DROWNING POOL's RYAN MCCOMBS Explains Why He Doesn't Publicly Voice His Political Opinions Anymore

During an appearance on the link textScandalous podcast, DROWNING POOL and SOIL frontman Ryan McCombs explained that many musicians choose not to voice their opinions on political issues publicly because so many issues in the United States are filtered through partisan prism instead of being analyzed via practical considerations. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's a result of the bullcrap that surrounds us. No one wants to be the next one with their head on the chopping block and getting canceled. And regretfully, for decades we've let the minority speak the loudest. And I can go on for days, and believe me I can, because the people around me have to hear it; I can go on for days about my opinions on the politics and stuff like that.

"Politics is very much like religion," he continued. "I can sit here. You could be on one side of the fence and I could be on the other. And it sucks that there's different sides of the fence, it sucks that the red ties and the blue ties have drawn such a line in the sand, because it really shouldn't be about that. It should just be about what's best for the people, what's best for our society. But it isn't about that anymore. Everybody's got their opinion of what's important, and they base their level of importance… If they don't like this person, they will find that one policy that they don't agree with and they'll just hammer that home.

"Politics is just like religion," Ryan repeated. "You're gonna have your opinions, I'm gonna have my opinions, and no matter what I say, it's not gonna change your mind. And no matter what you say, it's not gonna change my mind. All it's going to do, at the end of the day, especially the way society is today, is just get people pissed off at you. And so it's a subject that I steer away from publicly because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter."

McCombs added: "My opinion shouldn't sway somebody. And I think that's the thing that frustrates me the most… I get frustrated when I see somebody in Hollywood or I see somebody in the music business talking politics in a way, because who gives a shit what their opinion is? I don't care what their opinion is, because their opinion has no bearing on my opinion, and my opinion shouldn't have any bearing on theirs. Everybody should have enough brains in their head to actually sit down, if they hear something, if they read something on that stupid book of faces, if they read something, hear something, whatever it is, have enough intelligence to actually look into it and actually use that stupid, ignorant, stupid smartphone that we all have in our hands and actually Google the things and actually find out the truth and come up with our own educated opinions instead of just being fed this comment that so many people tend to grab a hold of and hammer home like it's the gospel without even knowing whether or not it's right.

"I don't care what your opinion is, as long as it's an educated opinion," Ryan added. "I don't know. I talk in circles ,and I apologize. But that's really what I'm just getting at, is somebody's opinion can be completely different than mine. I don't care, as long as they're coming from a place of knowledge and they're not just regurgitating some bullshit that they read on some social media site that doesn't give a shit whether it's the truth or not."

"I think it was Ricky Gervais who said during the Golden Globes a few years back, talking about the people in Hollywood, he was just, like, 'Just shut up. Just come up here and take your award and leave your politics to the side.' That's what frustrates me, when I see these people in Hollywood and these people in the spotlight shouting their politics, their opinions on politics, because in a lot of cases they're the last people that's really being affected by politics. It's the people that are striving to try to maintain — even though there's very little middle class nowadays — trying to maintain surviving. You've got people out there holding down three jobs just trying to survive. Some person living in a mansion somewhere shouldn't be preaching to that person that's happened to hold down three jobs just to feed their kids… It's completely different worlds."

Back in December 2016, McCombs weighed in on Donald Trump's stunning upset of Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, saying that while he was not a Trump supporter, he "would have voted for Satan" over Clinton. "I have too many military friends that have actually bled for the country to ever think about [voting for her]," he said, adding: "Do I think [Trump is] awesome? No. Do I think he's better than the [other] option? Absolutely!"

Ryan admitted in a separate interview with Metal Underground that he did not personally vote in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, blaming it on the fact that "I moved just before this tour, and I forgot to set up the whole… Basically, it was too late for me to register in my new location. So I didn't end up voting."

In the Metal Underground interview, McCombs defended Trump, saying: "He's not a career politician. He may not talk like a polished politician. He talks like you and I. He uses words like 'them' and 'they,' and then people wanna turn around and say he's being racist or whatever. He's just… He's not a polished career politician. And do I think he's great? No, not at all. But compared to the criminal he was running against? I couldn't be happier for the country. 'Cause that was an evil, evil woman. So I'm very happy with [the outcome]."