DISTURBED Announces Winner Of Fan Contest To Sing Duet With Band At LOUDER THAN LIFE

ALT 105.1 and The Fox Den, in partnership with Q Prime, Danny Wimmer Presents and DISTURBED, have selected Katelyn Webb from Louisville, Kentucky to join DISTURBED on stage at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville this September to fill in for the great Ann Wilson to sing the duet of "Don't Tell Me".

Katelyn was hand-picked by DISTURBED through all the submissions, and ALT 105.1 was able to surprise her with the news in person in the studio. In addition, five runner-up winners won a pair of general admission Saturday passes for Louder Than Life and a meet-and-greet with DISTURBED.

"As one of the biggest rock bands in the world, at North America's largest rock festival, duetting a No. 1 rock song, giving a fan the chance to showcase their talent on the main stage is an experience like no other that we’re proud to partner on and host for Louder Than Life," said ALT 105.1 content director Phil "PK" Kukawinski.

ALT 105.1 looks forward to seeing Katelyn join DISTURBED on stage at Louder Than Life on September 28, and sends a special shout-out to everyone who submitted for this once-in-a-lifetime contest to perform at one of America's biggest rock festivals.

In a recent interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan spoke about what it was like to have Wilson join his band on stage for the first time at the Welcome To Rockville festival on May 9 in Daytona Beach, Florida to perform "Don't Tell Me". He said: "It was like a dream sequence. The little kid in me was freaking out to see her up on stage with us. And, obviously, from the moment that she agreed to do the song in the studio and we went in there with her, it was another moment like that too. I just couldn't — I'm pinching myself saying, 'I can't believe Ann Wilson's doing this and she's with us.' But for her to do it in Rockville the other day, the first time that she's ever joined us live on that — she's just such an amazing vocalist and still, in her early seventies to have that much power, and she's a legend. So to get her stamp of approval to even be a fan of ours and to kind of go out of her way to — she jumped on her tour bus and came out to us to play one song. And she's on tour right now with HEART. So it was just quite an honor to not only [have] her do the song with us in the studio, but to wanna perform it with us live for the first time. So hopefully there's more in the future. It's not gonna be every show — our schedules have gotta be able to work out together — but I'm just very thankful for any opportunity we get to have her join us."

In January, DISTURBED released the Matt Mahurin-directed music video for "Don't Tell Me" featuring Ann Wilson. The song, a track from the band's latest studio album, "Divisive", marked the first time DISTURBED has included a guest feature on an LP.

At the time of the video's release, DISTURBED vocalist David Draiman commented: "I have tremendous respect for Ann. In my humble opinion, she's the greatest female rock voice of all time. I think she's untouchable. I feel like we were very gifted to have her be a part of this."

Wilson added: "I was honored when I got the call from David Draiman. DISTURBED did a version of 'The Sound Of Silence' that my husband and I both really dug. And so when the opportunity came to sing a duet with him on a song that meant so much to David emotionally, I jumped at the chance. And then the video turned out great, which is yet another cherry on top. Hopefully we'll find a time to perform 'Don't Tell Me' live together at some point. If they call, I'm there."

Last November, DISTURBED shared behind-the-scenes photos from the set of the "Don't Tell Me" video shoot in California and captioned them: "On set for our video shoot for our next single 'Don't Tell Me' featuring @annwilson from @heartofficial".

Regarding how the collaboration with Wilson came about, DISTURBED drummer Mike Wengren told Terrie Carr of WDHA-FM 105.5 FM: "That was always supposed to be the 'power ballad,' per se. And as we were tracking it in the studio, David just threw out the idea, 'Hey, let's do a duet on this song.' We've tossed around the idea before, but there wasn't ever either the right material or the right time. So in this particular case, we kind of said, 'Well, who you've got in mind?' And he didn't even have a list; he just had one person, and that was Ann. It was a no-brainer. 'Hey, let's hit up Ann. Let's see if she'd be into it.' And she was on board right away; we didn't have to convince her."

Mike continued: "[David and Ann] sort of struck up a bit of a friendship, a little bit of a rapport. When [DISTURBED cover version of] 'The Sound Of Silence' came out years back and had its success, she was one of many artists and celebrities that took it up themselves to go on Twitter and praise the song and praise our version of it, which we couldn't have been more honored. Iconic, legendary Ann Wilson thinks that we did a great job with a SIMON & GARFUNKEL cover. That's pretty incredible, a pretty great honor. So when we reached out to her, she was more than willing to jump on board. And she came in and she killed it… And she's super cool and down to earth too, and just incredibly talented. It's such an honor to have her be on our record. And to me, the blending of her voice and David's voice, they really, really work so well together. I'm so proud of David and just so honored to have her a part of our record."

In September 2022, Donegan, whose divorce inspired "Don't Tell Me", told Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about the band's collaboration with Wilson: "Early in our career, we wanted to really establish ourselves without having any guests. We didn't really talk about it much, but just [felt], 'This is the band.' Not that we were ever against it, but this far along in our career… We're always pushing ourselves, trying to do stuff that's different musically. And there's so much talent out there and so many people we would love to do collaborations with now or later in our career.

"Ann Wilson had mentioned before — she tweeted about us before," he continued. "A few years back, somebody asked her in an interview or whatever if there's anything new out there, or newer, musically that she's heard that she's fan of, and she mentioned she really loved our version of 'The Sound Of Silence'. And that kind of opened the door to a social media friendship between her and David a bit. And then when we wrote this song, it just seemed like it would lend itself to Ann's voice and then trying to see that merge between her and David's voices together. She jumped on the opportunity. Immediately she responded, and we were, like, 'Holy shit. She just said yes to this.'"

Asked by Meltdown if "Don't Tell Me" is a more mellow track than the standard DISTURBED fare, Dan said: "I can't give it away, but their voices, it's like Fergie and Jesus — a little 'Step Brothers' [2008 movie] quote there… It was a pretty magical moment to be in the room and to hear the two of them harmonize together.

"We tracked David's vocals in Nashville, and we wanted to make it easy and convenient for her, 'cause we were, like, she said yes, she's gonna do it," Donegan continued. "Let's make it as easy as possible on her.' We flew out to California to meet with her. We went into a studio out there for just a couple of hours, and she sang against David's tracks. And he was there kind of going over the harmonies with her and stuff too. So it was kind of a really magical moment to see the two of them working on those harmonies together. It was pretty impressive. And she's such a pro, and she's so damn good. She's a legend. So it was pretty exciting. And it's not like she sits there and jumps on people's albums either, so we take that as a badge of honor to think that there's not many times where somebody as big a legend as she is that she would jump on any album. She doesn't have to, and she chose to be on this one. And she loves the track. And it just came together great."

Released in November 2022, "Divisive" was recorded earlier that year with producer Drew Fulk (MOTIONLESS IN WHITE, LIL PEEP, HIGHLY SUSPECT) in Nashville, Tennessee.

According to Billboard, "Divisive" sold 26,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, with 22,000 units via album sales.

On the all-format Billboard 200 chart, "Divisive" debuted at No. 13.

DISTURBED has had five No. 1s on the all-genre chart, beginning with "Believe" in 2002.