During a recent Disturbed gig, the band paused the show to honour a fan who lost his battle to addiction, honouring him with their song ‘The Light.’
The emotional moment unfolded at their ‘Take Back Your Life’ tour stop in Connecticut, USA on Saturday (Feb 12), after frontman David Draiman approached a fan in the crowd who’d been holding up a photo of her best friend during the show.
“What’s your story?” the singer asked the fan, as he took the photo from her hands. “You’ve been holding this picture up to me the entire show. What’s going on?”
The fan explains while tearing up, “This is my best friend Mark. I’ve known him since I was 11… He unfortunately lost his life to addiction on January 17th this year. It’ll be a month on Wednesday.”
She continued, “It’s definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through.”
The frontman gives the fan a hug, looks her in her eyes, and says “come with me,” before getting her up on stage.
The video cuts to the fan, called Kaylee, on stage with Dave’s arm around her while he explains the next song is dedicated to her late best friend Mark.
"Breaks my heart," Draiman says to the crowd. "Unfortunately, not everyone gets saved. Not everyone survives the darkness."
He goes on to talk to the crowd about keeping loved ones alive through our memory while Kaylee sits on stage. To wrap up his speech, he says:
"Sometimes it takes the right song to bring us back to the memory that we so deeply miss. I know I still miss so many of my dearly departed friends, we lost so many of them: Chester [Bennington], Scott [Weiland], Chris [Cornell].
“That's part of the reason why we write the songs that we do. Because life, no matter what the storybooks tell may you, is not fkn easy. Not everything is sweet. Sometimes we have to look into the darkness in order to dispel the darkness."
Walking back to Kaylee, he says “Sometimes darkness can show you the light.”
The emotional video ends there, but the band then ripped into ‘The Light’ for Kaylee’s late mate Mark. Touching stuff.
The video has been making the rounds on the internet, with one top comment saying, “Imagine Disturbed calling you on stage to honour your lost best friend shedding light on the struggle of addiction, man this is so touching” - we couldn’t agree more.
Not long to go now until Disturbed make their way to New Zealand! They’re playing a one-off show at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Friday March 15th - grab your tickets now.
