Disturbed’s David Draiman: Freddie Mercury was the greatest ever frontman

Disturbed's David Draiman (Image credit: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns - Getty)

David Draiman has called Queen icon Freddie Mercury the greatest frontman of all time.

The Disturbed singer was a recent guest on Planet Rock, where he spoke about the challenge of keeping his vocals in top form.

He said: “I’ve always tried to approach how I do what I do the same way I feel that the great vocalists of all time would have approached it – whether it’s Judas Priest’s Rob Halford or Ronnie James Dio

“I try to be as pure and as direct and as resonant as I possibly can within my own respective abilities – not that I’m anywhere close to either one of those two. They're human freaks of nature. May one of them rest in peace and may the other stay with us for many, many years to come. 

“Between the two of them in particular, you’re talking about two of the greatest voices of all time. Certainly not to not include what, in my opinion, was not only one of the greatest vocalists to ever sing, but the greatest frontman that the world has ever seen in Freddie Mercury. 

“His range, his charisma, his presence, everything about him, just the quintessential frontman.”

Disturbed are currently on tour, with their next two shows scheduled to take place in Russia. 

They’ll return to the US and Canada later in the summer for further dates which will stretch through until October 11 in support of their latest studio album Evolution, which was released last year.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.