When Disturbed frontman David Draiman decided to single a fan out for using her cell phone during the band's March 23 appearance at House of Blues in Dallas, he probably didn't expect it to trigger the backlash that followed from his own fan base. So last Friday Draiman spoke with metal website Loudwire to make an apology.
In an episode recorded by other fans, Draiman launched into a rant about Shannon Pardue, who was attending the show with her husband.
As far as Draiman’s apology, she told the Observer that she hasn’t read it yet, but she isn't interested in shifting any more blame. “I don’t want to fuel the fire,” Pardue said. “I want to take the high road and wish him luck for the rest of the tour, and I hope that it doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
The public shaming lasted nearly two minutes, and Draiman later logged onto Facebook to continue his rant. He told Loudwire that he was simply "trying to engage her."
“It’s what I’ve done for years and in most circumstances, if there is someone who is being passive," he said. "They respond positively, ‘Oh, he acknowledged me. He’s really watching. I will get into it, and he’s actually paying attention to me,' and they become more involved.
“It’s very unfortunate that it backfired, obviously, with her,” he added.
In an exclusive interview with the Dallas Observer, which prompted the apology, Pardue explained that she had been texting with her 14-year-old daughter, who was home alone during a nasty hail storm. “I wasn’t privy to the information of what she had going on, and when I made my original Facebook post that information had not yet come out,” Draiman told Loudwire. “I feel badly about it, and I am sorry.”
Pardue has been staying away from music news and social media since she spoke with the Observer, declining radio disc jockeys from places as far away as Canada and TV news reporters who sought to keep her story spreading. She wasn’t rubbed the wrong way, as Draiman suggested, but simply shared her side of the story since Draiman was being celebrated by music news sites like Loudwire and Blabbermouth.
Pardue’s husband, Jason, wasn’t buying the singer’s apology. “[It's] not really an apology, more of a backed-in-a-corner [response],” he said. “I think he wants to clean this up before the iHeart Radio Awards on Saturday.”
But after defending his actions on stage, Draiman did apologize — not once, but twice. “So again, I feel badly about it, and I am sorry,” he continued. “I never want anyone to leave one of our shows feeling badly. The whole idea is to pull them in and to make them feel empowered, and sometimes you’ve got to be a little forceful when you do that.
“If she got rubbed the wrong way, that is something that I regret,” he added.