DISTURBED's DAVID DRAIMAN On Stepping Outside His Comfort Zone For 'The Sound Of Silence' Cover: Producer KEVIN CHURKO 'Gave Me The Courage To Go There'

On the latest episode of the Detours & Destinations podcast, hosted by Rabbi David Ingber, David Draiman, lead singer of the multi-platinum metal band DISTURBED, talks about identity, resilience, faith, and the costs of speaking one's mind.

Raised in an Orthodox Jewish world and once headed toward the rabbinate, Draiman reflects on a life shaped by religious tradition, intellectual curiosity, personal tragedy, and unexpected reinvention. He shares the story of his journey from yeshiva student to one of the most recognizable voices in modern heavy metal, exploring how music became a vehicle for processing grief, struggle, and meaning.

The conversation also delves into Draiman's outspoken public advocacy on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, the impact of October 7 on his sense of identity and purpose, and the challenges of navigating political polarization, antisemitism, and public controversy in an age of social media and cultural division.

Along the way, Draiman reflects on fame, spirituality, resilience, and the enduring question at the heart of every detour: whether the paths we leave behind ever truly leave us. It is a candid and wide-ranging conversation about finding one's voice — and learning when to use it.

Speaking about DISTURBED's cover version of the SIMON & GARFUNKEL classic "The Sound Of Silence", which saw Draiman going outside his comfort zone by delivering an emotional, multi-octave vocal performance, David said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'll tell you an interesting story about a dearly departed friend of mine that will illustrate your point very, very succinctly. Chester Bennington from LINKIN PARK. We were friends for years. I miss him very much. I'll never forget, after I had sung our cover of 'The Sound Of Silence' on 'Conan', a live version for the first time, and I got all the responses from it. There was [a message] from Paul Simon himself and many others. But I remember Chester called me and he's, like, 'Dude, I had no idea you could sound like that. You need to do more of that.' He was, like, 'That needs to be your thing.' He was so captivated by it and so caught off guard that he didn't realize that I could go there. It really struck him. It struck me, to be honest, the first time listening back to it at the mixing console."

Draiman continued: "For a long, long time, I had immersed myself in the more guttural side of delivery and the more distorted side, because that's a style that just goes hand in hand with what DISTURBED is and what rock is, and so on and so forth. So it sometimes doesn't feel right not to lean into it that way. So when I first did that, I hadn't done anything so purely sung vocally since the second record. On the second record, there's a track called 'Darkness', and if you have a second, give it a listen. It's a beautiful song, completely acoustic, very purely and classically delivered. But during that period of time, when we put out the 'Believe' record, which was circa 2001, 2002, it was met with a lot of backlash. People didn't want us to do anything that wasn't heavy. And so I was very, very concerned about showing that side of me for years. It took our producer, Kevin Churko, at the time for the 'Immortalized' record when we did the cover to kind of give me the courage to go there and encourage me."

Draiman added: "We tried so many different variations of the delivery of the vocal for every specific section of that song. It was Kevin's idea to do the octave drop. It was Kevin's idea to do the low whispering sort of delivery to... He's brilliant. He doesn't get enough of the credit that he truly, truly does deserve. I truly do owe him a debt of gratitude. We owe him a debt of gratitude. I've been saying this for a long time about Kevin — he was a big part of how that song came about, more than people realize."

Back in May 2024, the official music video for DISTURBED's cover of "The Sound Of Silence" officially topped a billion views on YouTube.

The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube in December 2015, marked DISTURBED's first song to reach the milestone.

"The Sound Of Silence" originally appeared on DISTURBED's sixth studio album, "Immortalized", which was released in August 2015.

In November 2019, video of DISTURBED's performance of "The Sound Of Silence" on the March 28, 2016 episode of Conan O'Brien's nighttime talk show, "Conan", surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, becoming the first "Conan" clip to reach the milestone.

DISTURBED's studio version of "The Sound Of Silence" went to No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hard Rock and Mainstream Rock charts and became the band's highest-charting single ever on the Top 100. It's also been used in the soundtrack for "The Blacklist" and the video game "Rock Band 4".

Draiman told the Colorado Springs Independent that he and his bandmates didn't have a clue that any of that would happen when they recorded the song and decided to issue it as a single and music video.

"How could we?" he asked. "It really, within the genre, was unprecedented. Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed it would be that massive and be used in all the places I've heard it used, figure skating, 'Dancing With the Stars', with the 9-11 Memorial and getting the blessing from Paul Simon, when we met him on Maui. The thing, surreal doesn't cover it."

In March 2024, a remix of DISTURBED's cover of "The Sound Of Silence" by Australian DJ/producer Cyril Riley landed at position No. 34 on Billboard's Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart. A month earlier, the same version of the tune reached the Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales chart.