For the past few years, most of us have seen more than our fair share of cancel culture articles. Even though something may have had nothing but pure intentions back in the day, there’s always going to be someone looking to tear it down. When you’re in a band called Disturbed though, you’re probably not going to take those criticisms lightly.
On the last few tours that Disturbed has been making across the world, guitarist Dan Donegan has been known to brandish a guitar with the words “F*CK CANCEL CULTURE” written across the front.
Lol Okay - Disturbed Frontman David Draiman 'Proud' Of Bandmate's 'F*** Cancel Culture' Guitar
While frontman David Draiman has expressed his approval for his guitarist on Twitter, Dan has actually gone into more detail about his feelings on the subject in a new Loudwire interview.
He says that he first thought about it deeply when watching Bill Burr and hearing him talk “about how people wanted to cancel John Wayne, for something he said in an interview in 1971, or something. The guy’s dead, and the magazine doesn’t even exist anymore and they still wanna cancel him. It’s just so frustrating and comical at the same time to me.”
While Donegan did eventually go into detail about songs being hypocritical about censorship by excusing songs like “WAP” by Cardi B on the air, he’s not really saying everyone should have thicker skin either.
Quite the opposite, saying that: “Everybody gets butt hurt and offended, that’s not for me… I think it’s ok to have a difference of opinions, enough of the temper tantrums.”
And it’s not like Disturbed aren’t proud of their beliefs at all, with their latest album Divisive being set to rub some people the wrong way from the start. Dan for one is open to some discourse about the album saying that the record is “more of wake up call for (people) to stop focusing on the things we disagree on and separate us, and to maybe try and find that common ground again.
Our society has become addicted to outrage… Music is the best cure for what ails us.”
Metal is never going to run out of people being outraged by what bands do, but Disturbed don’t really seem to be trying to provoke just for the hell of it. Cancel culture might have a few points here and there, but these guys just want to use their music as a way to tear through all of that discourse.
Disturbed’s new album Divisive dropped yesterday. Listen or order HERE.