Disturbed's Mike Wengren: My Life In Music
US arena-filling hard rock titans Disturbed are back with a brand new album, Immortalized, their first in five years.
Each of the band's last four long players have hit Number One on the Billboard Chart, so drummer Mike Wengren knows a thing or two about what makes a killer tune. With that in mind, we pulled this from out of the vaults, as Wengren shares some of the tracks that shaped his life.
The song that made me want to learn drums
'Shout At The Devil' – Mötley Crüe
"A lot of early Mötley Crüe stuff, off of Live Wire and Shout At The Devil. Back in those days, I pretty much wanted to be Tommy Lee. I don’t know if there was a drummer out there that didn’t want to be him."
The first song I bought
'Powerslave' – Iron Maiden
“I think it was something off of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave album, or something like that. I buy so much music these days.
"I’m always in record stores looking for new and old stuff. Completing collections and stuff. I was just in Best Buy the other day too, but I can’t remember what I got – I’m constantly buying music. I've got all kinds of genres on my iPod, but I pretty much listen solely to classic rock and metal.”
The song that was played at my wedding
'Believe' – The String Quartet Tribute
“There’s a group of guys that have a string quartet, with violin and cello. They do cover songs of modern rock, and funnily enough they did a couple of our songs and Mudvayne, Korn – even some Sabbath and stuff like that.
"I thought it would be cool during dinner if people thought they were hearing typical dinner music when they heard the violins and whatnot, but the actual music being played was bands like Metallica, Disturbed and Korn.”
The song I want played at my funeral
'Down With The Sickness' – Disturbed
"I guess if I wanted to be really clichéd about it, I could say 'Down With The Sickness' for people trying to remember me, as it's our most famous track. The intro beat is kind of a signature for me. I guess I could hike myself there and say that one.”
The song that reminds me of school
'The Ritual' – Testament
“This is a tough one. I pretty much hated school back in the day, especially high school. I was a bit of a loner, kept to myself. I associated the music at that time with getting out of school. Back in those days, I was listening to a lot of Testament and Death Angel.”
The song I listen to on tour
'Cowboys From Hell' – Pantera
"Most of the bands that tour with us have something going for themselves already. Pantera are the best band we ever toured with, when we were out with the Ozzfest in 2000.
“They took us under their wing and taught us how to be cool; how to party on the road. How to survive after a ridiculous amount of drinking. I was and still am a huge fan of Pantera, and to become friends with those guys was really cool. Dimebag was a special guy. Always gracious, always happy and always wanting to have a good time.”
The song that makes me want to dance
'Walk' – Pantera
“I don’t dance. I can’t dance. I know I’m a drummer and have rhythm, and I can kick out a beat, but I don’t know what to do with my limbs. I just don’t have the moves.
“I will headbang though. My favourite track to headbang to is anything off Pantera’s Vulgar Display Of Power. Maybe ‘Walk’. It’s got one of Dime’s best signature riffs.”