Disturbed & The Darkness Singers Settle Old Beef with Class

disturbed-the-darkness-singers-settle-old-beef-with-class
Justin photo by Drew de F Fawkes via wikipedia. David via Disturbed's Facebook.
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The Darkness singer, Justin Hawkins, recently kicked up some old dust on his YouTube show when he answered a fan question about his worst experience as an opening act by directly calling out Disturbed and David Draiman.

It’s a bit unclear as to what fully caused the issue in the first place, but it seems as if The Darkness opened for Disturbed in 2002, Disturbed fans did NOT enjoy the band, and then Disturbed (particularly David) was none too pleased that Disturbed’s crowd wasn’t having a good time? Here it is in Hawkins’ own words, though, (as per Ultimate Guitar):

“The Darkness supported Disturbed [in 2002] at Brixton Academy. And I really love Brixton Academy; I think it’s probably my favorite venue. It was the worst and also one of the best experiences because people were just throwing stuff. But some of the things they were throwing were, like, shoes, bottles and coins and stuff. But the thing about coins is, it’s money, so in a way that was a good thing, really. It’s funny, though, ’cause I was right at the front of the stage. It kind of made me perform more, which made them more angry.

And somebody — one of the Disturbed fans who… I’ve got a lot of time for Disturbed as a band; I think they’re just brilliant — if you like that sort of thing. But one of their fans threw a piece of chewing gum that presumably had been in their mouth, and it actually landed in my mouth.

I was singing [makes choking sound]. It was just a brilliant shot; I had to respect it, really. And then afterwards, David Draiman wasn’t very pleased with me. I don’t know; I think I may have issued an admonishment to the throng, which didn’t go down very well with me. But what are you gonna do? Who gives a fuck? I’m just kidding.

When things like that happen… If a band is supporting my band and then our crowd is not very nice to them, I would always go and apologize. That didn’t happen with Disturbed. I think it actually had the opposite effect and they were angry with us. But… not my problem.”

David Draiman saw the news, and to his credit, was a real gentlemen about it and proactively apologized:

As you can see below, Justin was super receptive and it looks as if not only has the beef been squashed, but there might be a blooming friendship here. Kudos to them both for just handling it like adults and putting any negativity behind them.

disturbed-the-darkness-singers-settle-old-beef-with-class

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