Drowning Pool singer struggled with religion before his untimely death

By Steve Beard, Thunderstruck News

It was a little over a year ago when Dave Williams got a startling call from his mother. Williams' father had been in a construction accident that had punctured his lung and broken his back.

The timing of the accident could not have been worse. Williams was the lead singer of Drowning Pool, a band that had gained notoriety with their intense live shows at the Ozzfest--the travelling summer heavy rock extravaganza. The call from his mother came three weeks into the tour and Williams had to fly home.

"When you're parents leave a message that says, 'Call no matter what time it is,' it's important," he recalled. "When [my mother] told me what happened, my knees buckled. I fell. I flew home and spent a couple of days with him to make sure he was okay."

On Wednesday evening, August 14, Dave Williams's mom and dad got the phone call that every parent prays they never receive: The news that their son was dead. As of now, the cause of death is unknown. Williams was 30. He and Drowning Pool had been on the mainstage the day before at the Ozzfest in Indianapolis.

"Dave Williams was one of a kind, and a friend to everyone he met," the surviving members of Drowning Pool--guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike Luce--said in a statement. "He was a good man and a giving person. Not a day went by when he wasn't giving somebody a little present and touching everyone around him with his passion. He was full of energy until the day he passed and undeniably full of life. To the end, we were having a great time. We will miss him."

Other musicians agreed. "He was the sweetest man you'll ever come across in your life," said David Draiman, singer of the band Disturbed. "[He] didn't have a bad bone in his body.…Everyone loved him. I don't know a single person that has ever met Dave Williams and not just instantly fallen in love with him. He could charm anyone to death. He was a very special guy. It's shocking."

Drowning Pool was riding high within the rock world as one of the burgeoning heavy metal newcomers. Nevertheless, Williams had a light-hearted humility about his band's importance. "We are just four jackasses from Texas who love to play music," he would say. "We love doing what we do for the audience and making all these friends on tour.…To me, the biggest reward is to get up and play music every day."

Their dark and brooding debut album, "Sinner," has sold more than a million albums. The album's title was taken from a tattoo that Williams displayed on his left arm. "I guess I kind of always looked at myself as a sinner, and that tattoo meant a lot to me," Williams said. "It really fit into what we were trying to do on the album, which was get into a lot of things that had impacted our lives-especially things about religion and relationships. The title just seemed to work really well."

Religion, relationships, and frustration are major themes found on the album. "Trying to find a way to fight the pain/But it seems, there's no way around it," sings Williams on their song "Break You." "Reaching for the sun and finding rain/I melt, I'll always be grounded/So much I have brought upon myself/Can't, believe that I'm still here."

In his song "Sermon," Williams asks, 'Where was God when I needed a friend/Where was God when I came to an end?" The song continues: "Tell me what you believe/I'll tell you what you should see/'Cause I don't know who to trust/My heart is filled with disgust."

Williams's early recollections of church-going in Texas give clues to his struggle with religion: "I can remember going to church and hearing how we were all sinners for watching TV or listening to music. I didn't understand that, but as I got older, I started to think about it more, and a lot of the material that I write about reflects my attitude toward religion," he confessed to Hit Parader magazine in May.

Williams went on to say: "I have nothing against religion--I just have a problem with some of the messages that it promotes. Religion doesn't seem to have much flexibility. They have to recognize that all people can't follow the same set of rules. We've all broken some of those rules at one time or another. In the eyes of religion that makes us all sinners."

The "Sinner" tag was synonymous with Drowning Pool, a band known for its legendary partying. They shared the cover of Hit Parader in March with God-fearing rockers P.O.D. for the special "Saints and Sinners" edition.

When asked by MTV if he considered himself a sinner, Williams responded: "Absolutely. I don't know many people who aren't. Every person has a different set of rules, and everybody has broken one of those rules. People who swear--sinner. People who have sex out of marriage--sinner. Drinking, drugs, whatever--everybody's got their own set list. But everybody, at one time or another, has broken one of those rules. I'm just so over all that.…As far as I'm concerned, I'm a good person. Yeah, I swear. Yeah, I drink. So yeah, I'm a sinner."

In interviews, Williams vented frustration upon churchgoers who too easily had forgotten that it is not the outward appearance of a person that matters as much as what is inside. "I was always told when I was growing up that religious people shouldn't judge others by their appearance, by their attitude, or by anything else. But it seems like they're among the first to judge you--even before they really know what they're judging," said Williams in the most recent issue of Hit Parader.

"I had someone look at my 'Sinner' tattoo and tell me that I was going to hell. Well, I guess that's okay--I never said I wasn't a sinner. I think just about everyone is in one way or another. Nobody's perfect. But I do believe I'm a good person. I love my friends and my family, and I think we're bringing a lot of pleasure to people through music. If religious people have trouble with that, I'm sorry."

The death of Dave Williams has been a sobering moment within the heavy metal community. His passing has sparked good memories among friends, sorrow among fans, and thoughts on eternity among those who followed his career. John Dolmayan, drummer from System of a Down, remembered Williams as "a joy to be around," while the band's singer, Serj Tankian, wished him well in the hereafter: "I hope that wherever his energy is, that place is deserving of his smile."

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News magazine and the creator of www.thunderstruck.org. Photo courtesy of www.drowningpool.com.