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-[bell chimes] -[cheering]
[Man 1] We want our rock stars to be unlike ordinary people.
Well, the rockstars became, ordinary people.
Generally speaking, rock is dead.
[bell chimes]
[Man 3] Rock is finally dead.
[Man 4] The biggest music on earth is rap music.
[Man 5] There's so much conversation about,
rock is dead. Is rock dead? Is it not dead?
[Man 6] Rappers are the new rockstars.
[bell chimes]
[Dee] When you come to the middle of Ohio
and you've got Metallica headlining a festival
that draws 100,000 people every year,
pretty safe to say rock is not dead.
[rock music]
[James] Let me hear you!
[Lars] It's a culture, it's always been.
When everyone said rock is dead, I was like, I don't get it.
I don't understand what that means.
[rock music]
[Woman] Crowd surfing is euphoria.
You're floating on the world.
It's so, like, exhilarating and I'm gonna make
my way all the way up to the front. Not walking,
not pushing people, nothing.
They're all gonna take me up front.
["For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica playing]
♪ Make his fight on the hill in the early day ♪
♪ Constant chill deep inside ♪
♪ Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey ♪
♪ On they fight, for the right, yes, but who's to say ♪
[Woman 3] Sometimes the band's gonna see me.
And sometimes they'll high-five you,
or call you out while you're doing it.
♪ For whom the bell tolls ♪
♪ Time marches on ♪
It is music, but it's also a refuge, it's an escape.
It's a place of solidarity.
[Crowd] For whom the bell tolls.
[M] Hearing, you know, "For Whom the Bell Tolls,"
sung by 70 000 people. And it wasn't about Metallica,
as it was what Metallica was doing to those people,
that made this energy swell feel unbelievable.
[rock music]
[Woman 1] This total freedom.
You're on the top of the world at that point.
♪ Take a look to the sky just before you die ♪
♪ It's the last time you will ♪
Nothing's like a rock show, man.
[Jonathan] The big gatherings of like-minded people.
That's what's music's about.
All the disenfranchised feel that they belong to something
that's much bigger than themselves.
[Corey] I mean, when that crowd is ready to pop,
and you can feel it singing louder than you are,
through the PA system.
There's nothing better than that.
[Rob] I'll be at something like Comic Con.
And the actors are going, "Oh my God, this is insane!"
[Rob] With all these fans and they're freaking out having
so much interaction.
And I'm like, this is like every fucking day on tour.
It's so much more than a career choice, you know.
It's not something that, like, we're not being driven by...
a pay-check, obviously.
We're not being driven by the fame aspect of it.
[Lizzy] We're being driven by the feeling that we get.
I don't listen to the reviews.
Anybody that says rock is dead, is out for me.
[Rick] Metal and hard-rock was always the outsider.
You're not featured in mass media.
[Rick] You're... you're really a little sub-set.
I didn't really choose to be a guitarist, it kinda chose me.
I grew up on 7-11 parking lot rock, in Libertyville, Illinois.
I found Kiss in a magazine and Alice Cooper in a magazine.
And that led me to Sabbath and ACDC.
Rock is not a genre. Rock is a spirit.
I love the aggression of it.
It's an emotion.
[Tom] I love the escapist element of it.
You either feel it, or you don't.
I'm fortunate enough to play in my favorite band.
That I was a fan of when I was growing up.
According to the study from my colleagues in Australia,
they talked about when you're belonging to a community,
you're accepted.
I am planning to meet some friends that I don't get to see,
once a year and see some good music.
I'm glad that she gets to go have a weekend for herself.
She does a lot around here.
Lot of responsibilities and this is like her big event.
[Andrea] Definitely my therapy, my mom trip.
The music my mom listens to is loud.
It's not my favorite music.
[Andrea] Not much for hard rock?
No.
A deputy jailer here.
[Scott] Typical capacity of the Graham County Detention Center,
we usually run with anywhere between 115 to 130 inmates.
Currently, we're a little bit over that.
[Scott] We have anything ranging from people that failed to come
to court on a driving without insurance ticket,
all the way up to murderers.
Whenever you can talk to inmates about music,
things along those lines, it kind of makes the stress
a lot lower, it makes it more personal, like one on one.
Instead of deputy, inmate. It's person to person talking.
[Scott] Guilkey was an inmate here.
We met in booking on and off.
He would come in, get out, come in.
I got sentenced to six years for burglary and theft.
[Jami] We've known each other since we were 14 and 15.
My wife now, we was together.
He started to get into trouble when we were kids.
[Jami] Going to boy's homes, getting sent off.
Just kind of, like, petty things at first.
She left me while I was in prison.
We kind of, like, split up my junior year in high school.
Just because I was kind of,
trying to get away from that lifestyle, yeah.
She wanted to better herself. She went to college.
She's a nurse now, makes good money.
We have been through a lot.
I come home from prison and I was living in Cincinnati.
And we just got together, started talking.
She comes to visit me and I finally found...
I'm coming home with you. [laughs]
[laughter and chatter]
I really like the idea of bringing everybody together.
I had a lot of friends that liked the same type of music.
I started a MySpace page for Keggs and Eggs, a tailgate.
But when I pulled up, they had a space set aside.
So I'm like, man, this is great.
Shortly after that, Scott messaged me and said,
"We need to take this to a whole other level."
I was like, I've got some spare time on my hands.
I was like, so I made it up real quick and...
added this guy that I only knew as Mr. G at the time.
But who later became one of my best friends, Justin Griffin.
And it exploded.
I started going to the festival the first year,
with a couple of friends. Ran into the party crew.
The guys were very inviting
and explained to me what they were doing,
where they were all from, how they all met up,
and invited me to come back with them next year.
Or to meet up with them and go to other music events
throughout the year.
And everybody wanted to be a part of it.
[Justin] It really just, out of nowhere,
thousands of people started just chiming in.
Having chatrooms and it became something kinda surreal to us.
[rock music]
When we were first going out, one of the things she said was,
I had to go to sleep at night,
listening to Metallica's Black Album.
I gotta marry her.
[Tiffany] I knew right of the bat that music was
very important to Justin.
Instantly. that was one of the things
that we enjoyed doing together.
[Justin] I think our second date was going down to see Shinedown.
[cheering]
I've never liked the cliches and stereotypes that come
with this music.
People think you can pick out who is and isn't
into this music, by how they look.
When we talk to people about the music that we listen to,
and in the small community that we live in and I'm a teacher,
and we go to church, there is an inital feeling us versus them.
They know me on this level as, the little church girl
with her pants on or skirts and everything's covered.
And then they're like, "What are you doing this weekend?
"You wanna hang out? You wanna go fishing, go to the river?"
No, I'm going to this festival.
A what?
That's satanic music.
Doctors, lawyers, brain surgeons love this music.
This music is way wider reaching than I think a lot of people
give it credit for.
We both had just finished failing marriages.
We had been in an editorial board of a dental magazine.
[Gytis] We noticed each other and hit it off instantly.
I had a love for rock and roll for many, many years.
Prior to meeting Sara, I had kind of let that go
by the wayside. And we discovered rock and roll again.
[Gytis] Once we started seeing each other, it was game on.
[phone ringtone]
You're here?
[car honking]
[Drew] The reason I suspect that there is such
a tribal community around rock music,
is that it is, has it's roots in tribal music.
There's something visceral and...
primitive about, you know, what it hits in us.
So, naturally enough, it would gather a community around
those very issues.
We're on a mission from God.
We're getting the band back together.
[groaning]
-Hey! -Hey!
-You guys ready to go? -Yep.
I'm more than ready, I've been waiting.
The tribal-ness of finding your people and you're kind of
all against the world.
Hard rock music has the ability to, actually save a lot
of adolescents and it's their sense of community
that is actually empowering.
[Kevin] Because we're social animals, we're relatively weak
on our own. We would be seen as prey.
[Kevin] The pack of wolves, they're seeking that one target.
Once the members of the hard rock community
adopted this persona,
they had the protection of other members.
[Kevin] That would have their back.
The bullies perceive them no longer as targets.
[Kevin] Belonging to this community can give one
a sense of armor. You're now standing tall.
Springfield, Ohio. We're about an hour west,
southwest of Columbus.
It's little, it's a small town.
I mean my...the high school that I went to and that they,
my children will go to is...
legit cornfields on four sides.
All right, guys. After I drop you off,
I won't see you again until Monday.
[kid whines]
[Andrea] Usually, you guys get the radio on the way to school,
but momma's gonna get the radio.
-If you don't mind. -[Son] I do mind.
[chuckles] You'll like it.
[loud hard rock music]
Do you feel it now?
No!
[heavy metal music]
Come on, Ryan!
And if I get a turn, it's a lot of nasty faces.
-La,la,la,la,la,la. -[heavy metal continues]
She does crank it up too loud.
All right, you got everything?
[rock music]
[Jake] Rock and roll, in a sense,
it's reinterpreted by every generation.
That has never gone away. There's a soul about it.
["Highway Tune" by Greta Van Fleet playing]
♪ We're stopping at the green light, girl ♪
♪ Because I want to get your signal ♪
♪ No going at the green light, girl ♪
♪ Because I want to be with you now ♪
♪ You are my special ♪
♪ You are my midnight, midnight, yeah ♪
♪ So sweet ♪
♪ So fine ♪
♪ So nice ♪
♪ All mine ♪
I go from one day doing this, to 16-hour shifts at work
for a couple of days, to being wild and crazy.
and letting loose and being free.
[hard rock music]
♪ Oh sugar ♪
♪ Cause it's about to get heavy ♪
[Devil by Shinedown playing]
♪ It's about to be on, heavy, heavy, heavy ♪
♪ Yeah, I'm bangin', slingin' napalm ♪
♪ So nobody move ♪
♪ Cause I was sent to warn you, the Devil's in the next room ♪
I think I read somewhere on MySpace,
somebody called themselves the party crew.
[Gary] Let's build on that, make it feel like it's their home.
It's their festival. So the party crew started spreading.
[Gary] They have a hunger for this genre. They believe in it.
They live it. They are hard working family men and women.
These people, it's a family.
[Corey] And it's a family unlike I've ever seen before.
And I'm so proud to be a part of it.
This fan community has been driven more than ever
off of the fact that there are so many rock festivals now.
Festival shows bring you back down to earth, man.
[MGK] Cause you have to impress them.
So, that hunger that it brings out is much different
than a headlining show.
Because, headlining shows,
every single person in there came to sing their words.
Festivals, I'm sorry, but...
I gotta be the best one.
Of course they wanna see bands they like and care about.
But, they really wanna see their friends.
You definitely get to see the people that you haven't seen.
Like I'm seeing one of my very good friends.
-How you doing? -Oh, my God.
Good to see you, good to see you. Looking good, man.
See, like that.
These festivals are awesome, you know.
We see all our good friends.
[Jerry] I love playing festivals.
It allows you to play to kind of bigger audiences,
than maybe you would play on your own.
We get a lot of young bands, too.
They wanna get together, they wanna camp, they wanna party.
It's that destination for them every year.
[rock music]
On three! On three!
One, two, three!
[all cheering]
And sometimes music and concerts,
a live concert experience
is maybe even more important now than ever.
Because it's that place where you just dance
shoulder to shoulder with people.
[Ed] And you're not necessarily on your phone the whole time.
You're watching a show, you're getting it. The being together.
[Eddie] It's become a huge communal experience.
It's built about that, more than it is about
who's actually playing.
Fans of metal and hard rock,
are completely different from fans
of any other genre.
I mean, we're just die hard into it.
We are stronger together.
I want everyone to help me bring on the next artist.
Ready? One, two, three.
[All] Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!
-[Jose] Keep it up! Keep it up! -[crowd] Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!
[Jose] As a community, we came together for a big ass tribute.
Pantera founder, lifelong idol Vinnie Paul.
[Jose] Also from the band Hellyeah, was supposed to play
with Hellyeah at the Aftershock Festival.
But tragically, he passed away a few months before
that can happen.
We were all, as a community, deeply struck by
the loss of our friend Vinnie.
So, we put together a supergroup tribute.
I asked a bunch of my friends that were playing that day,
if they would jam in Vinnie's honor.
And they all said, "Hell yeah!"
[Jose] I even shaved my head, in Vinnie's honor.
It's just a brotherhood, you gotta just...
respect each other.
The bottom line with any of us, we just got each other's backs.
You're just kind of embodying yourself
into this whole lifestyle. It's just a matter of...
becoming a part of it, or at least respecting it.
The festivals are always cool.
You know, you have so many friends that you run into.
So, it's always good catching up with people
and seeing everybody.
[Zakk] It's like summer camp, you know what I mean?
And you're gonna go meet all your friends.
One of the great things about rock, I think,
is that it, in some respects,
it changes, but it doesn't change.
You know, there's a fan community of rock and roll,
that is there.
Like, just recently, I went to an Iron Maiden show,
and I saw people there that were obviously grandsons.
With their fathers and with their grandfathers.
I remember when the manager for Iron Maiden took me to
one of their very first shows in London.
You know, you saw this, like, power of this community
start to build.
When you belong into a community, you're...
you're accepted, you're validated, you're heard.
[Kevin] You have self-respect.
[Andy] And you're seeing like this generational thing.
And why? Why is it generational for this kind of music?
It's very much like sport in a way.
If you're a Yankee fan, probably your father was
a Yankee fan, your grandfather was a Yankee fan.
[Brent] It goes deep into the family roots.
From the youngest, to the great, great grandmother
and grandfather.
[Brent] We see entire families come to our shows.
It's part of our DNA, it's passed on.
I see it with a lot of heavy metal families.
[Jose] They're dads and they're and they're bringing their kids,
and their kids are bringing their kids.
[metal music]
Welcome to home sweet home.
[Korey] So, when we're on the road, kids wake up, come up.
This whole front lounge here, is school zone.
So, here usually sits the nanny.
Our son's right here on the table.
My daughter prefers her space, so she's over here.
She takes up that whole couch.
As soon as we'll get in from a show, like, 11:30 at night,
or midnight, we'll come in, and the kids will be in their bunks.
And they'll go, "Dad, dad." They'll whisper.
"When's bus call? We can't sleep unless the bus rolls."
Here's the kids' bunks, all the way in the bottom,
they're hard to see.
This is my son, you can see his Star Wars puzzles in there.
[John] There it is. Star Wars.
This is Alex's, this is our daughter's bunk here.
I don't remember if she has anything in there fun.
Oh yeah, she's got some.
[Korey] She's our writer.
She wants to write and inspire people.
We're on the road, we go out to eat or something
and we would take, we would want to get like a to-go box.
And I remember the waitress saying to our kids,
"Oh, you take this home?"
And they say, "No, we take it to the bus."
And... they thought everyone lived on a bus.
They're with us all the time.
And you see things you wouldn't expect. Like, for instance,
I can't remember which tour it was,
my eight-year-old daughter, Alex,
playing barbies with Maria from In This Moment, you know.
At catering.
Oh, my kids are wild. I've got an eight-year-old who's my diva.
Faith. And then I have one that will be two, Frankie.
And that one's my stepper. I love my kids.
[Abby] She's gonna get right along with me and the little one
will be at the festivals and stuff with me, eventually.
But the oldest is like, "Go away, Mom."
Like, "You're embarrassing."
-My name is Michelle Sabatate. -Etienne Sabatate.
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana.
[Michelle] We met in a bar. We retired from the army.
After 20 years of service. And we decided to get married.
[Michelle] So I moved to Georgia with him.
[Abby] Michelle is a riot. I love her to death.
The first time I met her, she was crowd surfing,
in a banana suit.
[Michelle] It was a banana,
with dreadlocks and the rasta hat.
But she is a riot. She'll crowd walk and she like,
surfs on her husband.
[Michelle] We decided to crowd surf with him surfing
and me jump on top of him. And I surfed him.
It was not really planned, she said, "I wanna surf you."
And then, I just, I didn't really know how to do it.
But we had to, kind of, tell people around us
what we were doing. To get everybody in on it.
You basically hit chest and chest.
And then we lift both of you.
[John] It kind of took some big folks to get me up.
Basically, I go up and then she has to, I have to pull her up
on top of me. Which kind of takes a minute.
[John] When she surfs me, I see her in the sky and that's it.
["Wash It All Away" by Five Finger Death Punch playing]
♪ I've given up on the industry, up on democracy ♪
♪ Done with all your hypocrisy ♪
♪ All of the chaos ♪
♪ And all of the lies, I hate it ♪
♪ I'm wasting here, can anyone ♪
♪ Wash it all away ♪
♪ I'm waiting here for anyone ♪
♪ To wash it all away ♪
♪ Wash it all away! ♪
[heavy metal riff]
♪ I've given up on the media ♪
♪ Feeds my hysteria, sick of living down on my knees ♪
♪ I've given up on morality ♪
♪ Feeds my brutality, fuck what you think about me ♪
I don't know what compels people to want to jump
on top of other people.
It is such a rush when I get up there and I see the crowds.
[Andy] You're watching a human being, surf on top of other
human beings. I mean, there's nothing like it.
[birds chirping]
That's road rash. Mm-hm.
And I'm gonna fill it in with red, so that you can see
where it was messed up.
It was pretty bad. I mean, I'm pretty blessed to be here.
[Abby] In the motorcycle wreck there was a guy that had
walked out in front of my fiancé and I, to pick up tire tread.
And we ended up actually running into him.
[Abby] He hit a pole and died pretty much immediately.
I went up and kept going in the grass and the bike went
quite a ways back out into the main highway.
I don't really remember anything until about a week after
I woke up in the hospital.
And they went in and take my leg.
-Ready go! -Ready go!
-Ready go! Where're you going?
[ominous music]
[laughs] Where are we going?
It's been kind of a battle ever since then.
Give me kisses!
Girls are the fuel, man.
They are what drive the whole...
-Everything. -Yes.
That's why anybody does what they do.
The male domination is what ruined rock music.
[Rob] With the crowd, it became like a dude fest.
And let's face it, go back to Beatlemania, go back to Elvis,
go back to Led Zeppelin.
The girls fucking lead the charge.
As a female, I feel like so many don't understand what actually
is happening here. And yes, there are a lot of males.
You just come to these things. And the lyrics, for rock songs,
and that genre in general, is like... it's amazing.
It takes about your breakups, it takes about your life
and your job. Rock itself is all about your feelings.
You have to just be so comfortable and open
with yourself, to be able to go out into a world of 100 000 men,
and there's three or four of us girls in here. Head first.
[rock music]
[Noodles] Lately, we've had a lot of girls coming over,
crowd surfing, you know, while their boyfriends are in a pit.
Kind of in the back now.
I literally have chills. There's nothing more empowering
and rewarding and exciting and exhilarating for me,
to see women crowd surfing with confidence.
You know, nine times out of ten everybody's cool.
Every once in a while there's some weird groper out there.
[Jacoby] I've called duded out. I'm like, "Yo!
"Y'all gotta respect the ladies, if they're gonna crowd surf,
"You can't be grabbing on them."
[Allison] And for women to get up there and crowd surf
and start the pit, it just says a lot about your character.
It's really cool to see females crowd surfing.
[Dorothy] I love it when they give no fucks.
You learn to adapt, when you're crowd surfing.
Especially as a female.
[Abby] The first time I went to a festival in my chair was with
my best friend and we were kind of drunk,
watching one of the bands. He was gassing me, like,
"I bet you won't do it." I'm like, yes I will.
[Abby] So I did it.
I see a lady in a wheelchair fucking crowd surfing!
That's right! You ready!
And the people carried me over and I just remember like the...
the rush. Like they never, they didn't drop me.
They've never dropped me.
[Abby] Usually when I get... by the time I get to the front,
like, I'll come out of my chair, most of the time.
[Abby] I've actually carried my chair on top of me before.
[chuckles]
[Abby] They'll, like, pass it back to me.
They always make sure it gets back to me.
And a security guard will hold me and they'll send my chair,
set me in it and I'll roll on out.
I mean, you have to... you have to consciously be aware
of what's happening around you, but also how you can actually
hold your body as you crowd surf.
Like, I've learned over the years,
it doesn't really feel good
to the people grabbing you, but I'll cross my ankles.
It keeps my legs together and tight, so nobody can grab a hold
of me in any inappropriate way.
[Jessie] If you're willing to crowd surf or to get in
mosh pits, you have to know the consequences that could happen.
First time without the chair.
And I go up and they throw me up and I have the leg on.
And it's like, mid... I get like mid...
halfway to the pit and I get dropped.
And while they go to throw me up they're like, "Are you ok?"
And I'm like, I'm good, I'm good.
[Abby] They go to throw me back up, they ripped this leg off.
Like, they ripped it off of me and sent me over.
So, I get over there and the guy is like,"What?"
He goes to pass me down, he sets me down, I'm like hopping up.
And he's like, "What the fuck?" And I sat down.
So he's coming over and sets me on, like, the side stage.
And he's like, "What, where is your leg?"
[Abby] And I sat there for almost the whole set.
Here it comes, finally. And I die.
Here comes a security guard. Every time he passes somebody
they're taking a picture of him, holding my leg.
[Abby] And then I get it and there's a damn unopened beer
in the top of my leg when they send it back.
[laughs]
[cheerful music]
We're actually in a wonderful time right now in music.
There are incredible, strong, female artists.
My mother bought me a live Heart CD.
[Lizzy] And it blew my mind.
It encouraged me, because unlike...
Ann Wilson and unlike Pat Benatar and unlike Stevie Nicks,
I had that light at the end of the tunnel.
[Lizzy] Well, they did it. So I can too.
Rock is such a male dominated, testosterone driven genre.
It's got a lot of angst.
I feel women are pressured to be in other genres.
Like, when you think of a female singer,
you probably think of a pop star or a country star.
I did have to have very thick skin.
And I had to pull through a lot of adversity,
just because I was female.
[Lizzy] I remember a lot of times when we were stringing
our own guitars, before we had techs or anything.
And I'm stringing my guitar and this one hand comes up.
And this guys come up, he's like,
"Oh, my girlfriend never does that for me before a show."
And I'm like, man.
For years, most would be like, oh are you the merch girl,
the girlfriend or whatever.
[Lizzy] And not necessarily in a rude way,
but just not assuming that I'm in the band at all.
I'm obviously somebody's girlfriend.
And then you go on stage and you do your thing.
And then, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you where in."
You know, that kind of thing.
And definitely, I feel that pat on the head.
Like, oh that's cute for a girl.
There's a lot to prove. I'm just gonna get up there
and be as excellent as I can up here.
I'm gonna rock harder than the guys,
cause then it can turn from girl in the band to respect.
Females, they've always been there.
Now it's just more of an equality,
rather than a separation.
There is a certain energy out there and this certain, like,
fire that's going on and kind of a sisterhood, you know.
And it's really beautiful, I think.
[Lizzy] If there was any sexist anything going on...
I kind of brush it off. Because it's about...
whether you can walk on stage and do something
that nobody else in the room can do.
The mosh pits look like they're crazy, people getting bloody.
[Kevin] It's pretty easy to get into an ultra state,
when you're into rock music.
Particularly rock music that you really love.
There's so many rock and roll fans.
And they're very enthusiastic, passionate.
It's altering. And in an altered state, people do things that
they wouldn't otherwise do. Like jump out on a crowd.
["Burn It" by Fever 333 playing]
♪ Sometimes you gotta burn it down to build it up again ♪
♪ Lights go out in the town we're living in ♪
♪ Burn it down when no-one's innocent ♪
♪ Burn it down ♪
♪ I am a gun! ♪
Definitely the scene gets misinterpreted as being...
dark and dirty and satanic.
[Jonathan] I mean, anyone that comes and sees a rock show and
sees people beating the shit out of each other in a pit, for fun.
Will definitely think it's bad, but it's not.
It's more of a camaraderie.
People come together and just want to
get their aggressions out.
Many have attributed the mosh pit to...
to that of kind of like a tribal war dance.
[Kevin] Like a rite of passage.
Like you're accepted into this dance, into this...
ball of energy that's swirling around.
And you're contributing to it and you're being fed by it
simultaneously.
I'll tell you this. The people in the mosh pit are probably
having more fun than anybody at the show.
If you're wanting to go up front,
there's gonna be a mosh pit and they don't care your gender
at that point. You're either gonna be thrown into it,
or you're gonna have to run the other direction.
[Jessie] If you wanna stay there,
you have to stand your ground.
[M] It's just a great time to let out some energy
and get sweaty. And meet some friends in there that you
wouldn't normally know. Grab someone around the
shoulder and run around a couple times with them.
You meet these new people that are the same way as you.
[Jessie] You're as open-handed as possible.
You're as gentle as you can be to run in and hit somebody.
[rock music]
If someone falls down, what do you do?
Whole place, at the same time, pick them up.
They will always pick each other up.
They will look out for everyone else.
[Jonathan] No one's out there to really get hurt.
And the people that do go out there to purposefully hurt
people get dealt with by everyone in the crowd.
It's a big camaraderie.
Everybody is looking out for each other.
And it's a way that they release whatever's going on.
[Jonathan] Other people go out and go play golf.
Mosh pit is adrenaline. It's like the...
the sheep. You know, the sheep that head-but each other
on the mountain? That's what it is.
It helps you release all your stress that you have tensed up.
If there is a person in there who's just being too violent,
we'll pull them aside and we'll talk to them.
And usually they'll calm down. No fists, no elbows. Period.
[rock music]
[Abby] I was definitely a mosher.
I came out bloody every time.
[Abby] I'd go in and kind of scope out the crowd and see
where the big guys are standing.
And what I'll do, is I'll go there and I'll clear
it the hell out. And then I'll just stand in the back
and be like, this is my baby. I created this.
I'll get in there, I'll push everybody on.
I'll open it up and then I'll just stand back
and watch it go. And then usually I'll sit down
in my chair and just kick people back in, push them back in.
[drum beat]
I'd like to welcome to the stage...
The Olentangy Orange!
[Jacoby] This brotherhood and this family vibe in the pit.
I just saw my boys Beartooth.
I was in the pit. You get in there and you're in the pit for
a while and there's couple dudes who are like, "Yeah, dude."
Sick, rock on. Giving me hugs and they're like,
"Oh shit. Singer from P Roach in the pit?"
I'm like, yeah! Let's go!
♪ Sing it louder just to let the world know ♪
♪ No we're not nameless, we're not faceless ♪
♪ We were born for greatness ♪
[heavy metal music]
♪ We're not nameless, we're not faceless ♪
♪ We were born for greatness ♪
My goal, was to make sure...
everybody knows that there's no rules,
other than have the best time that you possibly can.
[Caleb] Mosh, jump.
Get covered in sweat and sing until your voice is gone.
I started touring with Public Enemy.
And we would go to Europe.
[Ice-T] We figured out, with hip-hop,
if you took it uptempo, a mosh pit would start.
[rock music]
Now, if you're a musician, if you ever stood in front of
a mosh pit, there's nothing more mesmerizing than a mosh pit.
[Ice-T] Fuck a crowd waving their hands in the air.
Motherfuckers slamming and just that turmoil
because you're playing.
It's just a wild feeling, you know.
To control that energy.
[Interviewer] Talk about the wall of death.
[chuckles] I don't like the wall of death.
You put 30 000 people, 50 000 people in an arena,
it becomes, you know, it can be dangerous.
The wall of death was certainly just an absolute,
crazy nightmare.
We don't encourage it.
That's, like, the legal disclaimer.
I can't say that, but you know what's coming.
First time I ever saw the wall of death, we did this festival
in Antwerp, Belgium.
And we did it with this east-coast hard core band,
Sick of It All. And so they were like,
"Split the crowd down the middle."
Pick a side motherfuckers!
[Seyth] They can split an entire crowd.
Let's me or you go try and split an entire crowd one time.
Just think about that.
-[Musician] You know what to do? -[crowd cheering]
[Seyth] That's 30 000 people. They're just splitting apart.
It's crazy. They have that power.
[Musician] You guys go this way, you guys go that way.
But remember, anybody falls, you pick them up.
[Jacoby] The called it the Braveheart.
I saw it and I was just like...
Oh, my God.
[music building]
Everybody in the crowd splits and then, you know,
you got one side versus the other side.
And as soon as the song breaks in on the hard drop,
it's just warfare.
[heavy metal music]
♪ Yeah it's do or die, strength in numbers ♪
♪ Unify or it's do or die, strength in numbers! ♪
♪ Strength, strength, strength, strength in numbers ♪
♪ Strength, strength, strength, strength ♪
[music fading out]
This kind of music brings out a type of person that wants
to release their energy, but they don't want to release it
in a bad way. They wanna have fun.
They have a certain way to do it, but it's always respectful.
It's mosh pitting and it's crowd surfing.
[Seyth] During Five Finger Death Punch, he wanted everybody to
come shake his hand one time.
I hated it, because he made my life a living hell.
But it was really cool. Because they came
and they came like crazy.
[Seyth] It's like ants. I sat there during one song
and counted just how many bodies came over.
And it was over 250 bodies that came over for one song.
[Noodles] When we first started playing at these big festivals,
it was almost, kind of an adversarial role,
between the security up front and the kids in the back.
And now, it's kind of like, you know, we're all part
of the same team and those guys are there to catch you
when you come over the barricade.
And then you go back out and you're back in the crowd.
And you come back over again, you know.
They're like the guys at Disneyland,
that get you on the ride, you know.
They catch you, put you on your way.
[Seyth] It is a science, believe it or not.
There's a certain way to do this.
Our secret is, we get college football teams.
My name is Tyler Haines, I'm the head football coach
of Urbana University. These are Urbana University blue knights.
This is an opportunity for our guys to develop teamwork
and the ability to help people
have a good time by crowd surfing.
Making sure they get a safe landing, so they can go back out
and enjoy the rest of the day.
Just like a football team, there's a lot of logistics that
go into what we do. As you can see, I got some big guys here,
that really man the front lines for us.
[Tyler] What I look for in guys that can help us here
in the front lines, in the battle lines,
is guys that can be counted on, protect their teammates
and do their job when asked.
The rule is, as they're coming it's safety. Right?
Safety for the patron and safety for the guard.
So as they're coming, you always wanna look for feet.
So what we'll do is, we'll see a crowd surfer coming.
Every surfer is different.
Different type, weight, different speed coming at us.
And what we do is, we have a guy step up,
just put your foot up, ok?
[Tyler] And he's the one that's gonna collect and make sure
they come down safe. We're gonna move their feet.
So we don't get kicked and no one else gets kicked.
[Tyler] He's gonna move their feet, pick them up.
Two guys, two teammates, are not just gonna stand and watch,
we're gonna brace as he steps down.
He's gonna put the person down, we're gonna escort them to the
side and bring them back again.
What happens more than anything, believe it or not,
are guards breaking ankles.
When they come down, if there's any hazards or anything,
and they come down and they step down hard, if they're somebody
heavy and they roll their ankle. That happens a lot.
We're in it, we're headbanging with them.
We're catching them, putting them down.
They're so excited to be there and we're so excited
to be there with them.
When you catch them, they think they have to give you a hug,
so you catch them and not letting them fall.
Two or three pretty amazing security guards that I see,
like every year.
The girl in the wheelchair is crowd surfing.
You just remember them, like, catching me, over the crowd.
The crowd up here saw and they started roaring.
It exhausts me just watching them just constantly pass over,
person after person after person.
We seen a wheelchair come up, that was amazing to me.
And I liked the way she conducted herself.
Fuck yeah!
[Dragula by Rob Zombie playing]
The whole reason I got into rock music and wanted to do this,
because I didn't fucking give a shit what everybody else
was doing and I wanted to do what I wanted to do.
♪ Dead I am the sky, watching angels cry ♪
♪ While they slowly turn, conquering the worm ♪
♪ Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches ♪
♪ I slam in the back of my Dragula! ♪
Rob Zombie's been there. He's done the movies.
Horror is the hard rock of the movie business.
Hard rock music and horror movies sort of live
the same path.
You're not gonna see any horror movies win Academy Awards.
So, when people are crying about being accepted, I go...
fucking who gives a shit.
The horror movies and the music alike,
just bring people together.
People can connect to them, they feel something.
[Tiffany] Whether you're listening to the music.
You're feeling something, when you're watching
The Devil's Rejects.
It's a complete marriage, horror and heavy metal.
[Rob] That's what it is and that's why I like it.
He's crossed the barriers.
One of the only people to parlay a rock career into movies.
[Rob] To me, I'm only here for one reason.
So that show can be perfect.
He's a showman.
Rob Zombie's really good at making you experience his art.
[Rob] Even if it seems like we're fucking around,
it's well orchestrated fucking around.
It's so entertaining. Like, you can't keep your eyes away.
The entertainment factor is the most important thing.
I think when it comes to rock and roll,
I would love to see more entertainment.
When people talk about what's happened to rock music,
that's the main thing.
I think that there was a time period when grunge came in.
And the first bands that came through, like the Nirvanas,
were fucking rock stars.
They may have been wearing flannel,
but they were rock stars under the flannel.
And then everybody took that, like, "Oh, we can just be
"a bunch of lazy slobs on stage and we're fucking rock stars."
As rock lost it's way and lost it's swagger and it's cool,
and the bands started to become these bands that look like they
just came from work at the 7-eleven and forgot
to change their clothes on the way to the stage.
And that was right when the rap guys were coming up.
And everyone said, look at those guys,
they are fucking rock stars.
DMX, Lil Wayne, Drake. I mean, come on, dude.
The first Ice-T power record like really spoke to me.
It's one of those records help me get through stuff.
Met Ice-T back in like '89.
Ice-T is an amazing, thought provoking motherfucker.
We got in trouble for "Cop Killer".
They called it a rap record, you know.
[Ice-T] But that was a racist way of saying it.
Because they didn't want to call it rock, you know.
Maybe... you know...
Hey, that is a protest record.
But you say rap... it's made by them niggers.
We listen to Ice-T and we listen to other people from
south central tell us how bad the police were.
[Bob] And then all of a sudden, Rodney King happens.
And you're like, holy shit. They're right.
And you just felt it shift.
This is not a hobby for them. They mean it.
Those are rock stars.
Definitely felt like a musical outcast growing up.
We are that generation that grew up on hard core.
We get questions all the time, like,"Why are you guys rappers?"
Lot of the stigma comes from within our own community.
If you're a rapper, and you're white, than rap motherfucker.
[Ice-T] Don't play. Show us what you can do.
If you Chinese, black, I don't give a fuck.
You pick up that guitar, they gonna wanna see if you got
any blitz, if you can, you know...
[Ice-T] Can you shred? I don't give a fuck.
You know, a lot of African-Americans are kinda like
"Yo, this isn't... isn't for you."
It's not for us, that's for them.
It was white boy shit.
When reality couldn't be further from the truth.
Black kids growing up felt intimidated to say that some
of their favorite music was rock and roll, was metal.
It was whatever, punk, because it was just too different.
But what they don't realize is, like, it's roots
are in minority people.
We're kind of a living embodiment of the world
we'd like to one day see. Multi-racial.
Both joyous and celebrates resistance to injustice.
We're all here together.
This isn't a white thing. It's for everyone.
If you go back to Chuck Berry, you go back to early blues.
Like it just transformed into what it is today.
If you're a girl, guy, doesn't matter.
If you're black, you go out there and rock shit.
That's all people really care about.
We're on a quest, man. We wanna bring rock back.
[Ice-T] Rock thrived in the 60s.
Rock thrived during the stress moments.
No progressive, radical or revolutionary social movement
has ever succeeded without a great soundtrack.
You know, and now, you know, with Korea and Russia
and all this shit. That impending doom
has motherfuckers worried.
[Ice-T] There's a lot of material there.
If you're an entertainer, you don't show your dark side.
[Rob] Your whole life is hiding it, essentially.
They're drinking or taking drugs or partying.
And that person's gonna kill themselves.
And sometimes they do and you see it, sort of happening.
[Jeff] We discover drugs and alcohol.
And man, they are the magic key in the lock.
I had two different DUIs.
I tried to stop so many times. It just...
wasn't working.
And they caught me with some pills and a needle.
[Guilkey] I did heroin a lot.
When we grow up in a society where it's so widely accepted
to drink and it's everywhere.
You don't really know that you're an alcoholic.
The first thing that happens is, the drugs and the alcohol...
they work. They treat the addiction beautifully.
And they even us out.
[Dorothy] I would have to drink, you know.
Whisky was my thing. Whisky and cocaine.
Get high or die trying, it's self-explanatory, man.
When you're out there, you're gonna do whatever.
The second thing that happens, is they stop working.
And then eventually that turned into anxiety
and turned into pills.
We start to seek out more, or different combinations.
It just was a never-ending cycle of hell.
You're gonna do whatever you gotta do.
[Guilkey] Got into a fight on the street over drugs,
over drug money.
My pancreas burst. That woke me up.
[Guilkey] I got stabbed and it went three and a half inches
deep, it went through my heart and into my lungs.
My lung was filling up with blood and I was gurgling.
And I passed out.
[Duff] Triage at Northwest hospital in Seattle.
They had to get me of the DTs.
Which is something you can die from.
[Guilkey] When I got stabbed, I was on Xanaxes.
If I had went into shock, it would have gone even faster.
Doctors brought me back,
they life flighted me to Columbus.
Librium with a button on this... this side.
That's for your alcohol withdrawals.
And I flatlined three times.
[beeping]
[flatlining]
And I had morphine in this arm, with a button.
For the burns inside.
They got me going and I was lucky to be alive.
But the morphine and the librium together...
were keeping me breathing.
I grew up with a lot of addiction in my family.
And there are certain drugs, the prime one being opioids,
which are physically addicting.
My mom had a back surgery when she was young.
And so, what started as pain management,
became the need for a high.
[Tiffany] She was addicted to prescription pain meds.
And she just... could never overcome that.
[Harold] In 2017, 70 000 people died of opioid overdose.
That's tragic.
Lost one of my brothers to a heroin overdose.
We certainly can't help anybody until and unless they're
ready to be helped.
And another one killed himself because he got back on heroin.
It can be a very lonely thing to have to deal with.
It's been...you know, tough to see all of these people
around you, um, self-destructing.
I'm allergic to alcohol. If I put it in my body,
I cannot predict the outcome of what's going to happen.
Despite how much money you have, or despite how many kids
you have at home, despite how many tour dates you do.
It's like, somebody who has diabetes can't put certain
things in their body. It'll make you sick.
We have this disease that's killing us.
And that's repeatedly telling us, "I'm fine.
I got it under control. I'll be ok. I'm a lead singer
in a huge rock band, of course I'm gonna blow off steam."
I can do lines and drink beers with the best of them.
It's like, you know, when you realize why you're here.
One of those moments.
The rush that you get from performing in front of
thousands of people who are screaming your name,
and just absolutely and pure adulation.
[Jeff] And you get off stage and all of a sudden that
11 goes to zero.
Guns and Roses was like a gang.
It was us against the world.
I think if you're in a good band and believe in yourself,
you gotta think that way.
[Duff] You start to build up, like our band did
and you start playing huge places.
There's easier access to self-medicate.
You know, one of my clients, Janis Joplin,
used to talk about that a lot.
She was like, "On stage I make love with 10,000 people.
Then I get off stage and I'm all alone and have no idea
what to do with myself."
[Drew] The people that seek this out are bidding for
a solution to some internal injury.
They have childhood trauma, they have narcissistic injury.
And becoming a performer was supposed to fix that.
[M] But you still have the same problems that everyone else
has in their life. You have emotional problems, depression.
If being a performer doesn't fill the void,
what many will look to, because, rock...
being a rock musician also attracts the genetics
of addiction, they'll look to drugs and alcohol.
[Matt] People are going to want to party with you.
They wanna show you their appreciation.
People come and say, "Hey, man. Let's have a drink."
Trying to turn you onto a drug. Buying you booze.
They don't realize that this is my 200th day on the road.
And yesterday there were other guys that said the same thing.
And the day before, other guys said that.
Everyone wants to give you free drugs when you're a rock star.
If you have an inclination to begin with, it's easy.
[Jonathan] A lot of people in this... in this scene,
like to drink, like to do drugs, whatever.
That's the way they escape.
And it's fine when you're in your 20s.
A lot of people I know who went down that path,
were self-medicating some other stuff.
It's just gonna lead to dark, bad things.
When you struggle with... addiction
and you struggle with it in such a way where...
I've... I've relapsed once, you know.
And it was... you know...
It lasted about three years.
If you have an artist in trouble,
at one point, you're gonna start losing money.
And... it's...
it's not financially reasonable.
There's such a stigma that comes with the sober guy.
I...
Rock musicians don't wanna go to treatment is...
the financial impact of the touring.
[Harold] You have this machine.
And it goes from stage guys, audio engineers, the manager,
you have the whole production of the band.
And one person can stop the show.
A pill... or 20.
And some alcohol.
Can take care of that pressing issue.
[Drew] The prescription drug epidemic is out of control
in this country.
People are becoming aware that the opioids, the painkillers,
are a problem, but there's a hidden epidemic within that,
which is the benzodiazepines.
You know, benzodiazepine is a very fucking evil drug.
[Jonathan] Those are Xanax, Ativan, Valiums.
Those drugs can make you crazy.
[Drew] The combination of opioid and benzodiazepine.
That's a deadly combination.
And it's prescribed all the time.
And I cannot understand why physicians do that.
Those pills can make you do things, that you wouldn't...
normally do.
And no to mention...
the artist might die.
[Gary] 6:13 am. My hotel phone rang.
[phone ringing]
I picked it up before I looked at the clock,
thinking it was my wake up call.
In my mind, I'm like, "This is, this feels early to me."
[Gary] And I pick it up and I heard,
"Gary, Gary, Gary, Chris Cornell died."
And all I could say was, "What?"
[news reporter] Detroit police confirmed to E News,
Chris Cornell was found unresponsive
in the bathroom of his hotel room
at the MGM Grand hotel, at 12:05 am on May 18th.
Medics arrived on the scene
where the singer was pronounced dead.
[shaky breath]
[hesitant sound]
[Taylor] It was the highlight of my career...
to tour with Soundgarden.
They came to watch us on stage in Detroit.
The entire band actually saw our full set.
That was incredible to look stage left
and see everyone there.
Soundgarden was to be our headliner.
[Gary] And we went into crisis mode.
Meet me in the lobby in five minutes.
We have to make a statement.
Soundgarden, of course, expected to be headlining
tomorrow evening.
Artists are now reeling.
And fans are upset and sad and solemn.
So where do we go from here, Gary?
What's up? What's the story?
Here's a chance to celebrate and honor,
this amazing man's legacy.
We've been getting a ton of calls from the bands,
who have been outstanding, wanting to do their part.
Throughout the weekend, you will hear bands paying
their respects to Chris Cornell.
Um, it's incredibly sad.
[Jacoby] Being a father myself, being a frontman in a band,
having my battles in my life.
I can identify so much with these...
these cats that are... that are passing at...
such a young age, that it just hits very close to home, for me.
Mind blown. I just... it's so sad.
I mean... but it just shows you what a god-given gift he had.
I mean, how many people he's touched.
I think he'd be shocked.
It's just...
I'd say for me it's just unreal.
[Lars] All of us have our issues.
Just a beautiful, beautiful soul.
It's hard for me to believe that he's not with us anymore.
[clears throat]
I mean, obviously I think...
Chris Cornell had an immense impact on...
millions of artists and millions of fans.
Me included.
[Tom] What an honor and a blessing
to play with Chris Cornell.
I was first and foremost a fan of his.
When we were making that first Rage Against the Machine record,
the two albums that were the most...
influential during that period,
were the first Cyprus Hill record
and Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger.
[Tom] For a person who did have, from the time he was
a young teenager, have a lot of serious issues.
He used those issues to make beautiful, great, forever art.
We made a couple calls to his peers,
um, from Seattle.
And they were like,"Hey, thank you for thinking of us.
But I can't get on a stage with a guitar yet.
It's to raw for me."
[Gary] Not only were we mourning, but wow. This is big.
He was gone. And we couldn't mourn or grieve like his family
and his brothers and sisters in rock and his peers could.
We had to go into action.
You know, Chris Cornell was a staple of us growing up.
He was the guy.
[Gary] Started talking about a video tribute.
That would highlight Chris, that would highlight his legacy.
That would be honorable and respectful.
But show him in his glory.
And Corey Taylor, a soldier, a warrior with us.
The lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour.
Who was in town.
We called him and he agreed to partake in the tribute with us.
-[cheering] -[slow guitar strumming]
The rumor was that Corey Taylor was gonna go.
To have him come out and really...
not make it about him. And really honor Chris.
I think, touched a lot of people.
[Justin] To show, again, that family aspect of hard rock.
And he had nothing to gain by going out there.
[Justin] He wasn't there to sell, sell anything.
He's there because one of his brothers just died.
[slow guitar strumming]
Doing the... the Chris tribute was heavy, you know.
It was the perfect balance of...
playing for someone who influenced all of us.
And gave us so much joy.
And someone who I hadn't even realized influenced me so much,
until he was gone.
[Drew] MusiCares Man of the Year.
And he had a rock solid recovery.
That was undermined by one of my peers,
which happens all the time.
When I deal with MDs and psychiatrists in treating...
guys I work with,
wherever possible, I only wanna use psychiatrists and MDs
who are also in recovery themselves.
[Matt] Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington.
Perfect example of artist who's pouring their real feelings out
in their music.
You have these artists and they have to fight those battles
and those demons in front of the world.
And I can't imagine that pressure.
You have to go out and you have to repeat that
every single night.
[Matt] At first, maybe it's cathartic, but eventually...
it doesn't make those things go away.
There are other things that we have to do with ourselves,
to deal with those emotional problems and our past histories.
[Newscaster] Fans came together to mourn the singer
who died by suicide.
They share stories of how they connected with his music.
Being a singer of a band, like Soundgarden or Linkin Park,
is a lot like taming lions.
[Tim] Except the lions are in your head. They're your demons.
And a good lion tamer makes it look real easy.
But, at the end of the day...
they're still fucking lions and they still have teeth.
And your demons are still your demons.
[Tim] And Chris and Chester were amazing lion tamers.
In the times that I was in a dark place,
I remember how intense the pain was. And it's very internal.
And it's something that isn't visible.
[Sully] I would be a liar if I told you
that I didn't stare down the barrel
of a .45 at one time.
[Sully] It's a whole other thing to actually be able to
pull the trigger and do it.
So in order for someone to be able to go to that extreme,
I can't even imagine the intensity of pain that they must
experience on a daily basis.
To be able to just wanna relieve it.
Chester, you know, he just brought this energy that was
pretty infectious.
As a human being, he just...
was always in the solution of things.
[Robert] Scott and Chester were completely different people.
The great times that we made together,
will always be a part of Dean, Eric and myself.
[Drew] It is common, though, for people that have addiction,
depression and childhood trauma to have just profound,
chronic feelings of misery.
And many people find that intolerable.
And suicidality is part of that.
[Taylor] Music saves. I mean, music has saved me over and over
and over again. And, you know,
even the ones that have passed,
their music lives on.
[Uncomfortable by Halestorm playing]
♪ I did it cause I wanna and I did it cause I'm gonna ♪
♪ And I did it just because I can ♪
♪ I did it cause it makes me feel so good ♪
♪ And I did it because fuck "the man" ♪
♪ I did it cause I'm crazy and no one's gonna save me ♪
♪ And I did it just to cut the noise ♪
♪ I did it cause I'm drunk and I did it, yeah, so what? ♪
♪ Cause baby you're just one of the boys ♪
♪ I did it all ♪
Halestorm was the band that first introduced me
to rock music and made me really, really love it.
First rock show? That is awesome!
I think it's very special for them to be my first rock band.
Boys look at rock and roll and they look at it as this...
traditional, you know, I wanna be Slash.
And I wanna get the girls and the cars and everything.
And it's very important to encourage girls to be
in rock and roll, because this is our power.
[Lizzy] You can walk and you feel like you are the absolute
queen of the world. It's just so humbling to be that,
for these little girls to be like, "Ok, she's doing it.
So I can."
I love Lizzy as a front woman,
largely because how open she is
about her sexuality and unapologetic she is about it.
It's great to see girls that are just like me.
That wanna go to the metal shows and have a great time.
[Lizzy] It's become such an amazing space.
It makes me feel...
empowered in myself and how much I own my own sexuality.
And it makes it very relatable in her music.
[Lizzy] I don't think we realized how important it was,
not just for us as girls to stand on stage and just be
so proud of each other and what we've all kind of
had to go through the gauntlet, to be able to say,
"No, this is my thing and this is what I do."
[Lizzy] But you're looking out on the audience,
and it is absolutely 60-40 female-male.
Which is something that, when you're growing up on stage
in this genre, you don't normally see.
So, what we're seeing first hand is that this heavy music
is absolutely genderless.
[Bill] She not only empowers young women, completely.
But she also empowers men.
I've been blessed to see Halestorm when they first
started out in like, 2004, 2005. And followed ever since.
[Lizzy] Dave has always been, very kind of neutral.
Like, he'll come to eight meet and greets in a row
and it's the same thing.
People feel like she's the leader and they fit in.
There's a lot of people that are a little disenfranchised.
That feel like, when they're at a Halestorm show,
it's their posse.
Today will be my 84th show seeing them.
Just the way they are. They're so true, down to earth people.
[Lizzy] I asked Dave. I'm like, so why do you do this?
And he's like, "Well, your music brings me so much happiness,
that I feel like if I continue to buy tickets,
and I continue to buy meet and greets and buy your records,
and spread them around, it enables you to do more."
We have fans, they're like deadheads.
Like, they'll travel all over the world.
[Myles] We have a fan from Japan.
I see her 65 percent of our shows, no matter where it is.
We have a fan from Nashville, she's at pretty much every show.
Everybody has their own model of what a superfan really is.
I mean, if you can do 80 plus shows, that's great.
[Dave] If you can do five or whatever, do what you can.
Follow your passion.
I've seen Five Finger Death Punch probably over 30 times.
They bring an experience to the stage.
Whenever you see them live, they bring so much energy.
Rob Zombie can do anything in my eyes and it's still ok.
I love him so much.
He's my idol. If there's one rock band ever,
from when I was this big to now. It's him. That's it.
That's the epitome of rock music right there.
It's like a family. And they're happy and they're smiling.
[Myles] And that what... that smile and that joy,
or those tears that I see. That's why I do it.
[cheering]
[Abby] Maria Brink is amazing.
Like, every song that she writes I almost relate to everything.
Her music always hits home for me.
[Maria] Our relationship with our fans is so important to us.
When we do a song, their interpretation of it.
Kind of, everybody inspires each other.
[Abby] My favorite band ever is In This Moment.
I have one of their lyrics on my arms. From one of their songs.
When people get our portraits or lyrics tattooed on them,
I feel like it's... it's an honor, I think.
It's really special. And the fact that they're connected,
somehow, to where it moves them.
It's a really beautiful connection. And I love it.
["Whore" by In This Moment playing]
♪ Let me tell you ♪
♪ You love me, you love me, you ♪
♪ I can be your whore ♪
♪ I am the dirt you created ♪
Actually, after this show was over,
Maria walked off and handed it to me.
And it's pretty amazing, because she signed it on the inside.
And then, not only that, but her make-up is in there.
Which is pretty awesome.
[song ends]
San Francisco we are In This Moment!
I would say I pick songs to crowd surf,
that mean something to me.
[Maria] It's about pushing yourself to the edge.
It's like exhilarating and you know,
so that's probably what she feels.
That may be the way that she's connecting with it.
And it makes her want to feel that... that rush.
[Abby] I've crowd surfed for her a few times and she's given me
shout outs. She asked the crowd to give me
a round of applause one time.
[Maria] I do remember seeing Abby crowd surfing.
And she was so inspiring.
And I think I remember telling the whole crowd, like,
like, look at her. Look at her shining.
How much I died. I think I was crying in my wheelchair
by the time I made it to the front.
She is just like this powering example of floating high
and crowd surfing over everyone.
[Abby] I try to get other wheelchair people up there.
For them to be able to get that rush and feel that they can
enjoy the festival the same way anybody else can.
Is what I want them to experience.
Nothing's gonna stop this girl from her moment.
And I remember that it was special.
I met Eddie about...
It was like the first guy I met after my accident,
and after losing Eric.
I met him, he was at the tattoo shop and I went up there to get
my nose pierced and he was up there with his chopper.
And his chopper was so sexy.
And I remember I just went up and talked to him
in front of the bike and we've just hit it off ever since then.
[Abby] I still ride. We've had a couple of choppers that didn't
have, like, this doesn't work to get my leg on the peg right.
So we would take my leg and bungee it to the back
on a sissy bar. [chuckles]
While we rode, so I wasn't uncomfortable.
Music basically, for a lot of people is religion.
For me it's my religion. I mean, I hold church every night.
[Myles] My stepfather is a methodist minister, so.
You know, every Sunday... he'd have his rock show
to rock and roll church.
[cheering]
Music's always been my salvation
it's that one three and a half minute song
that makes me forget about all,
whatever I'm going through.
[Jonathan] And I think when people come to rock shows
it's like this big gathering, it's like church.
And we sit there. We don't got to think about nothing for
that hour and a half when that band is up there.
[Jonathan] And it gives us peace.
It's an experience to escape from life.
[Jonathan] For me, family and my music are everything.
The West-Virginia state motto is, 'Wild and Wonderful'.
Which is kind of my outlook on life and how I like to live it.
I have my crowd surfing, when I go to these crazy concerts.
The wild part. And I have the wonderful part where
I'm back home and experiencing nature and living life.
Whenever she goes fishing, she packs a gun with her.
A girl, out by herself. Better safe than sorry.
You just look downstream and you see nothing but trees and water.
There's nobody here to hound you.
Here, when I'm reeling the fish in, oh, my God,
it's so exciting. It's a part of me I didn't realize I had.
Here, I'm at peace. It's quiet, I can think to myself.
I can, like, reach within myself.
Being free from the world, being free from my job,
from the stress, from the crowds, from everything
as simple as waking up and working from six am to 10:30 pm.
Just, a freedom away from every day life.
Between crowd surfing for rock music and that
beautiful creature.
That's how I find myself, that's how I calm down,
that's how I relieve my stress.
Both of these are polar opposites.
But they both provide the exact same experience.
[Instrumental "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica playing]
When I was around nine or ten years old,
my real dad was killed during desert storm.
I didn't really know what to do.
You go from having your mom and dad there everyday,
to your mom's overseas in the marine corps.
And your father just got killed, so you're left with nothing.
So I took a close attraction to the woods and nature
and outdoor life.
♪ So close, no matter how far ♪
♪ Couldn't be much more from the heart ♪
♪ Forever trusting who we are ♪
♪ No nothing else matters ♪
I feel a little twinge of pain, like, every holiday season,
every birthday, every time I see other families getting together.
It really weighs on me that I'm gonna get married one day
and I don't have my daddy to walk me down the aisle.
Someone may think of people in the dental profession as stuffy,
you know, that kind of thing. We have to be.
We have to do our professional duties.
But we can be completely free when we're here.
[Gytis] I learned to fly ten years ago.
I was actually afraid to fly as a kid.
What better way to conquer your fear than get in front
of the stick yourself.
[Sara] We can research concerts.
It's very easy to get there for us.
[Gytis] We have a time-share.
It's a fractional ownership of a Cirrus.
And we get a certain amount of hours allotted a year.
And we make reservations and we go.
Music... it saved my life. I can honestly say that.
I used to just put my headphones on as my only escape route.
You know what I mean? For so many years, it was music.
And now that I'm home, I get to go to the concerts and stuff.
Instead of just dreaming about it.
[Scott] We kinda sparked a kindred friendship of music.
Since then, he's done a 180 on his life.
He hasn't been back here. But I see him at every rock festival.
[Jami] Music connected us as well.
Because it's just an escape from reality.
Took me a few years to... to be normal, you know what I mean?
To be clean and not seek stuff.
This woman definitely saved my life.
I ain't had no slip ups.
My real mom died in 2008 in a house fire,
while I was in prison.
She came to see me one time out of the whole seven years I did.
As far as the family lifestyle, I'd be dead without it.
It keeps me focussed, you know what I mean?
I have bills to pay now. I can't just...
say F it. Got four kids to take care of.
[Scott] You have concerts to go to.
Concerts to go to, tattoos to get.
I gotta tell you, man. You know, crowd surfing has kinda gone
to a whole new level.
We've seen just about everything over the years.
It's better than any jog that you can ever possibly do.
Right now, we're at Mapfre Stadium.
[Michelle] So, we smuggled two hamster balls in.
[air pumps blowing]
[Etienne] Getting ready to do a hamster ball fight to Godsmack.
[Michelle] Every year I've just decided to kick it up a notch.
When I got in the ball, it was insane.
It's a lot of fun for me. It's a rush.
[cheering]
[heavy metal music]
[Michelle] See if I can dropkick him a time or two.
And see if we can make the crowd go crazy.
It's gonna be epic.
[Cryin like a Bitch by Godsmack playing]
Seeing, you know, some person inside of this plastic ball
that's rolling over the whole entire audience,
I just thought to myself, fuck, I wanna be in that thing.
That looks so fun!
♪ Strut on by like a king ♪
♪ Telling everybody they know nothing ♪
♪ And long lived what you thought you were ♪
♪ Time ain't on your side anymore ♪
[Michelle] When I looked down, there was, like,
so many people screaming.
[music muffled inside plastic]
♪ So you tell me I can't take my chances ♪
♪ But I've told you one too many times ♪
-[zipper opening] -[music volume increases]
♪ Cryin like a bitch ♪
[Michelle] I just came down and the security guards looked
freaked out. They just pointed and they unzipped me.
♪ I'm tougher than nails, I can promise you that ♪
♪ Step outta line and you get bitch-slapped back ♪
♪ And you can run ♪
♪ Your little mouth all day ♪
[Michelle] You just go crazy and the adrenaline is there.
And when I looked down, the crowd went absolutely nuts.
Cause they've never seen anything like that.
-It was insane. -[camera shutter going off]
Everybody's got a story.
And everybody's got a reason that they connect to the music.
To, you know, the greater good.
I was depressed and I was sad.
Mother and I don't have much of a relationship anymore.
I went a lot of years without getting to speak to her.
She was so busy with the marines and being a DI.
She's not as close as she would like to be with her family.
They haven't always been there for her.
[Scott] When she gets with us, it's kinda like she's found
her new family.
She's a very strong, independent person, but at the same time,
everyone needs someone that they can turn to.
So I've met a lot of close friends now,
through rock festivals.
[Jessie] You can just go there, express yourself and let loose.
You're crowd surfing above your other family.
I feel like, if I didn't have that, I would pretty much
be a miserable person.
Music has the ability to heal the human soul,
like nothing else can.
Rock never died. It just stopped being done in a way
that people cared about it, you know.
And now Greta will be so thrilled to have played a role
in bringing it back.
It's been really incredible to watch Greta Van Fleet take off.
Because it's viral like a rap record.
[announcer] And the Grammy goes to...
Greta Van Fleet!
[applause]
I'm hoping kids are gonna start, you know,
gravitating more towards guitars.
And guitar music and guitar solos.
Remember when guitar solos were a thing?
And then one day they were, like, outlawed.
[Jason] I think rock and roll's coming back.
Even hip-hop is taking on more and more elements
of rock and roll now. It is cyclical.
We've made some great friends through the festivals.
For twelve years we've been together and growing.
It's like our family now. These are all my best friends.
I'm grateful that we can get together like this, every year.
Rock fans, fuck, keep showing up.
[Abby] I look forward to it, because it is the one thing...
that, that whole weekend is just pure happiness.
[Sully] Rock is never gonna die.
I don't think there's a single soul or an entire army
on this planet that's ever gonna be able to take it down.
It's here, it's not going anywhere.
[Abby] You need that release.
You can truly be, whoever you wanna be.
If you wanna dress slutty and wear next to nothing, you can.
It's that one time that you can just be... free.
Whether you're a republican, a democrat, a liberal
or a conservative, when the music catches you...
♪ The music saved me ♪
...we're all one.
It's a community that deserves a long life.
Whenever you're at a live show and the music's really kicking,
you're watching your favorite artist,
it really makes you feel like all the work that you do
through the week, it all pays off at that moment.
I'm actually getting chills right now, thinking about it.
["Rock is Dead" by Beartooth playing]
[Tom] Myself, the music I'm making and the audience.
It's one of the most important relationships in my life.
It's a real connection, that's more than, like,
we're gonna go play a show, there's an ocean of people,
there's a check at the end of the day.
Like, don't tell anybody, but I do this for free, ok.
Don't tell, don't tell a soul.
♪ If I make sound, it better be loud ♪
♪ Till my voice is blowing out ♪
♪ What if one day everything changed ♪
♪ Will these words have any use for me ♪
♪ I didn't make it here to let anyone drag me down ♪
♪ If I make sound, it better be loud ♪
♪ If rock and roll's dead you can kill me right now ♪
[song continues]
[song ends]
You know, I just think that we're in that climate where
people are scared to say shit.
And Steel Panther doesn't give a fuck.
-No, we don't care. -We really don't.
What's the worst that could happen to us?
Oh, you'll be a cover band and have to play down
-the street from your house. -Just did that.
What's up?
I'm Duff McKagan and I approve this interview
for the movie Long Live Rock.
Unless there's parts I don't like.
Unless it sucks. Then take me out.
Hello, my name is Tom Morello and I am fine with granting
an interview for the film Long Live Rock.
But I warn you, I'm litigious, so, get it right.
This is Ice-T and I...
I approve this interview for the film Long Live Rock.
Not for any penis enhancement commercials.
Even though I'm... I'm valid for that too.
My name is Lizzy Hale and I grant the utmost...
permission... [chuckles]
to be on this documentary for Long Live Rock.
Oh, goodness, it's called Long Live Rock?
I'm sure the name will change, but that's all right.
Hi, I'm Lars and...
if nothing radical happens in the next 15 minutes,
I approve this.
What's up, this is Machine Gun Kelly,
and I approve this video,
for Long Live Rock.
My name is Maria Brink and I'm a singer for In This Moment.
And I grant permission for the movie, the film,
Long Live Rock.
[laughs] I'm horrible at these things.
You need that fucking stuff. It's gonna be amazing.
I wish you all the fucking best.
This fucking matters. It changes the world.
[rock music]
Hey, I'm Rob Zombie and film away. I don't care.
Hey, I'm all good with this interview being filmed.
Hey, I'm Gavin from Bush. What's up?
My name is Michael Starr and I'm ok. I grant permission,
to use my image, my voice, anything of my likeness,
for the movie Gone with the Wind.
Long Live Rock? What's it called?
Long Live Rock.
Hey, I'm Don Jamieson and I approve my likeness...
and these words that are coming out of my mouth,
for this most excellent documentary.
My name is Korey Cooper and I give you permission to use this
for Rock is Dead.
John Cooper. Permission to use for Rock is Dead.
Though it's not.
-Hey, I'm Eric. -I, Robert DeLeo...
approve this for the use of Long Live Rock.
Long live it.
Hi, I'm Noodles. I play guitar in The Offspring.
And I approve being in this documentary.
Really? I've never done this before, this seems weird.
Never.
Have I guessed it? I'll see you.
My name is Stix Zadinia. I'm cool with you guys
using everything, except sperm for Long Live Rock.
[heavy metal music]