiet.
“You’ve seen, I’m sure, or you’ve read the play or seen the play or seen the movie ‘Fiddler On The Roof’, yeah? Tevye, the character. There’s a breaking point for everybody, and I couldn’t bend far enough. I was required to bend too far to try and be vanilla, to try and ignore things,” he explained. “I can’t be the ostrich. I can’t put my head in the sand. I can’t pretend that the world isn’t on fire around me. I’m, like, ‘Oh, no, everything is fine.’ I’m not one of those people.”
Asked where the pressure came from, Draiman turned first to his bandmates and then to his child.
“Like I said, it would always be easier if you don’t have things that add to the friction of trying to move forward in an already questionable and uncertain road that there is for any artist in their development,” he continued. “But when you throw things like this into the equation, it turns into an entirely different animal. And, truth be told is, the greatest reservation and the greatest guilt that I carry isn’t even from my family regarding all of this. It’s for my brothers in the band who have to bear a burden that has really little to do with them other than the fact that I am their friend, and I appreciate immensely that they’ve been as supportive as they have been. And it hasn’t been easy, and there have been conversations.”
“It comes down to this. It comes down to my son. It comes down to, what do I tell my son?” Draiman added. “How do I tell him to navigate this world that we’re in? He’s got the best of both sides of ethnicities that right now in this world are some of the most hated. He’s part Asian and part Jewish. And so it’s a tough mix for the boy. And thank God where he is in school and in his environment, he’s a social dynamo and he thrives, thank God. But it’s important for me to impart to him that we do not cower. We do not cower to bullies, that we stand up for those who are weaker than us, that we have honor and integrity and all those things that unfortunately for so many this world are a lost art, are incredibly important to me and incredibly important for me to teach my son. And when I explained that to my guys in the band, I think they had a better understanding of it because on the outside, and unfortunately too many in the space, and this is gonna be something that probably many don’t like hearing and they’ve heard me say it before, and I really… I have the luxury at this point of my career and my life that to not really care if there’s backlash to me being truthful about something. And the truth is that too many view the defense of our people as a business, and too many try to profit off of it, and too many go ahead and enjoy having their backs patted in echo chambers everywhere and it reverberates and it leads to higher speaking fees and you name it, and it’s just insanity. I am a part of it to an extent, just to the extent that I will do it for absolutely nothing. I never ask for anything. And for me, it’s a detriment. It’s other people in the space that have kind of taken advantage of it and made it part of their persona and made it part of like… If you are blessed with a platform, if you are blessed to influence and be an influencer, you’re given a gift. Use it responsibly, use it honorably, use it without trying to self-enrich, without trying to take advantage of a situation that is dire. And I see a lot of people taking advantage, and they should be ashamed of themselves, with all due respect. I wish people were more centrally focused on the fight and on the defense of our people and less focused on themselves.”
Draiman‘s maternal grandparents survived Auschwitz and Dachau, and his grandfather went on to work as a cantor in Israel. His father and grandfather both served in the Israel Defense Forces. He trained as a cantor himself and at one point considered becoming a rabbi. He speaks Hebrew.
“Never Again” appeared on Disturbed‘s 2010 album Asylum.
Draiman has been among the most visible musicians speaking publicly about Israel since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. He has visited the country several times, met families of hostages, and posted videos in Hebrew.
He has also drawn criticism. In 2023 he signed an Israeli artillery shell with the words “F**k Hamas”, an act that was widely condemned by critics of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. He has said he does not regret it.
In the same podcast interview he spoke about Palestinian suffering, said he hopes for coexistence, and said he believes Israelis and Palestinians deserve a future that is not permanent war.
The part of the story Draiman returns to most often concerns a family he never met.
Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir were taken from Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Their bodies were returned in February 2025, and their funeral was held on February 26 at a cemetery near Moshav Tzohar in the Eshkol Regional Council.
Yarden Bibas, the husband and father, who had been released from captivity weeks earlier, chose three songs for the service. Zakk Wylde‘s “I Thank You Child” was dedicated to the children, Avenged Sevenfold‘s “Roman Sky” to his wife, and Disturbed‘s “Hold On To Memories” closed the ceremony.
Draiman posted a message to him afterwards. “Dear, dear Yarden. Shalom, achi,” he said. “I am so, so very sorry for your loss. All of Am Yisrael is crying with you today. Hold on to the memories of your family, hold on to the memories of your children, of your beloved wife—we all will. And as long as we hold onto them in our memory, they’ll stay there.”
He later described his reaction to being told the song would be used. “I was absolutely blown away that it would even be considered for something like that. You know, ‘Hold On To Memories‘, that’s precisely the type of thing that was written for.”
The two men met in Tel Aviv in the summer of 2025.
Draiman appeared at Black Sabbath‘s farewell concert at Villa Park in July 2025, where some of the crowd booed him over his public positions. He later told The Jerusalem Post that the reaction had been overstated.
“The press exaggerated the boos. There was a bit of it walking out there, but I still had the crowd pumping fists, clapping hands and singing along,” he said.
Disturbed are Draiman, guitarist and keyboard player Dan Donegan, bassist John Moyer and drummer Mike Wengren.
