Earliest metal memory

What got you listening to metal music? For me it was my older cousin and his KISS records. I remember really liking the song (Tears Are Falling).

Troublezone wrote:

What got you listening to metal music? For me it was my older cousin and his KISS records. I remember really liking the song (Tears Are Falling).

Funny, for me it was by best friend and his KISS Army. He played "Strutter" for me and I was hooked.

Ironic you started this thread Troublezone as for me it was buying Kiss Destroyer...WAY back in the day. Just listened to it on my way to work.

Count me in as another with Kiss.I remember hearing "I was made for Lovin you" on the radio when I was around 6 or 7.

Hearing AC/DC's "Highway To Hell' over the church PA during an anti rock rally.

I think KISS and AC/DC had a magnetic effect on almost everyone growing up in the 70's or 80's.

One of the earliest:

Seeing Kiss on the Paul Lynde Halloween special in 1976...that prompted me to beg my Mother for days to let me buy a Kiss album, she finally relented and I picked up Rock And Roll Over (I think I chose that one because I liked the cover).

yea, KiSSin time continue
for me it was KiSS and IMFLY with GodGaveRnRToYou II

Wow, lotsa KISS stories here... how'bout another one?

When I was in first grade circa 1976-77, our teacher did a weekly activity called "Music Time," where she'd let kids bring in a record from home and pick one song off of it to play for the class. I remember hearing a lot of Bee Gees, Sean Cassidy, and ABBA during this period (ugh!) but one day a kid named Scott brought in his older brother's copy of Kiss' DESTROYER and told the teacher to play "Detroit Rock City." That was the first time I'd ever heard music that was harder than Elvis or the Beatles (my parents' faves) and it hooked me right away. I went home from school that day babbling to my Mom about this band that looked like monsters and breathed fire and crashed cars on their record, and she of course had no idea what I was talking about. A while later we were shopping in a K-Mart or Korvettes store (remember Korvettes?) and I saw the DESTROYER LP in the record department. I freaked out and went "MOM! THAT'S THEM! THAT'S THE GROUP I WAS TALKING ABOUT! CAN I HAVE IT? CAN I CAN I CAN I HUH HUH HUH?" ... she of course took one look at the cover and said "Um... no." So it was a few more years before I was finally able to buy a copy with my own money.

Years later, I happened to run into Scott again at a club while a KISS tribute band was playing... I told him the above story and said "See, it's all YOUR fault... if it weren't for you bringing in that record, I may never have become the metal geek that I am today. Thank you."

Another childhood memory concerning Kiss:

When I was in grade school our music teacher had a big poster of the Destroyer cover hanging on the wall.I always thought that was cool.

A friend played AC/DC - TNT, been a fan ever since that day!!

KISS - I remember hearing about KISS, Destroyer was the rock/metal album I ever owned. My Dad had one of the Jimi Hendrix albums when I was a kid - I remeber listening to Foxy Lady and Purple Haze even before I got the KISS record. I also remember getting Van Halen's debut album on my 8th birthday. Friends would play Led Zepplin (I was never into them, I just wanted to listen to KISS and Van Halen!)

In 1978 my favorite bands were:

Kiss
The Doobie Brothers
Boston
Heart
Queen
E.L.O.

Out of that list, the only bands I no longer listen to are Kiss & Boston.

Hearing Metallica's "Hit the Lights" blast through the speakers when I was around 10 - I jumped to the ground, lay on my back, and just spassed out to the sheer intensity of that song.

Along with Maiden's "Fear of the Dark" and Helloween's "Halloween", this was the true transition into the metal loving Mglaffas81 of today.

My teenage step-uncle turning on his black lights and cranking up "God Of Thunder" on his turntable and not letting me out of the room no matter how much I freaked out...haha!

Mine was also Kiss related, we used to crank up Kiss at my buddy's house & run around with tennis raquets doing air guitar & breaking stuff.

AC/DC-Highway To Hell; I loved the entire album since I was 2, My bro had it on vinyl and I used to sleep with it in my crib and he had to play it all the time or I would cry if he played anything else.

Back in middle school we would sit on the stoop and listen to music, that's where I got a lot of my friends that I have now. My friend Colby's dad always listened (and probably still does listen) to bands like Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Loudness. My other friend Joey went to a used book store and picked up Law Of The Devil's Land (Loudness) and British Steel (Judas Priest). He brought those over and we listened to them 'til dawn. That's what really sparked my interest in heavy metal. That weekend I went out and bought Paranoid (Black Sabbath). However, I always had an interest in Queen and Van Halen, just not the straight-forward Metal stuff.

I had 2 older brothers, and when KISS hit it big, they became fans. So when KISS visited Norway for the first time in 1980, I remember sneaking up after bedtime to watch them on the news at 9pm. I was almost 6 years old. I had already heard the Peter Criss solo album, Destroyer and Unmasked

My oldest brother had this firend with a rather large vinyl collection. My brother would make these mixed tapes with loads of great stuff, that I used to borrow. Here I heard Metallica, Scorpions, Ozzy, Maiden, Agent Steel and Loudness for the first time. It has been a smooth ride ever since!

I could almost cut and paste Freddie's story from above. It was KISS with me too. I was a frickin fanatic for anything KISS. It all started in 1975 for me and really hasn't ever slowed down. We actually made a couple kids cry when we would take their ABBA and Carpenters records off to play KISS during our music time in grade school. Dressed to Kill and Alive were always on hand with me, still love those old records.

the first time I saw a picture of Lita ford.

Olafsto wrote:

A friend played AC/DC - TNT, been a fan ever since that day!!

Exact same story here.

My first personal metal memory was getting a k-tel cassette which had Ozzy's Flying High Again and Krokus Long Stick Goes Boom on it. I played those two songs non-stop. Funny that at ten I thought they were actually songs about flying and dynamite.

But my first metal memory of any kind was my dad not being able to hear for days after going to a Kiss concert. He wasn't a fan but a friend of his was the adoptive father of Gary Herriwig the guitar player/songwriter for Artful Dodger who was opening for Kiss at the time.

I'm going with "We Will Rock You" by Queen. It sounded heavy when I was 7.

Back in '75-'76 my sister had all the rock and 70's heavy metal that was pretty much mandatory for the time: first 3 Aerosmith, first 2 Montrose, Kiss Alive and Destroyer, Ted Nugent's first couple lp's, Nazareth HOTDog & Loud n Proud, Deep Purple Live In Europe, Boston s/t, Led Zep 4 or 5 albums, and a bunch of other stuff. She would let me play her LP's and would beat me senseless when I would make scratches on them but the blood and bruises were worth it cuz I was hooked for life.
The Ones that really had a lasting impact on me:

Aerosmith...Get Your Wings and Rocks
Kiss.....Alive and Destroyer
Led Zep........1 & 2
Nazareth.....Hair Of The Dog
Montrose.....s/t
Boston....s/t
Foghat....Fool For The City
Thin Lizzy.....Johnny The Fox
Rush.......Fly By Night, Caress Of Steel, 2112
Heart.........Little Queen, Dreamboat Annie