It was just a phase

When people ask me about my favorite band, I usually respond by telling them, "I have been listening to Metallica since I was a fetus." They laugh, and I tell them that I have been a metal-head my whole life. The truth is, while I did, in fact grow up listening to hard rock bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, Joe Satriani and, yes, Metallica, I had a few "favorite bands" before Metallica, which I rarely admit to.

I got my first CD player when I was in 4th grade. Growing up in South Florida, I didn't find a lot of friends who enjoyed the head-banging, finger-tapping, heavily distorted thrash masterpieces. I hung out with mostly fans of hip-hop and R&B. In order to connect with my poor, uncultured friends, I forced myself to like their music. What I am about to confess shames me even now, a decade and a half after the fact. My first 3 CDs were (in this order): All-4-One (Self-Titled); Boyz-II Men, II; and the Space Jam Soundtrack. I knew every song on all three of these albums by heart. I sang them in the mirror as I brushed my teeth in the morning. I wrote the names of these bands on my notebooks at school. Because, back me up on this, chicks dig guys who have "Coolio rules" written in Sharpie along the top of his Trapper-Keeper.
At one point, in fifth grade, Stefan Lue, Robert Carbonell, Nick Martinez, and I decided to sing "On Bended Knee" at show-and-tell. I don't really remember how they did, but I'm fairly certain they looked better than my pudgy, pasty, freckled, red-headed self singing this soul-filled romance song. We were really hoping that would set us up for success in middle-school. It wasn't until I moved to North Carolina 4 years later that I finally got my first girlfriend. And I think I still had some "wuss residue" left over from then, because that only lasted a few weeks.
Anyways, I think it was the summer before 6th grade that I was going through some of my dad's CDs while he was on deployment and found Metallica's 1996 album, Load. I took it up to my room and put it into my RCA boom box and cranked it up. With every song, I forgot more and more about Boyz II Men. By the time "Outlaw Torn" was over, I knew that my dad would never see his CD again. And he hasn't. I began listening to a lot of his CDs in my room: Highway to Hell, Surfing with the Alien, 2112. I saved up my money, and before the end of the summer, I had bought myself "The Black Album." I never recovered. It took only a year or two to accumulate every single Metallica LP, either by gift or from saved allowances. I learned the whole history of the band. I mourned over the death of Cliff Burton (who had died when I was only two), and over the reality that I would never get to see him play. And then I began branching out. At first, thrash metal was the only music I would listen to: Megadeth, Slayer, Testament. And then I branched out to bands like Black Sabbath, Pantera, Down, Black Label Society, Corrosion of Conformity. And most recently, the "screamers" as I like to call them: Shadows Fall, In Flames, Children of Bodom.

Over the last few years, my musical tastes have expanded quite a bit (though I have thoroughly washed my hands of the R&B). As I write this, I have my Pandora account cued up to play songs from a mix of playlists including: Bob Dylan, Slayer, Gregorian Chants, Iron and Wine, Derek Webb, and Chris Thile (Holy Wars... The Punishment Due, by Megadeth is currently tearing a hole in my eardrum).
It's funny, a few years ago, I would never admitted to the "show-and-tell" incident above. Now, I wish I had more stories like that.
I'll try to think of some more...