Oldie Hawn

Like most people, I listen to my iPod at work constantly.  Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of late 80s-era industrial and goth:  early NIN, Revolting Cocks, Ministry (before they started to suck), that sort of thing.  Right now I’m listening to “Assimilate” by Skinny Puppy, a song I’ve loved since I was in high school.  (The lyrics are awesome.)

Then it dawned on me.  Most of the Chinese I have working for me, all of them college graduates, were probably born around the time this song came out.

Fuck, I’m getting old.

Hi Lee. Peaking of getting old..... I had a gig last night and this one girl wanted to hear some early Metallica. She was out celebrating her birthday with a group of friends. so we played Seek and Destroy for her at which point her and one of her girlfriends decided to show us their boobies. God I love playing music! So we get off stage and she comes over to thank us for playing her favorite Metallica song. Turns out she was celebrating her 22nd birthday so she wasn’t even born when that song came out. Hell, I remember listening to that ALBUM every morning before school my sophomore year in high school. She also asked us if we knew any “classic” rock such as Poison or Motley Crue. Damn....... for just a moment I felt old. But it was nice of them to show us their appreciation by flashing us. That’s always nice!

I got you beat.  I used to listen to it in junior high. 

If you’re in to the 80’s industrial thing, then you might like to check out KMFDM, Lee.

I’m pretty sure I have almost every one of their CDs.

I started listening to them after Ride the Lightning. Then I went back and listened to Kill em All and loved it! You and I are the same age Lee. In middle school I was listening to Blizzard of Ozz, Iron Maiden Van Halen and Led Zeppelin.

I was about 13 or 14, in junior high in Scotland, when my friend Les came to me and said, “Dude, I have heard the future of metal.” Then he played Whiplash, and almost crapped myself.  Like you I was into Maiden, Van Halen, Scorpions, Sabbath, etc., but speed metal/thrash metal was something new.  There were other bands like Venom, but they were all into that Satanic shit and it turned a lot of us off.  But Metallica were different.

In 1985, I saw them play at the Castle Donington Monsters of Rock festival in Donington, England.  It was the original line-up, and they only had their first two albums out.  I actually managed to finagle backstage passes to that show, and I got to meet James and Kirk.  I still have photos, in a box somewhere, of me and them together.

When I saw Kirk I went up and asked for his autograph.  He heard my accent and said, “Are you American?” I answered yes, and he yells out to everyone, “Hey, this guy’s cool!” I almost fucking died.

Later that day I was standing in line at the beer tent to buy a beer (the drinking age is 18, and I could pass) and Hetfield walked up to the front of the line and ordered some beers.  He looks at me and says, “Want a beer?” I almost passed out.  So James Hetfield bought me a beer when I was 15. 

How’s that for a kick-ass story?

I just realized, that happened the same year your boobie girl was born.

Fuck, we’re old.

Cool story. I first saw them at this little club here in downtown San Antonio shortly before Ride the Lightning was released. Not a lot of people were into them but they did have a cult following. I was just there to pick up chicks. A couple months later I heard Ride the Lightning and was so pissed that I didn’t pay attention to them when I saw them. I saw them again a couple years later while they were touring for Master of Puppets about 5 months before Cliff Burton died. I lost interest in them after that.

I liked the speed metal too but you did have to weed throught the satanic stuff. I listened to Slayer, Venom, Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost but I would also listen to Beatles, Led Zeppelin and early Aerosmith.

The first time I ever did ecstasy was at a metal club in Houston in 1988.  There was an unknown metal band named Pantera playing at this place, which had a maximum capacity of maybe 600 people.  I remember peaking on the E right about the time they played “Raining Blood” by Slayer. 

Fucking Pantera on E, almost 20 years ago.  Unbelievable.

LOL, I bet you hate birthdays. I hatem, hate getting old.

Who would have thought some baned called Pantera playing at some stink hole with only 600 people in it would hit it big.