Songfacts®:

• "Hey You" is a wake-up call centered on what frontman David Draiman calls "outrage addiction."
  
  Hey you, walking away
  You've got the wrong kind of mindset
  And it's helping no one
  
  Draiman believes the COVID-19 pandemic has provoked more division than unity. He reasons that the lockdown created a perfect storm of divisiveness, resulting in the hyper-intensification of intolerance for different viewpoints. "We had isolation, we had removal from any kind of normalcy, we had people really go down the rabbit hole of social media in a big, big way, Draiman explained to Loudwire Nights host Toni Gonzalez. "And if anything, it intensified the division that was already there. People really stick to their respective camps and their respective allegiances, whether it's political or religious or otherwise."
  
  Draiman further elaborated that "Hey You" addresses the increasing amount of "outrage addiction" he's witnessed over the last few years. He means people who take offense with anything they disagree with. They vent online and gain traction with people who feel the same way. Civil discourse has become the exception rather than the norm. "This song is speaking to that, it's speaking to the fact that we're our own worst enemy sometimes because of these little barriers we set up for ourselves," the singer concluded.
• Disturbed performed "Hey You" live for the first time on July 14, 2022 at the Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisconsin.
• David Draiman co-wrote 'Hey You" with his bandmates Dan Donegan, Mike Wengren and John Moyer. Los Angeles producer Drew Fulk, also known as WZRD BLD, helmed the track. Fulk has also worked with Lil Peep ("Runaway") and Beartooth ("You Never Know").
• "Hey You" climbed to the top of Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart dated September 3, 2022. It was Disturbed's 11th #1 on the tally and first since "No More" spent four weeks at the peak position in 2019.
• "Hey You" originated in fall 2021, when Disturbed had a day off from touring in Fort Myers, Florida. They took the opportunity to hook up with their producer friend Dave Fortman (Evanescence, Slipknot, Godsmack).
  
  "I said, 'Let's find a cool groove... and let me improvise,'" guitarist Dan Donegan recalled to Revolver. "Almost instantly the riff came out... I started looping it, we locked in the drums and David started scatting over a melody. 'Hey you' was a natural reaction, the first two words that popped out of his mouth, and it felt like a big hit hook."