DISTURBED Frontman: 'We're In It For The Long Haul'

November 17, 2005

DISTURBED frontman David Draiman recently spoke to MTV.com about the severe acid reflux that contributed to the band's decision to cancel the last seven shows of their European tour last month and fly home.

"I had been taking Prevacid for about four years and my body built up a resistance to it, to the point where it wasn't doing anything anymore," the singer said. "I had a night of drinking in London followed by a full day and night of drinking on a day off in Dublin, because what else is there to do in Ireland but drink? That, coupled with a show where I had monitor problems, and I pretty much trashed my voice."

A visit to a doctor in Dublin confirmed his fears and Draiman was ordered to rest his voice. When he got back to Los Angeles, he immediately underwent an endoscopy to make sure the surgical work that had been done in the past hadn't come undone.

"Thankfully it was still intact, so I just switched to this drug called Protonix and that got me on the right track," Draiman said. "But I gotta watch what I eat a little bit, and I can't drink anymore. How ironic — we start the Jäger tour and I can no longer drink!"

DISTURBED's "Ten Thousand Fists" debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart in late September, and has sold 581,000 copies in the United States so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

"People continue to proclaim the death of rock and try to figure out where DISTURBED fit in the scheme of things, and the truth is, we really don't fit in," Draiman said. "You look at the majority of radio programming and it's about 20 bands that all sound pretty much the same. They're either pop-rock punk bands or a pop-rock emo bands, and I can't tell the difference. But obviously there's still a pretty strong place for us. We're in it for the long haul and we're going to take much delight in proving to everyone that we're still viable and we're still here."

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