As a Father’s Day gift, my wife bought me a ticket to the Metallica concert. I went with a group of six friends that are much closer to retirement than college – and that’s not because we’re independently wealthy, either. As a rock-and-roll guy that had never seen Metallica, I was appreciative of the gift. However, I had no idea what I was about to experience.
I wrote a similar post last year about Adele. I went to her concert for my wife’s sake, but was awed by her talent and blown away by her performance. It wasn’t the same thing with Metallica. I knew I’d love the show, and they met my expectations. However, I left the show with a feeling unlike I’ve had following any event.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see many of the most talented people of our age perform their talents. I’ve seen LeBron James, Barry Bonds, Pedro Martinez, and Tiger Woods master their sport right in front of me. I’ve seen several shows on Broadway. I’ve seen the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra perform in Vienna. I’ve been to concerts to see U2, Elton John, Pink Floyd, and Adele. I’m lucky. Those athletes and artists took me to a different place while I watched them perform. Full of talent, they each prepared and worked their tails off during their performances. However, none of them brought it like Metallica did last week… not even close.
To add some context to my story, I live in, and saw them play in Orlando. Not New York, London, or Tokyo … Orlando. We’re the 19th largest TV market in the U.S. We have teams in only two of the five major sporting leagues. Orlando. Yet, these guys played as though they were in the center of the universe. They worked like their families’ lives depended on their performance. They brought it unlike any performer I’ve seen… to Orlando.
So, who cares? Why is this topic a post? Because most of us go through life believing that we need to work hard, save our money, and put in our time in our 20s, 30s, and 40s. Then, it’s time to start pulling back on the strings of our lives. That’s why we’re supposed to save our money, right? So we can afford to cut coupons and watch Family Feud all day. As I was watching James Hetfield, Metallica’s 53-year-old lead singer, passionately lead us through the night, I realized something. Something simple and complex at the same time. Something powerful and relieving. Something exciting.
I realized that what we’ve been taught is a bunch of nonsense. We plan this descent to retirement, and slowly bore ourselves to death. I don’t want that. I want to be pushing it like I did 20 years ago, like I do today. I want to wake up knowing that I can make a difference. I want to keep struggling and fighting and climbing because that’s where I come alive. I want the same look on my face that Hetfield had on his last week.
So, I went to Metallica the other night. Probably the second or third best show I’ve seen (behind U2’s Joshua Tree in 1987, and maybe behind Adele’s 2016 tour). However, I walked away with more of an appreciation for a performance than I ever have. And I walked away with a more stimulating vision of the second half of my life.
