Disturbed frontman on state of rock music: "We're gonna keep roaring back"
Gene Simmons of Kiss put himself in some hot water recently when he asserted that rock music is dead. We've seen a good handful of musicians refute this claim in the weeks since, and now, Disturbed's David Draiman has weighed in on the state of rock and roll.
Read more: Disturbed announce North American tour for spring 2016
Speaking with Loudwire, Draiman comments:
“People make their own destinies. And I'm so sick and tired of hearing from people — whether it's Gene or anybody else… And I respect Gene; don't get me wrong. 'Destroyer' was the first rock record I ever bought. I'm a huge KISS fan. I appreciate his business acumen. But when you continually try to cut the head off the very thing that gives you life, what the hell are you doing? I don't think rock is dead by any means. And if we have anything to do with it, we're going to pump life support into this thing as much as possible. Which I don't even think it needs; I don't think it's on life support. I've said in other articles… If you want, I'll forward you a link. The Spotify report that was just put out recently that shows hard rock and heavy metal fans to be the most dedicated, the most involved fan base on the entire streaming network. The fact that metal is actually at the top of those genres and that we're at the top of 'Alt Metal.' The fact that if you look at global touring proceeds and global touring draws, hard rock and heavy metal festivals and tours are still outdrawing every single other genre on the planet. It doesn't look dead to me. It's just a very tasty little press snippet. 'Oh, let's go ahead and bring up the old notion that rock is dead. Rock is dead. Rock is…' Nothing is over until we say it is. And there's always going to be a fan base out there that has a desire for more aggressive music, darker music, something that they can sink their teeth into, a little bit more satisfying. That's never going to go away. No matter how much the naysayers want to go ahead and try and beat it into submission, we're gonna keep roaring back.”
Who do you side with? Let us know what you think about the state of rock music.
