Disturbed hit a career high over the summer with their most successful tour to date. According to a report by Billboard, Disturbed's Take Back Your Life summer tour raked in $17.4 million across 336,000 tickets.
That breaks down to an average of 11,573 per show, which is up from an average of 6,901 in 2019. So clearly Disturbed got more popular over the pandemic, because that's a pretty big increase. The biggest show was on September 2 at Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center in Noblesville, IN with over 20,000 tickets.
Sure, $17.4 million sounds like a lot – and it is – but keep in mind that's before all the fees, possible penalties for setting off venue sprinkler systems (twice), cutting checks to companies helping out, and everyone getting paid. So it's not like the four dudes in Disturbed are just splitting that money four ways and then buying a mansion somewhere, you know?
Speaking of a post-pandemic music industry, Disturbed vocalist David Draiman recently discussed how that's been going for the band. In an interview with Audacy's 99.9 KISW, Draiman mentioned that touring costs are definitely through the roof, but that Disturbed intends to keep doing what they do.
"I think that the human body and human spirit are both incredibly resilient. I think we are traumatized. There's no doubt about it," Draiman said. "From every walk of life and every age range imaginable. I think the kids got hit the hardest during all this. When you are stripped of the things that keep you engaged, that keep you communicating, that keep you challenged, it can do long-term damage sometimes.
"I think that people are gonna take — it may take the rest of their lifetimes to sometimes get back to where they were after, not only what this whole experience did to us psychologically, but what it did to some people fiscally, what it did to them financially. It destroyed families, it destroyed jobs, it destroyed worlds. I mean, the effects were more than just the lives that were taken by the virus. Terrible.
"So it's weird. I feel very, very fortunate that we're still one of the ones that are in a position to go back out there and to do what we do and to keep doing what we love. The music industry as a whole, we lost two-thirds of our workforce. They're gone. They went to do other things, because live events couldn't happen for two to three years. So they had to put food on the table.
"There are bands like us who did everything that they could for their crew, and we'd do it again, but there are a lot of bands that couldn't. And people had to make a living. And so now, you have a few people left. Now costs are through the roof, now everybody's struggling, and we're still chomping at the bit to get out there. I think the challenge makes it better."
