Would DISTURBED's DAVID DRAIMAN Ever Use Backing Tracks During Live Shows? 'Never In A Million Years', He Says

DISTURBED singer David Draiman has weighed in on bands who rely on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances.

In recent years, more and more artists have been given a pass for relying on pre-recorded tracks, drum triggers and other assorted technology that makes concerts more synthetic but also more consistent. For better or worse, pre-recorded tracks are becoming increasingly common for touring artists of all levels and genres and they're not just used in pop music — many rock artists utilize playback tracks to varying degrees.

In a new interview with "The Jesea Lee Show", Draiman was asked for his opinion the use of pre-recorded tracks during live performances. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I will never, ever at any stage of my career use anything other than completely live drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. Period.

"If I ever get to the point where I can't perform the way I need to vocally, I will just quit," he continued. "I'd rather do it for real than not do it for real. I don't even know how I'd go about it. So it's simply just not an option for me."

When host Jesea Lee suggested that some bands can't be expected to bring a 40-piece orchestra with them when they go on tour to reproduce certain parts of their recordings, Draiman said: "It's kind of the difference between an athlete that performs without the steroids or whatever else is going along and then the athlete that does. I mean, so, yeah, but for me, I'm a purist. I've never used pitch correction in the studio. There's this myth that exists out there of there being pitch correction on the fly, what everybody likes to refer to as Auto-Tune, that technology of doing it live as you're singing, it doesn't exist. It's not accurate. What people have experienced, what they're dealing with is there's a lot of guys that have a track that they'll sing on top of and your front-of-house guy or your monitor engineer will pull one fader up and pull the other down and the actual pre-recorded track comes up. When it's time for the singer to speak, up comes the actual live vocal mic. Or when, all of a sudden, you start hearing a whole bunch of chorusy melody things in a chorus when nobody else is on the microphone other than just the lead singer, that kind of leads things into question.

"I think that everybody's simply trying to do and provide the best show that they possibly can," David added. "For me myself, I've told my guys, I've told everybody in our circle, if I ever get to the point where I can't do it up there the way that I need to be doing it up there, I'm gonna be the first one to pull the rug out from under myself. And if I don't, please do it for me. I don't wanna do anything to tarnish our legacy in any way."

After Lee brought up the fact that bands like MÖTLEY CRÜE have denied using pre-recorded tracks for anything other than backing vocals, Draiman said: "Look, I'm not gonna throw anybody under the rug or under the bus, so to speak. I love Nikki [Sixx, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist]. I love the MÖTLEY CRÜE guys. I think they've been doing an amazing job their entire career. I'm not in a position to judge how they do what they do. All I know is that they're still making fans happy and they're still throwing down. And I actually look forward to sharing the stage with them on a number of the festivals we're gonna be on over the course of the rest of this year.

"Me personally? Never in a million years," he added. "What anybody else does, that's entirely up to them and their choice, and I'm no one to judge. The only person I can judge is myself."

KISS frontman Paul Stanley, who had been struggling to hit the high notes in many of the band's classic songs for a number of years, was accused of singing to a backing tape on KISS's recently completed "End Of The Road" tour.

Back in 2015, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons slammed bands who used backing tapes for not being honest enough to include that fact on their concert tickets.

"I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks," Simmons said. "It's like the ingredients in food. If the first ingredient on the label is sugar, that's at least honest. It should be on every ticket — you're paying $100, 30 to 50 percent of the show is [on] backing tracks and they'll sing sometimes, sometimes they'll lip sync. At least be honest. It's not about backing tracks, it's about dishonesty.

"There's nobody with a synthesizer on our stage, there's no samples on the drums, there's nothing," Gene continued. "There's very few bands who do that now — AC/DC, METALLICA, us. I can't even say that about U2 or THE [ROLLING] STONES. There's very few bands who don't use [backing] tracks."

In March 2023, KISS's longtime manager Doc McGhee defended Stanley's vocal performance on "End Of The Road", explaining that the "Star Child" "fully sings to every song" at every concert. He explained: It's enhanced. It's just part of the process to make sure that everybody hears the songs the way they should be sang to begin with. Nobody wants to hear people do stuff that's not real, that's not what they came to hear."

When McGhee was asked to clarify if he was "actually saying there are backing tracks that [Paul is] singing to," Doc said: "He'll sing to tracks. It's all part of a process. Because everybody wants to hear everybody sing. But he fully sings to every song."

In March 2020, SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers said that "90 percent" of rock artists use at least some pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. He told Rock Feed: "It bothers me that it bothers people. I'm, like, 'Why does this bother you?' It's the way it is. People have been doing this since the '80s. And we want the sound to be the best it can be. Could we go up there, just the four of us, and put on the best rock show ever? Of course. But that's not how we wanna do it."

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach has previously said that he is "one of the last people" who are still not using pre-recorded tracks at their live shows. "I don't know how much longer I can say to you that I don't use tapes onstage, because I don't, and I never have," he told Consequence Of Sound. "And I still don't. When I have opening bands, and they're using tapes, and then I come out and I don't use tapes… sometimes, it makes me feel stupid, because I'm like, 'What am I doing, when all these kids half my age can come onstage and do all of my moves, but they don't have to warm up for an hour before the show, or weeks, before the first show?' Sometimes, I'm like, 'Why do I even bother, if the public is so used to this other way?' It's becoming very rare to come see a good band that's actually a real band — that's not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running. It just becomes more rare as the years go on."

In 2019, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith said that he doesn't "agree" with certain rock artists relying on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. "I tell you what, I see it with a lot of younger bands, and I don't think it's a good thing at all," he told the New York Post. "I mean, the music is getting too technical now. You have computerized recording systems, which we use, but I think we use them more for convenience than because we need to. We've toured with a couple bands that use tapes — it's not real. You're supposed to play live; it should be live. I don't agree with using tapes … I think it's a real shame."

One musician who has been open about his band's use of taped vocals during live performances is Sixx, who said: "We've used technology since '87." He added the group employed "sequencers, sub tones, background vox tracks, plus background singers and us. [MÖTLEY CRÜE also taped] stuff we can't tour with, like cello parts in ballads, etc.... We love it and don't hide it. It's a great tool to fill out the sound."

In a 2014 interview, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars admitted that he wasn't comfortable with the fact that his band used pre-recorded backing vocals in its live shows, claiming that he preferred to watch groups whose performances are delivered entirely live. "I don't like it," he said. "I think a band like ours… I have to say '60s bands were my favorite — '60s and '70s bands — because they were real, like, three-piece bands or four-piece bands, and they just got up there and kicked it up. Made a mistake? So what? Sounded a little bit empty here or there? So what? It's the bigness and the rawness and the people that developed and wrote the songs and made them and presented them. To me, that's what I really like. I mean, I could put on a MÖTLEY CD and play with it all day long. I don't wanna do that."