Thoughts on My Point of Entry to Metal

March 15, 2024, I got to participate in a panel discussion talking about our point of entry or our road to hard rock and heavy metal. I call it an honor to share stories about music with folks such as the ones in the picture above.

My cliff notes version goes something like this. When I was a wee lad, I can remember the impact music would have on me. Sometimes it was too much and I would like to pull the needles out of the stylus.

KISS would really be where my story starts. I have a memory of holding up the Hotter Than Hell album that my brother borrowed and had dubbed onto an 8-track. But it didn’t register with me until I saw their following album, Dressed to Kill in an old Two Guys department store. I was enamored with it and I begged my Dad to get it and to my surprise he did.

I was in probably first grade at the time but KISS would become my world.

I listened to other bands like Foghat, Boston, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Steely Dan. All stuff my brother and sister had as they are 13 and 15 years older than me.

Around 1981, I had started branching out a little more. AC/DC, Van Halen, REO Speedwagon, Ozzy (which would lead me to his era of Black Sabbath), Robert Plant(which would lead me to Led Zeppelin), Rush, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard were among artists that I would get into.

By 1983, I was listening to Judas Priest’s Screaming For Vengeance quite often and eventually got turned onto Iron Maiden.

The hair metal scene was getting going with Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Ratt, Scorpions, and bands like that and I gravitated towards that.

Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry, with its over the top videos, was popular with me. By this point, my tastes were getting louder, angrier, sexist, and I couldn’t have been happier.

January 85 is where the ride starts getting wilder. W.A.S.P. would be introduced to my ears and life would not be the same. Blackie Lawless became my guy.

From there, bands like Slayer and Metallica, Raven and Lizzy Borden, Impaler and Stryper, Loudness and Accept were bands that I started getting into. By the time I graduated high school, if it was metal, I would get it. Pretty much.