Public Hall @ Cleveland, OH - 4/4/09

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the biggest moment in Metallica's history - induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! Was it me or did James, Lars, Kirk, Rob, and Jason (and Cliff's Dad) appear to be more excited and grateful than most inductees? Some artists that have been inducted in the past haven't seemed as happy or excited as Metallica was.

After several hours of delays (due to the beautiful northeastern US weather) and changing my flights, I finally got to Cleveland around 7:30 pm. Ron and Brad were already at the airport waiting for me. We got our rental car, and then checked into our hotel. We were already a tad bit late for the Party Up Your Ass (PUYA) at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was organized by (local chapter) SoCal Up Your Ass (S.C.U.Y.A.).

Virginia Fuel in the house!
(L to R) Joie, Nattie, me and Dawn

Virginia Fuel was well represented at the Hard Rock - Joie, Dawn, Nattie and myself. I got to catch up with some friends - Jameson and Teresa, and I got to meet the infamous Iz Whittemore who is chapter head of S.C.U.Y.A.. After the party came to an end, some of us went to bar at the Hard Rock Cafe, and that's where I ran into an old friend from way back - Chris Barr. It was great to see her again.

"Hey Jameson! Open wide bitch!"

Chapter Heads at the Hard Rock

After a few beers at the Hard Rock Cafe, Brad, Ron and I decided to check out downtown Cleveland and see what the city had to offer. I was surprised on how clean the city is - at least the downtown part where all the stadiums, museums, restaurants, bars, etc are located. There was a rumor of Metallica doing a roast (like they do on Comedy Central) at the House of Blues with a few hundred of their closest friends which turned out to be true. I think every person in Metallica's history was there - Johnny Z, Ron Quintana, old crew guys, Big Mick, Jason, Ron McGovney, Bob Rock, Lloyd Grant, Tony Smith, Fleming Rasmussen, Harold O, Pushead, etc...you get the idea!

My favorite picture in the Hard Rock Cafe

Since getting into the House of Blues was going to be impossible, Ron, Brad and I did the next best thing - we went to a bar (Cadillac Ranch) down the street from the House of Blues. At the Cadillac Ranch, the only entertainment was watching women repeatedly fall off a mechanical bull. However, we did stare at a couple of attractive bartenders while they "cleaned" all of the liquor bottles. :) By the end of the night, Brad was slightly buzzed - which is great entertainment in itself. We grabbed some late night grub from Burger King's. When we got back to the hotel, all of the power to the hotel was out. The only lights we had was from our cellphones. We ate like a bunch of savages in the dark. It was quite funny. Ron's friends from Jersey, Sean and Jay, were driving to Cleveland and didn't end up getting in until the wee hours of the morning. Apparently they got stuck in some major traffic/accident/detours/bullshit/etc.

The next day we hit a local burger joint that I wanted to check out - Bearden's. I looked up this place from that show - Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The burgers were pretty good. Ron even had a peanut butter burger. He said it tasted good. After lunch, we headed out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum since admission was free all day. We probably should have went to the Museum before lunch, because when we got there, the line was VERY long to get in...and it was very chilly outside. Fortunately for us, the line moved pretty quick. As we were entering we ran into Toby (from the MetClub) who was leaving the Museum. Toby showed us some pictures of his 14 month old girl...thank GOD she gets her looks from her mom, and not her dad! :)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum was pretty damn cool! TONS of rare memorabilia from all facets of rock and roll. I recommend that you got to check this place out at least once. I didn't see anything about heavy metal, though. Hopefully that will change after Metallica gets inducted. The only bad thing about the Museum, was that in certain sections of the Museum, you couldn't take pictures. WTF?!?! Do you REALLY think Bon Jovi gives a shit if you take a picture of his tour jacket from the Slippery When Wet tour? Even with the rule, I still managed to get a few pictures.

Puppets from Alice in Chains' "Stay Away" video

Punk Rock

Jimi Hendrix

As we were headed out of the Museum, we noticed Bob Rock standing in line to get in. WTF? If you're Bob Rock, can't you just go to the front of the line?

After chilling at the hotel for a few hours, we got all dressed up and headed for the big induction ceremony. I had heard that this was going to be a formal ceremony, so I didn't take any chances on not being allowed into the ceremony. So, I wore a collared shirt and tie...with my S&M Metallica fake tuxedo shirt underneath. This was only the 2nd time I've ever wore this ridiculous shirt. The 1st time was back in 2006 at the Sundance Film Festival. We had reserved seats so there was no rush to get there, so we found a bar in the Renaissance Hotel nearby and pounded a few pre-show beers. While I was in the lobby, someone (who looked important/famous) mistakened me as one of the hotel employees. He asked me where the bathroom was...and I politely showed him. It was kind of a funny moment...

When we got to Public Hall, there was already a lot of people hanging around the main red carpet entrance. Plans to drop Brad off at the red carpet to sneak his way in were quickly dismissed since his wardrobe - although looking like he was part of the wait staff - probably wouldn't get pass security. Once doors open I noticed there was a lot of people just wearing jeans and t-shirts, so I took off my collared shirt and tie. No way I was gonna wear a shirt and tie if I didn't need to. We had some time to kill, so we drank some more pre-show $6 beers and caught up with Toby some more.

As the 8 pm start time approached (you had to be in your seats by 8 pm, or they wouldn't allow you to go to your seat until the next commercial break), I saw Steve Wiig ("Hey, it's STEVE WIIG!") and Adam Dubin walking to their seats. I quickly re-introduced myself to Mr. Dubin as one of the guys he interviewed on camera at the MetClub BBQ at Bonnaroo. "Yah, I remember. You're friend passed out at the Basement, right?" Hey George, he remembers you!

The Public Hall, which was recently renovated, was a great place to have the ceremony. I didn't realize this, but this was the first time the induction ceremony has been held in Cleveland since 1997. The induction ceremonies have been previously held in New York. They should have it every year in Cleveland. There wasn't a bad seat in the house. My seat wasn't next to Ron and Brad's - they were a couple of rows behind me. I lucked out by having my seat next to Jameson and Theresa.

The entire ceremony was awesome! I still couldn't believe I was there. As the ceremony went on, you could tell there were A LOT of Metallica fans in attendance. I lost count of how many fans screamed out, "M-E-T-A-L-L-I-C-A!!!" Although, eventually some of those yells got a little annoying and drowned out some of the acceptance speeches of the other inductees. It was really cool to see all of the other inductees (Jeff Beck, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Run-DMC, Bobby Womack, Wanda Jackson, Bill Black, DJ Fontana and Spooner Oldham). A was little disappointed that Run-DMC didn't perform. That would have been cool to see.

As all of you must have thought to yourselves - why the HELL is Flea inducting Metallica? Wasn't Black Sabbath suppose to induct them? At least that's what I remember Black Sabbath saying when they got inducted in 2006. However, Flea gave one of the great induction speeches and passionately explained why bands like Metallica matter, and lovingly eulogizing late original bassist Cliff Burton. I liked the fact that he must have hand wrote his speech, and dropped each sheet to the ground once he was done.

It was REALLY cool to see Jason again. The fact that he went to 99.9% of the pre-shows AND after-shows is not forgotten by Metallica fans, especially when the other members of Metallica sporadically came to the pre- and after-shows. It appeared to me that Jason almost got choked up during his speech. I thought his speech was really moving. In fact, all of the guys' speeches were amazing. I especially liked Lars' speech since he had nothing written down. And how could anyone watching not shed a tear when he thanked his father (who had the longest hair in the building) for being there to enjoy in his celebration.

Seeing Jason play with Metallica was fucking cool! The sound acoustics were great. Even from my seat which was sort of far away, Metallica sounded great. They played a somewhat predictable set - "Puppets" and "Sandman". It would have been cool to see them play one of the medleys they've played live before (Kill/Ride medley or the Justice medley). Other than the one time in 1982 and the times that John Marshall filled in when Jaymz hurt himself, seeing Metallica play as a 5-piece band was quite historic.

Who the HELL is this guy?

After the show, Ron, Sean, Jay, Brad and I hit a local bar and pound some beers till 2 am. Once again seeing Brad drunk is pretty darn funny and entertaining. Then on Sunday, everybody went home either via car or plane, and then it was back to reality. My flight wasn't until 6 pm, so I had plenty of time to reflect on what could be...what should be Metallica's crowning achievement, and I was just glad I was there to witness it.

Picture from Rolling Stone