The Lunatics are in the Hall!

[Jonathan Edwards]

Life changed for me in an instant. In one moment in time I knew that my life would never be the same again. Once I was a boy who on occasion enjoyed music. Then one day I knew that music would forever consume me. I knew I would never listen to it in the same way ever again. I knew it would no longer be the melody in the background of my life. I knew it would be my way of life.

That moment was the first time that I saw the video for Metallica’s “One”. Up until that point I thought you couldn’t rock any harder than Aerosmith or AC/DC. Then I heard the heaviest, fastest, technical, yet catchy, most brutal and most beautiful display of power, passion, aggression, and truth.

Remember kids, this was during the days of MTV when Def Leopard and Peter Gabriel where the music video kings. Never before had a band had such a stark and melancholy message. Never before had anyone watched a video and been disturbed. Marilyn Manson gets a lot of credit for being scary but Metallica did it first and Metallica did it best with “One”.

The stark black and white images and the poor maimed soldier where shot in film like ghosts of a different time. There wasn’t any pyrotechnics, make up, or poses during the band segments. It was black and white solidarity in head banging!

I was blown away by the ferocity of the final minutes in that epic song. The unison machine gun double bass drums and guitar chug rattled something deep inside of me and I knew… “I’ll never be the same again!”

I’ve had Metallica posters on my wall since before I had a deep voice. I’ve been collecting Metallica swag since before the advent of DVD and the internet.

That’s right! Those are tickets to see them in ATL on October the 4^th! Those are tickets from previous invasions of the southeast. Those are pics that I have caught from band members at the show!

I’ve got every CD (hell I had their tapes before there was CD’s), I’ve got every DVD, and I even have pictures of them in my bathroom!

When I had my first “garage band” in high school a lot of people said we sounded like Metallica and at the time there was no greater compliment that anyone could have given me.

Since then I have found my own musical identity in roots blues and traditional rock but there is still a special place in my soul reserved for the men that first broke the iron curtain and rocked the faces off of the Russians!

Rob Zombie said it best when Metallica was named MTV Icon, “Black Sabbath invented heavy metal and Metallica perfected it!”

Metallica was a band for outsiders like me. While everyone else was talking about the latest Madonna or Michael Jackson escapade my friends and I talked about how James was exploded in a pyrotechnics accident and still finished the tour!

Metallica’s music had a power and strength in it that eventually the rest of the world could no longer ignore. Because of this they have become what I like to call the last legendary rock group. They rank up there in the echelon of Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin. This past weekend I was proven right when Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on their first year of eligibility!

It was a great moment for them and it was a great moment for long time fans like me who have followed their career since before “Enter Sandman”. It was great to finally be validated after all those years of claiming “Metallica is one of the greatest bands ever!” People would just think I was another metal head. Well now Metallica and Black Sabbath are the only two pure heavy metal bands in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

Flea had the honor to induct the legends into the hall and his speech was a beautiful soliloquy of praise and obscenities! I was skeptical when I heard it would be Flea doing the honors and not another metal guy like maybe Ian from Anthrax , or Ozzy (Metallica inducted Black Sabbath into the hall). But now I know it was a great choice. Flea is a expletive poet.

Cliff Burton’s father accepted for his fallen but not forgotten son. You could see pride radiating off of him like sunbeams.

Jason reminded us all why we loved him and now miss him. He was his usual energetic, gracious, and jovial self. He showed immense class by accepting his place with grace and not allowing old dramas to ruin the moment like Blondie did.

Lars was as usual the quintessential rock star, but he dropped the persona for a fleeting moment to express love and gratitude for his father.

The opposite of Lars is one James Hetfield. He is humble and proud. He’s the man that did 3 week’s worth of physical therapy in 4 days so that he could continue on the Summer Sanitarium tour after injuring his back. It’s always struck me as odd that the front man of the band is the reserved one and the drummer is the rock star, but that dichotomy between the two chief architects has fostered 9 studio albums and thousands of stadium shows.

Here is James accepting his long deserved award.

After the acceptance speeches it was time to rock and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has never faced such brutality before!

Jason played along with the band for the first time in nearly a decade and the duo of Jason and Rob on bass made for one of the most bottom heavy Metallica performances ever (if you can believe that)!

Then after that there was an all star jam featuring Metallica, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jimmy Page of Zeppelin, Flea, and fellow inductee Jeff Beck on the Aerosmith classic “Train Kept a Rollin”!

Look at all those guitars! It was a Guitar Hero clinic.

Once again, congratulations to Metallica and thank you for adding so much to my life.

Well it seems all the photos didn't work. I'd rather not deal with the frustration of pouring over all that code. If you would like the full effect please follow this link...

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=144998131&blogId=481610276

Thanks for reading.

[sean "rox" michael schoff]

Nice, Jon. Metallica *did* perfect Metal. Through consistent world touring, great artwork, magazine articles, killer tshirt designs and mixed tapes from teen to teen in the mid-80s -- Metallica became a phenom with little or NO radio play.

IMHO, Metallica were the last metal band... until The Mars Volta.

Rock on Jon.

My fav CD has always been Master of Puppets... a classic.

[Jonathan Edwards]

Thanks for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Indeed, the POWER of music :)

[Rusty Wood]

Thanks for sharing Jonathan. Your feelings about Metallica is how I felt about the Beatles. The power of music.. WOW!