Writer Todd Lyons had the opportunity to be a member of the studio audience for a recent taping for That Metal Show. Here's his experience:

Going to the Show

When I opened my email and spotted the invite to attend a taping of That Metal Show, I didn’t hesitate. If you’re sharp enough to read heavymetal.D106, you know about the VH-1 show. Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson host the only heavy metal show on television.

It was a no-brainer. This was going to be sweet… I mean Amy Lee in leathers sweet!
Everyone who grows up in SoCal will go to enough TV tapings by age 12 that it becomes something we only do when relatives visit from out of town. I was curious to see how similar the taping of That Metal Show was to others, like The Price Is Right for instance. Where did metal end and Hollywood take over?

My wife Jacki was joining me. I asked her to wear my Katatonia T-shirt. I put on my Burzum T-shirt. We needed to be there at a very un-metal 2:00 pm.

On the Lot: Two Lines?

That Metal Show tapes at Sony Pictures in Culver City. When we rolled up to Gate One, the guard gave us a smirk, told us where to park and that we needed to walk toward the big Wheel of Fortune sign to find where the audience lines start.
I was confused. Metal fans rocking their finest black gear under the smiling gazes of Pat and Vanna? Did that guard really say lines? How many maniacs show up to the tapings of this semi-obscure cable show?

When we got to the card table where a staffer checked us in, I frowned at the airport style metal detector set up beside it. A metal detector for That Metal Show where everyone was metal to the bone? We received black wristbands and were pointed at the rear of the line…on the left. The line on the right was already maxed out. 200 or more people had showed up. The guests for today’s show were Geoff Tate (ex-Queensryche) and Zakk Wylde. They’re definitely giants, but were they the draw? Things got weirder as I checked out the people in the lines. We would be the only ones there in a Katatonia or Burzum t-shirt.

Hanging with the Headbangers

The fans outside Studio 24 were playing it frosty, but it was obvious they were itching to get inside. One interesting couple, a skeletal blonde in a skin tight micro-mini and a dude with a jet black Skid Row hairstyle, had each other in a death clutch as they kept their eyes glued on the studio door.
We’re told heavy metal belongs to kids struggling through their mid-teens. Wherever I looked I saw no teenagers. The studio doesn’t allow kids under 18 to watch the taping. Some of the fans might’ve been in their mid-twenties, but the majority hadn’t seen twenty-nine in a long time. Nearly everyone wore black t-shirts emblazoned with the logos of bands long ago disbanded. These fans were old enough to have haunted Tower Records in its heyday. These were the fans that made Rush’s Permanent Waves a hit. I overheard two dudes recalling the first time they saw Metallica at the Troubadour in ’82.

The door opens: Where’s the dude with the guitar?

I found the crowd’s size and its loyalty to That Metal Show a real eye-opener. I was surrounded by headbangers, who weren’t reliving their youth, they were still living the metal dream. One fan in his forties brought a cherry-red Zakk Wylde guitar with him. The burly guard at the metal detector inspected it with distaste, but let it pass. The fan shot up horns with one hand while hoisting the guitar up with the other as he walked toward the lines. Here, under the Wheel of Fortune sign, he received a couple of “hell yeahs.”
The studio door swung open and the stage crew waved us in. Our part of the line had to pause to let a limo push through on its way to the rear of the studio. I watched as Zakk Wylde got out. Fans stared down the alley and whispered to each other. Is that Zakk? I looked for the dude with the red guitar but he was already inside the studio.

That Metal Show taping progressed like all tapings do. Nearly three hours crept past. The stage crew was minimal but top-notch. Half of them were decent looking chicks in jeans. I noticed a lot of the male fans watching them more than they did the show. As Eddie, Jim and Don worked through essentially a tweaked radio show disguised as a TV talk show, I was impressed to see that there wasn’t a teleprompter in sight.

Metalheads from Everywhere

Over the course of the taping I chatted with the other metal heads. There was Melissa, an amply-breasted blonde from Australia and Matt in a Cheap Trick shirt from upper Maine. Jason had just returned from Afghanistan and would be heading back in three weeks. Two fans in particular, Bernadette and her adult daughter, Amber, had rocketed down from San Francisco that very morning. Both ladies were genuinely pumped about seeing what they said was their favorite show. The rapport they felt for the hosts and the fact that the show was the only one on television devoted to their music compelled them to make the seven hour drive. I heard this a lot.
After taping was over, the audience sluggishly filed out. Many fans seemed to shuffle as slowly as possible. While the audience exited in front of us, more than a few shot glances at the empty set the same way they might have glanced at an empty stage moments after Ratt or Motley Crue had wrapped up their final encores. It was clear to me then just how much That Metal Show connects with a hardcore fan base who have families, careers and heavy metal hearts.