Disturbed frontman David Draiman has addressed the deafening boos he received while performing at Black Sabbath’s and Ozzy Osbourne’s final concert this past weekend.
- READ MORE: Sharon Osbourne and Tony Iommi tell us about Black Sabbath’s finale: “Usually this thing is done when you’re dead”
The singer performed as part of an all-star jam at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert, at Villa Park on Saturday night (July 5). While there, he fronted covers of Sabbath’s ‘Sweet Leaf’ and Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Shot In The Dark’, backed by current and former members of Anthrax, Megadeth, Guns N’ Roses, and more.
Upon stepping onstage, the singer was met with loud and aggressive boos – Draiman, who is Jewish and has been a vocal supporter of Israel – took to social media after the gig to address the matter: “As you can see… I wasn’t “booed off stage” as so many people in the press and CERTAINLY #FreePalestine crowd, would have you believe. Yes, there were a few boos when I walked out, but I came to pay homage to my teachers, my idols, the mighty Black Sabbath, and I wasn’t about to let a few Jew hating morons deter that.”
He continued: It’s all about feeding their narrative, generating clickbait, and inciting hatred of Jews. There’s even a track being passed around out there that added enhanced booing to the performance just to add fuel to the fire. Pathetic.
“The live stream shows the truth. Both songs went over great. You wouldn’t know that from some of the media however, who are only too eager to roast marshmallows next to this dumpster fire of a bullshit story. Oh well. Still here. Still coming back to the UK in the fall to what’s shaping up to be a VERY successful run, if ticket sales are any indication.”
He concluded: “And I am STILL UNAPOLOGETICALLY A FIERCELY PRO ISRAEL JEW. I will ALWAYS stand up for my people, and I won’t be deterred, intimidated, or shamed out of rocking the asses of the masses. Put that in your pipes and smoke it.”
This isn’t the first time Draiman has come under fire for his stance in the Israel-Palestine conflict, in which he has been an outspoken supporter of Israel. In the past, he’s sung the Israeli national anthem at one of Disturbed’s Tel Aviv concerts, he called Roger Waters a “monster” and an “anti-Semitic to his rotten core”, and professed in 2022 that he “doesn’t give a shit” if he alienated people with his pro-Israel stance.
Back in 2019, Draiman hit out at Roger Waters, slamming the musician and his “Nazi comrades” for calling others to boycott Israel.
Last year, Draiman shared pictures on social media of himself visiting the Israeli army, even signing a number of missiles for them.
Draiman’s involvement in the Black Sabbath finale comes through Sharon Osbourne, who helped to put the show together. Following Irish rap trio Kneecap leading “Free Palestine” chants at Coachella, Osbourne called for a “revocation of Kneecap’s work visa” and claimed that their performance in California “compromised” the festival’s “moral and spiritual integrity”. The band then retaliated by saying: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”
Sharon Osbourne then hit out at the band once again and branded the trio as “pathetic”, “uneducated” and “full of hate”. “My whole stance is have your own stance politically, couldn’t give a damn what you believe in but don’t bring it to a musical festival where there’s peace. Music unites people, music doesn’t separate people.”
Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military campaign on occupied Gaza for almost two years, since the October 2023 attack by Hamas at the Israeli music festival Supernova where 1,195 people were killed.
The UN has found Israel’s military actions to be consistent with genocide, and at least 56,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel has continually denied that what’s going on in Palestine is considered a genocide, and has argued that it has not partaken in any war crimes.
