DAN DONEGAN Names His Favorite DISTURBED Song, Offers Advice To Aspiring Artists

DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan was recently asked by GHS Strings if he had a favorite DISTURBED album or song. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's so many, for so many reasons, 'cause everything we write is always so personal. We've probably written close to a couple of hundred songs over our career. But if I'm gonna narrow it down, which I normally don't do, but certain ones, like a song called 'The Light', it's just something that's… A lot of times we like to take darker subject matter and spin a positive outcome on it, for encouragement and empowerment and just a reminder that we all go through different things in our lives. We all go through tough times and struggles, whether it be depression or addiction or sadness or losing a loved one or going through a breakup or having a rough time at work or at school or whatever you're going through, and just trying to have a positive outcome to be able to fight through those tough times. So 'The Light' always sends a positive message. The big catchphrase in that song is 'sometimes darkness can show you the light.' Sometimes you need those dark times in life to be able to dig deep, find that strength to find the light again, to be able to power through it and get through it."

As for what piece of advice he would give to aspiring artists, Dan said:  "There's no boundaries. There's no boundaries in music. You should just keep an open mind. Do what sounds good to you. Do what feels good to you. For me, the guitar is an extension of who I am and how I feel. And don't worry — don't chase things, what you think other people wanna hear, and don't chase trends, and just write naturally. Always just keep on trying to write and express yourself. And that's all I ever wanted to do; it was just another way to express myself. Because I was kind of a quiet kid, it was an escape for me, and it just allowed me to express myself how I was feeling. If I felt aggression or I felt like writing a heavier riff or I felt just more somber and just moody and vibey… Just don't second guess yourself. A lot of times your first instincts are sometimes the best ones. Even [in] our early days as a local band, writing and doing demos for the first time, when we were trying to recreate that, when we got a record deal and we were doing our first album, 'The Sickness', we were trying to recreate the demos, and there was something just very raw and natural about the demos, because it was just first instinct. So we actually lifted some of the tracks off the demo, and those were the keeper tracks for the album, because there was a rawness to it; there was something that was captured in that moment, It's always hard to try to recreate something when the first time was [when] the magic happened. So I'd say just keep an open mind and just do what feels good to you."

This past October, DISTURBED announced the 34-date "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour", which will kick off in Nampa, Idaho on February 25, 2025 and is produced by Live Nation. The tour celebrates 25 years of DISTURBED's seminal debut album which launched the band into public consciousness and is one of the most important and influential heavy metal albums of all time. Each night will feature two sets of music, opening with DISTURBED playing the five times platinum "The Sickness" in full, followed by a full set of greatest hits. The first half of the tour will feature support from special guests THREE DAYS GRACE, featuring the return of original singer Adam Gontier, and opener SEVENDUST, and the second half will feature special guests DAUGHTRY with opener NOTHING MORE.

Since "The Sickness" was released in 2000, the album was certified five times platinum by the RIAA, spent a total of 106 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart, and Revolver named it one of "Top 25 Debut Hard Rock Albums." Billboard said of the title track upon release: "'Down With The Sickness' is, of course, the quintessential DISTURBED song, harnessing all the band's seethe and its now-famous tribal beat and guitar chug into three and a half minutes of alt-metal mayhem. It's menacing, it's rhythmic, it's rebellious."

Emerging out of Chicago at the turn of the century with an insidious, infectious, and inimitable vision without comparison, DISTURBED have quietly dominated hard rock on their own terms. They make the kind of music that pushes you to hold on tighter, fight harder, and persevere forever. It's why they've claimed a place at the forefront of 21st century rock with record-breaking success, sales of over 17 million-plus units, nearly 8 billion streams, and sold out shows around the globe. The band have six RIAA album certifications, and singles from all eight albums have reached the top ten of the Mainstream Rock chart.

The two-time Grammy Award-nominated quartet have notched five consecutive #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 for "Believe", "Ten Thousand Fists", "Indestructible" and "Asylum", occupying rarified air alongside METALLICA — the only other hard rock group to accomplish this feat. Since their influential five-times-platinum debut "The Sickness" in 2000, they have built a bulletproof catalog highlighted by a procession of smashes, including the platinum "Stupify", "Inside The Fire" and "Land of Confusion", two-times-platinum "Stricken", six-times-platinum "Down With The Sickness" and seven-times-platinum "The Sound Of Silence", to name a few. The latter notably received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of "Best Rock Performance" as the band earned "Best Rock Artist" at the 2017 iHeartRadioMusic Awards. Still, DISTURBED never stop, and their most recent 2022 album "Divisive" featured their 17th No. 1 at Rock Radio "Hey You", "Unstoppable" and more.