DISTURBED's DAN DONEGAN Says Rock Music Produces 'Lifelong Fans'

Veteran radio personality Jenn Marino, who in 2014 joined MÖTLEY CRÜE and SIXX:A.M. bassist Nikki Sixx as co-host of “Sixx Sense With Nikki Sixx” and “The Side Show Countdown With Nikki Sixx”, conducted an interview with DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan at this year’s Welcome To Rockville festival, which was held Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 at Jacksonville, Florida’s Metropolitan Park. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On attracting younger fans to their shows after returning from a four-year hiatus:

Dan: “It’s amazing to have… I mean, to be off the road for four and a half years and come back and see that next generation of kids… That’s some great parenting there. Bringing their kids out to the shows now, and it’s a wide demographic of fans that we’ve kind of developed over the years now.”

On the success of DISTURBED‘s “comeback” album “Immortalized”:

Dan: “Hey, you know what? It’s great for everybody who’s just clawing away, and it’s great for rock music to kind of shake things up a bit for everyone; we all win that way. When we’re stomping around, making some noise, it’s just a reminder to the rest of the world that there’s a huge rock fanbase out there. And we may be the black sheep of the music industry, but that’s fine. We do our thing. This is a lifestyle-type music; this isn’t a trendy thing. I’m not trying to knock all the other genres, but that stuff kind of comes and goes. Rock music, you get lifelong fans out of this genre.”

“Immortalized” was released last August and debuted at the top of The Billboard 200 chart. That made it DISTURBED‘s fifth effort in a row to enter the chart at No. 1, a feat shared only with METALLICA and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND.

Interview (audio):