David Draiman

David Draiman

David Michael Draiman (born March 13, 1973 in Flatbush, New York) is the lead singer for the band Disturbed, which hails from Chicago, Illinois.

After attending Yeshiva High School at the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee, the Fasman Yeshiva High School and Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, and Valley Torah High School in North Hollywood, California, he spent the 1991-1992 academic year in the Neveh Zion Yeshiva in Telshe Stone, Jerusalem. He attended Loyola University Chicago where he triple majored in business administration, political science, and philosophy. He was considering law school before he joined the band, which he discovered in an ad in the Illinois Entertainer, a local music publication in Chicago. In 2003, he also started his own record label, Intoxication Records, along with band member/guitarist, Dan Donegan, and drummer, Mike Wengren. David has a brother Ben who lives in Jerusalem.

He is one of six artists who sang for the Queen of the Damned soundtrack, along with Jonathan Davis of KoЯn, Wayne Static of Static-X, Jay Gordon of Orgy, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and Marilyn Manson. He produced the album Believe as a response to his grandfather's death. He was recently added to the Hit Parader "Heavy Metal's All-Time Top 100 Vocalists" in 2006 at #42.

His last job before becoming a musician full-time was as a health care administrator at Ambassador Nursing and Rehab Center in Chicago. He has three homes, one in his Brooklyn hometown, one in Chicago, and one in L.A. The L.A. one, he says, is to "escape the Chicago winters."

Visually, David is easily recognized for his shaven head and dual labret piercings.

References

• Jeff Kitts, Brad TolinskiSummary (2002), Guitar World Presents nu metal, Hal Leonard, ISBN 0634032879