Metallica Saved My Life – With Metallica!

I just got to watch “Metallica Saved My Life” with Metallica! Like, I was in the same theater with the four members of the band watching it with them. It was a surreal Wednesday night that I won’t soon forget.

I got a note from their emailer a few months ago about a world premiere for “Metallica Saved My Life” at the Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan on June 12, 2025. I work in downtown Manhattan not too far from the theater and it just so happens that I was not ironically planning to visit a city the band was playing in that day (I wasn’t set to leave for Houston until Friday). The email teased that the band might be there.

Normally, I wouldn’t be caught dead at the Tribeca Film Festival. In fact, I wouldn’t be caught dead at a movie theatre. I hate movies. But this was a no-brainer exception to those rules, and I used the pre-sale link to grab general admission tickets.

I didn’t know what to expect other than I’d get to see the movie and maybe they’d trot one of the band members out on stage after it ended. As it turned out, with a little luck the experience far exceeded my expectations.

It started with a sequence of events that got me in the exact right place at the exact right time. I was supposed to take Monday off work to help my dad with some things around the yard. But it rained on Monday, so we rescheduled for Wednesday. That altered my plans slightly, I wouldn’t be in my office that day and would have to commute into the city in the evening. I would end up getting there later than I would have if I was at work.

I arrived about 30 minutes before showtime. When I got there, because they just love doing this in New York City, there was a line down the block to get in. So, I had to wait there for no reason. But when I got inside, just before they took my tickets, I scored big time.

Some dude who I didn’t even see said to me “Hey, do you want an upgraded ticket?”. I said “sure”, and he handed me two tickets for assigned seats in row D. If I got there ten seconds sooner or later, I would have missed it.

As the letter on the tickets implied, D was the fourth row, and it was close to the center of the stage. How lucky was that?

Not too long after I found my seat, I heard a small commotion to my right. Lars Ulrich, the greatest drummer of all time, was standing at the end of my row to my right! I was in complete shock. I wasn’t sure if I should scream and yell or run over there and say something. I got hold of myself and sat down. Lars sat down in the same row in the next section over. I was going to watch the Metallica movie in the same row as Lars!

I looked around some more and in the section to my left in the fourth row was James Hetfield! He was with his girlfriend and his daughter Marcella whom I coincidentally met when she was working at my favorite jeweler in Manhattan. At that point I was completely beside myself. How on earth did I manage to land tickets to the premiere of a Metallica movie and sit in the same row as the two founding members?

Luckily the lights went off and the movie started before I could faint. I couldn’t help myself the whole night, my eyes kept darting from James, to the screen, to Lars, to the screen, and back to James. I wanted to see the movie, but I also wanted to see how they reacted to it.

There are going to be plenty of reviews of the movie as it is released globally this week. I won’t attempt to properly review it, nor will I spoil anything about it, but I will say that I was blown away by how good it was.

My first impression was that the title “Metallica Saved My Life” was a bit misleading. It was not a movie solely about fans who would have died had Metallica not been in their lives somehow. In fact, there was only one person featured in the movie who could legitimately say that he would have been dead had it not been for Metallica.

I would categorize the movie more as a documentary about both the band and its powerful connection to its diverse and global fan base. The poster advertised it as “starring a shitload of Metallica fans” and that was an understatement.

There were over a dozen compelling main-character storylines about Metallica fans from all around the world. It covered fans from every continent, including Antarctica. They ranged from original fans, to obsessed fans, to fans who had to overcome terrible adversity in their lives and used Metallica as the soundtrack of their perseverance. The stories they told were heartbreaking, irreverent, and inspirational. The common thread across all the storylines in the movie was the intensely powerful connection between Metallica and their fans.

I especially enjoyed the scenes about fans who travel the world to see Metallica play. I can relate because that’s what I’ve been doing since the beginning of the M72 World Tour. I also enjoyed a blink-and-you-miss-it picture of one of the fans in Duff’s Brooklyn with its owner, Jimmy Duff. It is one of my favorite bars in the world and I immediately DM’d Jimmy to tell him he made the movie. He had no idea!

Unfortunately, I did not make the movie. I need to fire my agent. But I don’t think I’ve ever felt as connected to the band as I did that night. James was rocking out to scenes of fans covering Metallica music. He laughed out loud at some scenes, especially ones that featured children. Lars took the movie in a bit more quietly. He appeared to be in a reflective mood. I don’t know where Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujilo were sitting, but I know they had to be somewhere nearby in the reserved section. I don’t know what I did to be so lucky as to get that seating upgrade, but I am forever grateful to whoever that guy was who handed it to me.

As the movie drew closer to the end, James and Lars left their seats so they could get backstage. When the movie ended, the band took the stage for a moderated discussion about the movie. They sat down right in front of me!

They answered the interviewer’s softball questions about themselves and the movie. Some insights they offered up were about how the movie came about. Lars explained that the band sold “tour passes” for every show on the arena leg of the WorldWired Tour, and that got them interested in the stories of the people willing to go to every show.

They introduced some of the people in the audience including director Jonas Åkerlund, their manager Cliff Burnstein, and the director of the first theatrical Metallica documentary “Some Kind of Monster” Joe Berlinger. I wasn’t just sitting among the members of Metallica, I was surrounded by Metallica royalty.

The interview ended and Metallica left the stage to a raucous ovation. As I made my way up the stairs, I said hi to Marcella when I walked by her. I held up my ring that she repaired for me when we first met.

I was on cloud nine. My mind ran through all the special Metallica experiences I’ve had in my life:

• Seeing them play at the old Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan
• Watching concerts from the Snake Pit in Montreal, Madrid (twice), and just two weeks prior in Philadelphia
• Meeting Robert Trujillo at Blackened American Whiskey bottle signings on two separate occasions in crappy liquor stores in New Jersey and Arizona

But this one instantly became one of my top Metallica experiences, and it wasn’t even at a concert.

I’m off to Houston for the weekend to see them from the Snake Pit again. I’m hoping Lars and James see me in the crowd, recognize me from the theater, and feature me in “Metallica Saved My Life Part II”. If not, I’m sure my memories from all my past and future Metallica experiences will be good enough.