I saw legendary death metal band Obituary the other night for the fourth time in less than three years. Throw in the three livestreams over the same period, and I’ve paid to see only Anthrax more.
Incidentally, they came to mind during the show when I got the news: Jonny Z had died.
Most ordinary folks have likely never heard of Jon Zazula. Heck, they probably think of cow diseases and death announcements with those band names! But I bet they’ve heard of Metallica, and without him and his late wife Marsha, that may not be the case.
They’re all part of a quintessential American success story.
Jonny Z owned the Rock n’ Roll Heaven music store in New Jersey. It was heavy metal central on the east coast in the early days of the genre. Having heard their demo “No Life ‘Til Leather,” Zazula brought Metallica out from the west coast in the hopes of finding them a record deal.
When no takers emerged, the Zazulas borrowed enough money, founded their own record label (Megaforce), and recorded the band’s first two albums themselves (they did the same for Anthrax, among others).
Yes, this is the story of how a foundational pillar of heavy metal got started. But it’s also one of talented creators who lacked funding, meeting someone with the ability and willingness to take a flyer on them.
At the time, Americans were emerging from a disco hangover, and the originators of metal, Black Sabbath, were fraying. Hard rock was starting to get polluted with makeup and hairspray. But some Brits, most notably Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, were starting to make waves.
This confluence of trends attracted dozens of shaggy, riffing teens in L.A. and the Bay Area. A couple from each region morphed into Metallica, a band who led the way for a new, thrashy style of metal.
It also drew the attention of enthusiasts behind the scenes, like Brian Slagel of Metal Blade records, and Jonny Z. With their respective ears to the ground thanks to their work in record stores, they took a chance on something they thought had potential.
Substitute the music component with nearly any other product or service, and you’re likely to find a similar blueprint in other business successes. You’d also find it in many more failures.
Slagel, the Zazulas et al, could have just gone along, working their record stores, content listen to tunes and rap with customers. Maybe get promoted to manager, or own the store, like Jonny Z.
That wasn’t in their nature. Without people like them, bands may never emerge from local clubs, and be free of their day jobs. Judging by their take on record labels, that’s a tough concept for some musicians to grasp.
That attitude is endemic across society.
Record labels, like other businesses, and the clubs where I go for these shows for that matter, didn’t simply appear overnight. The entrepreneurs who started, or bought them, likely gave up the same steady paycheck the rest of us enjoy.
They did so in order to pursue something they felt deeply about, something they thought was worth the risk to make work. They put much, if not all their savings into it.
If it failed, they lost it all, and maybe ended up on the hook for anything they borrowed. If it succeeded? More long hours of vigilance trying to keep it afloat, maybe even grow the venture.
This is lost on some, and the grievance hustlers who give loud voice to, and profit from, their ‘cause’. They give the impression that they take the subsequent employment opportunities for granted.
We see all manner of activists doing mental gymnastics claiming an employee’s “right” to the resources of their employer, under the guise of benefits. What happened to being grateful for the chance to prove the value of your marketable skills?
They demand the strong-arm of government force the boss to pay more. If that doesn’t work, they engage in linguistic loop-dy-loops, redefining words like “infrastructure” so they can shoehorn their preferred policies into law.
Perhaps it’d be easier, less stressful even, and certainly less costly to society in terms of lost jobs, to be honest with ourselves, and redirect our energies to what we love to do, or what we do best.
Metallica had the crushing chops, and the drive to trek from coast to coast to meet up with the couple that they felt could help take them to the next level.
Innovators like them, who sacrifice immediate payoff, and risk-takers like Jonny and Marsha Zazula, who put their reputation and personal finances on the line, deserve nothing short of absolute respect.
Thank you, Jonny and Marsha. Rest in Loudness!
