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00:00Hey everybody, Brent Porsche for 93.3 WMMR. We're backstage at the Wells Fargo Center and joining
00:04me now are the co-founders of the band Disturbed on drums, Mr. Mike Wengren and on guitar, Mr. Dan
00:09Donegan. Hello guys. What's up man? How you doing? Good man, welcome back to Philadelphia. Thanks for
00:14taking some time to chat with us here at MMR. Absolutely, thank you. Yeah, right on. So last
00:18time actually you and I talked, Dan, was at the MMR-BQ a couple of years ago. We were backstage
00:21chatting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, 25th anniversary of The Sickness. We're celebrating,
00:26we're here in Philadelphia. How's the tour been so far? Obviously, we're only a couple
00:29days into the second leg of this tour. How's it been so far? It's been amazing. Just a great
00:34lineup. This is a, this run now that we have Daughtry and nothing more on it is only our
00:40third show into it, right? Yeah. I think it's three. Yeah. 15, maybe? Yeah, I think that's
00:45right. So we did that first run, you know, with Seven Dust and Three Days Grace. It was
00:50awesome. Great. All these bands are great. Great friends of ours and just been a lot of fun.
00:55And it's been fun for us to go back and play the, you know, everything off The Sickness
00:58album, which we haven't really done in its entirety since we had the, that was the only
01:04album we had at the time. So it's, it's been nice to kind of go back and relearn these songs
01:08that we haven't played in, or most of them that we haven't played in a long time and just
01:12kind of go back into that headspace, you know, playing that whole set and remembering those
01:17times. Yeah, absolutely. And this is actually your first kind of real big tour in like over
01:21a year or so, isn't it? Well, we did a big one last year with, we had Falling in Reverse
01:25out with us and the girls from Plush, which was, you know, early last year. Yeah. But yeah,
01:31since then it was just a bunch of these festivals throughout that we kind of build around. But
01:36knowing that we had this 25th anniversary, you know, planned to come out and do something
01:41big with it. So yeah, it's been, been great so far. And we got plans to bring this over
01:46to Europe as well in the fall. Yeah. You said it was fun kind of reacclimating yourself with
01:50some of these songs. I mean, songs like Conflict. I mean, you haven't played that in 15, 20 years
01:56something. I think it was like 2003 or something like that was the last time you guys played
01:59that one live. I don't remember exactly when we played it, but it's been a long, long frigging
02:03time. Yeah, for sure. First time in close to a decade and a half that you guys are playing
02:08Shout 2002, which I know the crowd really digs as well. You know better than us than
02:13apparently you did your homework. We're taking your word for it. But yeah, it's been a while.
02:17Yeah. Yeah. I was scoping out some of the set lists. I mean, getting excited because of course
02:20you're going to be playing The Sickness in its entirety. We're going to have the little bit
02:23of an intermission and then the greatest hits set to follow. What does the album The Sickness
02:29mean to you 25 years later? I want to hear an answer from both of you. Dan, you can go first.
02:33Um, it's, uh, you know, I just at that time, just going back in that mindset of in the 90s
02:40when we were just this local band out of Chicago on south suburbs and didn't, you know, we just
02:46wrote these songs for ourselves. You know, we wrote them, they were therapeutic to us.
02:49We didn't write them for the sake of thinking that they would ever be played on radio because
02:55all we had to base it off of back then was our own hometown, which didn't really at the
02:59time play hard rock or metal bands. So, um, so we weren't chasing nothing. We were just
03:05doing this for us. You know, we found our sound. Once we finally had, uh, David in the band
03:10and we were just really all of our influences individually. Um, a lot of things we had in
03:15common, a lot of bands were in common, but then there were other things that we were also
03:18into that were slightly different. But when you put us all in the room together and those
03:22influences come out of all of us and we just improvised and, you know, we just developed
03:27a sound and it was just coming together. And, and it was just a great time to make that,
03:31that album perfect timing for us. And I know it was this new metal, you know, label that they
03:38were thrown on all those bands. Cause we came out at that time, as much as we don't like labels,
03:42you know, we, whatever, we rode that wave with everybody else. There were a lot of great bands
03:46that came out at that time. We made a lot of great friendships on the, on the road. And,
03:50you know, we're just very fortunate to here we are 25 years later and people still want to hear those
03:55songs. Sure. And of course, over 5 million records sold later, a little bit more than that for that.
03:59Very cool. How about you, Mike? It's just, uh, one of the cool things is, is someone,
04:05so many of our fans, I mean, we have such a loyal, dedicated fan base. Um, we've got to know a lot
04:10of them throughout the years and they're still coming back and now they bring their, their kids,
04:15you know? So it's this, to see the multi-generational span has been pretty amazing too.
04:19We were interviewing, uh, some of the family and kids and have stuff up at our live broadcast
04:23tonight. And you'd be surprised the number of retro disturbed shirts, you know, going back 25 years
04:28almost towards the sickness, man, it's crazy. Yeah. That's awesome. Cause back in the day when,
04:32when we were just starting out and we were driving ourselves in an RV and pulling a trailer and we
04:38were selling our merch, we were after the shows, pulling the merch out of the trailer and, uh,
04:42set up our own merch table and just like any band, it's starting out. And so to see, yeah,
04:47to see some of that merch that existed back then, it's pretty cool to see who was there from the
04:52beginning. Right. Yeah, sure. So if you could go back in time, what advice or knowledge would you
04:56now give yourself 25 years ago, uh, as you were going into the sickness,
05:04if you ran into stay on the path. Yeah. Okay. How about you, Dan?
05:08Well, definitely we never, you know, that's, that's the whole thing. I actually, I don't need
05:13to show you, but I have a tattoo on my arm kind of representing that too. It just, uh, you know,
05:18sometimes that path in life is going to be twisting and turning and you're going to veer off the road and
05:22you're going to get some bumps and bruises along the way, but you know, we stayed focused and we
05:27kept fighting and clawing our way to that top of that mountain. And we kept, I'm sounding like
05:32Tony Robbins or something like inspirational speech, but yeah, we've, we've always, we've never
05:36lost focus on just moving forward. And, and all those days of playing clubs to very little to
05:43nobody. And, you know, we're starting over in every market that we went to all these cities,
05:47we go and you're a brand new band. You had to prove yourself. So we just kept working
05:51and we had this attitude without sounding, uh, arrogant about it. We had this attitude of
05:57try to give the appearance that we're, we're an arena rock band. They just happened to be seeing
06:01us in a club at the moment. You know, we try to put on a show. We, we strive for that attention.
06:06And a lot of that back in those days, we were doing more of the theatrics like you'll see tonight.
06:10We kind of brought that back, uh, to this show too, for the anniversary tour. But a lot of back in
06:15the day when we would do the electric chair and straightjack and all these things, it was just to,
06:20you know, for a little bit of shock value to grab people's attention. And we were doing that as a
06:25local band, you know, and we were, instead of just being a regular bar band, just playing in the
06:29background, you know, that wasn't good enough for us. We wanted attention. So we would, you know,
06:34just do little things like that to try to, to engage with them.
06:37Is there a show early on going back 25 plus years that you remember playing that was either a total
06:42disaster or that you were on a bill with another band or artists that like you didn't belong or it didn't
06:48quite mesh together, but still somehow worked maybe?
06:50Well, I mean, going back to the very first tour we ever got in 2000, I mean, the only thing we could
06:56get, we, we were nobody, nobody ever heard of us was the Danzig tour. And the bill was Danzig is the
07:02headliners and, uh, hate breed and six feet under and disturbed. Those guys are all great musicians,
07:10great bands, but we didn't necessarily fit. I mean, we came, became friends with those guys pretty good.
07:15But, uh, um, I mean, as far as like being the oddball, but you know what, it was amazing for
07:21us because we were just excited to be on tour. We were grateful to, to have a tour and be in an RV
07:27and, and be just be playing music. We were, we, we felt like we made it. Hey, we're on tour now.
07:32Like it was, it was the best.
07:33So I was thinking like one of Jimi Hendrix early shows, he was like opening for like
07:36Engelbert Humperdinck or something like that. It's just like totally off the wall kind of in comparison.
07:40And I wasn't sure if maybe you guys played a weird ass show with somebody.
07:43Yeah. I mean, the, the, the benefit to that is, you know, we, we were jumping into the fire in
07:47front of a fan base of, like Mike said, with, with Danzig fans and hate breed and six feet under that
07:53weren't necessarily, uh, you know, you know, we're, we're the only band on the bill who had a single
07:58at, at radio, you know, we were more commercial obviously than, than them. And, but it, it made us
08:04rise to the challenge. We knew we had, we had to earn those fans, those, we had to convert them
08:08into quick fan, you know, fans, um, um, it's either sink or swim, you know, so it was the, the,
08:14we always like a challenge. Yeah. Um, so anytime we go out, you know, it just, you know, that's the
08:20thing you got to step up and, and hopefully you can win some people over. Yeah. Well, you mentioned
08:24fire. So that was my next question. Cause, uh, of course you guys love your pyro up on stage,
08:29very famous for your very hot pyro. Um, in fact, uh, it was last year, two years ago,
08:35you played Camden across the way here. You probably remember during inside the fire,
08:39last song of the night, you guys set the sprinkler system off at the venue. I mean,
08:43obviously your pyro is out of control. Awesome. And I absolutely love it. But at first I thought
08:49that the, the, the rain coming down the sprinkler, I thought that was part of the show. Cause it's like,
08:52all right, you warmed us up and now you're cooling us off. And then once I saw like your roadies and
08:56people coming out, dropping, uh, tarps and plastic bags over the pedal boards and stuff like that,
09:01I'm like, Nope. And then of course, David said, oops, we did it again. You know, but of course,
09:05most famously or more famously over the past couple of weeks, you were in your hometown of Chicago
09:10and you kind of, uh, toasted marshmallow, the Chicago bulls banners up there. And, uh, just curious,
09:16was there any kind of fallout from that? Did you hear from, you know, the Chicago bulls faithful or
09:21whoever? What's that? Fake news. Except for the videos that were up online and everything. Yeah. I mean,
09:27we haven't no financial fallback just yet. I don't know if anything's going to happen,
09:33whatever. It is what it is. They, they ran with the headline and go ahead and talk about it. If you
09:37want to talk about, I don't think it was as bad as they made it out to be, but you know,
09:42I'm also personally, I think we're okay with it. If there was damage, we got to pay for it.
09:46Then give us the old banners and I'll take those burnt ones, right? There's probably more value into
09:52those than it would be with the replicas. So send us the bill and give us the banners.
09:56Well, that's what I was thinking because I kind of grew up through the era of Michael Jordan and
10:00all of those championships. And I was warning if it was those particular banners that saw the,
10:05the wrath of you guys up there. Well, you know, we have so many damn flags up in Chicago. I don't
10:09know. We, I know you guys got your, your Eagles got it for the Superbowl this year, but you know,
10:14in our arenas, you know, between the Blackhawks era and the bulls, you know, we got quite a few
10:19flags up there, so they should have known better. Well, whatever you do,
10:23don't stop the pyrotechnics. It's awesome. I love it. So let's talk new music. Of course,
10:28the new song, I will not break. Did you guys know is number one?
10:32That's the word this week, number one, the top of the charts. So I guess within the past couple of
10:36days. So congratulations, man. That's pretty cool. Appreciate it. Another number one. I mean,
10:40do you know how many guys have now at the moment? Are you like over 20 yet?
10:43I think that made 19. 19? Yeah. Well, congratulations. Much deserved. It's a killer
10:48song. How far along, I mean, I'm assuming this is going to be on album number nine,
10:52which you guys are, I'm assuming working on at the moment. Anything that you can kind of let us know
10:56about it? We have a bunch of stuff recorded. There was, there's, we haven't made a game plan just yet,
11:02because the whole focus has been on this anniversary tour. So in the fall, we went out to LA. We just started
11:07writing, working on material. It started coming out quickly. And, and, you know, we were all on
11:12the same page, just rolling with it and made a lot of progress. And we, and then we said, Hey,
11:16let's get this first single out first. And, but let's keep the focus on the anniversary tour.
11:22And we'll, we'll get a game plan when the, when those discussions need to happen, um, probably sooner
11:26than later. But, you know, there's definitely stuff that's ready to go. Are you one of those bands
11:30that likes to work on it while you're on the road or you kind of compartmentalize and do one, you know,
11:35you're off the road, you work on the new stuff or you're in the studio. And while you're on the
11:38road, it's just focusing on being on tour. There's way too many distractions on the road.
11:42Um, way too many other things, you know, we like to focus, we like to be very focused,
11:47one track minded. I mean, obviously like there's always plenty of stuff in the back of our heads,
11:51but show day is all about prepping for the show and making sure we're ready to deliver the best show
11:55we can. And then same thing when it's, it's nice to be able to be sort of sequestered in a room
12:01in the studio and be able to focus on the music with, you know, not a lot of outside distractions.
12:06Sure. We just like to, you know, that's the best way we like to work.
12:09Have you guys lined up a producer yet for it? Uh, yeah, I mean, we worked with Drew Falk,
12:14who we did the last album with and Drew's been on fire himself as a producer. He's been killing it
12:20out there. I think he's got, what did I say the other day? Like out of the top 10 songs on actor rock,
12:25he's got, yeah, he's got almost half the chart there of the top 10 between the Papa Roach track
12:33and I think wage war track and our track and who else was on there and he does nothing more track.
12:39Yeah. So he's, he's got a lot in the top. He's just great. So last time we spoke, Dan was right
12:44around when divisive, I think you guys were still working on it. And, um, at the barbecue,
12:49we were talking about how, uh, David, um, uh, pushed or published the picture
12:54of the track listing up online. And you said like, he likes to get excited and
12:58kind of jumped the gun a little to jump the gun. We noticed none of that this time.
13:02No, we, we appreciate the enthusiasm as we all get excited about it. But you know,
13:06sometimes you gotta pull back on the reins and say, easy boy, right? Not, not just yet.
13:11You can't give away everything, you know? Right. I mean, if it was up to him,
13:14he would be playing the demos, you know, like I said, I get, I'd rather have him be excited
13:19about the material, but you got to say, Hey, you know, we got to save some surprises here.
13:24Exactly. Right on. Right on. Uh, so you guys disturbed has recorded a number of cover songs
13:28on their albums over the years, of course, shout from the sickness, for example,
13:30how do you guys collectively decide on what particular songs, especially when it comes to
13:34the covers? When it came to shout in the beginning, we were doing that before we had the record deal too.
13:39And at, at the time when you're playing the bar scene, obviously a lot of owners want you to play
13:45cover songs because that's what brings people in the door for neighborhood bars and that.
13:50And, you know, so we had about half and half of originals and, and covers. And then we just thought
13:55we'd take on the challenge of, you know, taking a song like shout and we'd liked it, you know, lyrically,
14:01we liked the message and we thought that musically we could put our stamp on it, still pay our respect
14:07to the original version, but, uh, be able to, you know, add a little bit more aggro to it,
14:13a little bit more chunk to it. And, and, um, I think we've just throughout our career,
14:19even though we don't do it for every album, but the covers we've done throughout the years,
14:22it's always just in that moment, if we feel like taking on that challenge again of trying
14:26to find that song that, you know, for, for me personally, I like looking for, okay,
14:30the lyrical message, if it's something that typically fits within something we would sing about,
14:35and then it doesn't give us enough freedom, you know, musically, if it's too much of a signature
14:42riff, like stairway to heaven or something where I, what am I going to change that guitar part?
14:47Probably not. Right. I'd have to take a completely different approach on it and maybe not do that.
14:52So some things, you know, I, I hesitate on, I wouldn't say we would never do it,
14:56but it would take a lot more thought on it. But then, you know, for example, when we did sound of silence,
15:01we took, we went completely the opposite of it, you know. And I don't think that guitar part was
15:06really a signature guitar part, with all due respect, it was an amazing song, that's why we did it,
15:11and great lyrics, but it wasn't a signature enough guitar performance on it, you know,
15:16it was just kind of straight through, and, but it gave the freedom to give a, give a different
15:21interpretation of it, you know. So it's just always that, trying to find that song that's going to push us
15:26musically and creatively and just really take some chances.
15:30I'm sure, uh, Disturbed overall has a massive vault of songs that haven't seen the light of day
15:35yet. Now, as far as covers are concerned, are there any that are recorded already, or that you have
15:39in a vault that you would like to see either just come out on, whether it be a compilation or something
15:44that you're proud of, that you recorded from any span over the, over the course of your career with
15:48the Disturbed?
15:52I think, I think most of the stuff that we've recorded, especially cover-wise, has been released
15:56at some point now. Yeah, I mean, the Faith No More one, I mean, that was released on what, the
16:03Lost Children one, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, when we released a B-side album called the Lost Children,
16:09we did the Faith No More track that we did way back in the beginning of our career.
16:15And that one wasn't really, we didn't stray far off, because at the time when we did that song,
16:20we were big Faith No More fans, but we were asked at the time there was going to potentially be a
16:24tribute album that was going to come out. And, you know, so it was more or less trying to stay true
16:30to its form. And we just went in the studio one day, tracked it, and then had it in our back pocket.
16:35And obviously that album never happened for them or whoever was putting it together, so we just
16:41released it on the B-side album. But as far as other covers, I think, I think everything has been out
16:46there one way or another. Maybe we didn't push them or promote them, we just released it. So I
16:52think if people search for it, they're out there. You know, we did the U2 song, and we did...
16:58Which one from U2?
17:00Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Oh, nice. Okay.
17:02And we did the Sting one, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You. Oh, wow.
17:08And we put that one out. We didn't work it as a single, but we put it out during COVID, because
17:13nobody knew what the hell was going on in the world and what was going to happen.
17:16And we're all sitting at home for almost two years. So we released that just as a bonus track.
17:22Yeah. Is there anything on your bucket list that you would like to maybe record down the
17:26line here, as far as the cover is concerned? We're pretty particular about making sure,
17:31like all the factors and characteristics that Dan described. So, I mean, we're always tossing
17:37ideas around, but nothing has really jumped out just yet. But I mean, we're always talking about it.
17:43Yeah. I think maybe we overthink it sometimes, because that's why we, you know,
17:49we've gone years in between where we don't do anything at all, because it's hard to pick that
17:55one, that right one, because we're trying to, you know, we're perfectionists, and we're trying to
17:58master, and we're trying to put our stamp on it. And like I said, and pay respect to that original
18:04version. But I think anything's possible. We're open to anything. I don't care what genre of music it is.
18:11You know, I mean, that's, that's the thing. If we could put our, if we're up for that challenge
18:15again, you know, it's always fun to create and see what happens.
18:19Well, you guys have such a vast taste when it comes to your music. Actually,
18:23last time around when you guys were in Camden, I was hanging out on your tour bus for a little bit
18:27after the show. And you guys kind of, I guess, warm up for your show and unwind after the show
18:33with like a Yacht Rock playlist. I mean, you guys were jamming to Hall & Oates and all sorts of stuff,
18:37and dancing on the bus and singing and stuff. And it's like, these guys just kicked the
18:41shit out of the Camden and, you know, rockers. And here they are, you know, winding down with
18:45some Hall & Oates and stuff like that. So, you know, we, we, we listen to everything. And there's
18:49times, I mean, a lot of times on our playlist before the show, our go-to song for a while was
18:55Lamb of God, Redneck, you know, because that just gets the blood flowing and the riff and the aggression
18:59and that. But yeah, we, we're definitely fans of the Yacht Rock stuff too. I mean,
19:03classic rock stuff, you can't, can't go wrong. So we got, you know, quite the taste in music all
19:09around. I saw Moyer's warmup video with Britney Spears the other night. He posted up on his socials.
19:14He was warming up, jamming some bass line for Britney. Okay. Well, he is a bass player. He's in a
19:18different world than that. I'm kidding. I'm busting his chops because he's not even here to defend himself.
19:23Yeah. Dude, we're so excited for you guys tonight. Obviously, Disturbed is going to rock the house
19:27here in Philadelphia. Your first time back through Philadelphia proper and in a little while. So
19:31we're happy to have you. Of course, nothing more. And Daughtry on the bill as well. You have a hell
19:35of a 2025 ahead of you. Mike, Dan, I mean, 25th anniversary of the sickness. First and foremost,
19:41of course, as you mentioned, Dan, you got the European tour coming up. Well, basically,
19:45you wrap the North American tour like May-ish, you take a little bit of time for the summer and then you
19:49come back and then you do the big European tour towards the tail end of the year. But of course,
19:53we also know that there's going to be new music on the way and we're very stoked for you guys.
19:57You guys got a hell of a year ahead of you. Yeah, I appreciate it. And thanks for your support
20:01all these years. Appreciate it. But first, you must melt some faces here in Philadelphia.
20:04Hopefully not the few banners that we have up in the ceiling. Dan Donaghan, Mike Wingren from
20:08Disturbed. Thank you so much, guys. Really appreciate it. Thanks, buddy.