I wish i could proudly say that my first ever-cassette was a Metallica album. But my first was Slippery When Wet. The second was Appetite For Destruction. My third was Ride The Lightning.

The induction speeches had me teary-eyed. I never pictured Hetfield being married and having kids. I never thought I'd see them cut their long hairs short and wear three-piece suits. I am so happy for this band. I grew up on riffs, rock-operas, 8-minute instrumentals, palm-muted, down-strokes, open-E chords. After seeing this, I remember my first-ever band. Tumugtog kami sa isang piyesta sa Manggahan sa San Pedro, Laguna. We played Slayer, The Cult, and, of course, Metallica. Isa lang ang pedal ng drummer namin but he was able to do the double-bass kick somehow. He even had the curls like Lars Ulrich had.

Ah, I miss playing. Furthermore, I miss playing with reckless abandon. When you don't care whether people listened to you or not. The mere fact that you're up there on stage, playing music you love is all that matters. I'm going to start coming up with them palm-muted, down-stroked open, uhm, D-chords, and soon I'll be up on stage once more.

These dudes inspired me then to play music. It's amazing how they kicked me up the arse once more and encouraged me to do so again.

Metal Militia!