Roem was elected by a large margin
Earlier this month, Danica Roem became the first openly transgender person to be elected to a constituent office in United States history . Roem is also the lead vocalist for the Virginia-based thrash metal band Cab Ride Home, formed in 2006.
This week, the vocalist who won a seat in the Virginia House of Representatives by a wide margin over Republican candidate Robert Marshall, who was seeking re-election after 13 terms, gave an interview talking about Heavy Metal:
"You hear about politicians who like Metal, but then there's the politician who *is* Metal. I am Metal. This is my life ," said Roem.
When asked how she decided that Metal was for her, Danica replies:
"It was actually a natural evolution. I grew up always consuming Classic Rock. I grew up in the era when 105.9 WCXR still existed, which was our local Classic Rock radio station, and it's been gone for a long time, like 25 years.".
But I grew up listening to a lot of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and things like that. But my first cassette tape was actually Quadrophenia by The Who.
My first metal concert was Ozzfest 1999 in Bristow with Black Sabbath as the headliner and Rob Zombie and Deftones playing before them. On the other stage was Fear Factory. So I went to the concert as soon as I got out of school, but I missed Slayer's set, which was awful. Fear Factory was the first band I ever saw live, back when they meant something, you know?
Danica concludes:
"The funny thing about me being elected and holding this public office is that I'll always be that metal nerd who draws the Slayer logo in the corner of my notebook. And here I am, at 33, a stepmother, and newly elected. And I'm still drawing the logo with the Metallica ninja star. That doesn't change when you're elected. I'll probably draw it on some amendment to a law now [Laughs].".
I think attending Ozzfest 99 and then Metallica closing out Summer Sanitarium 2000 in Baltimore was so memorable, and a few days later Ozzy and Pantera at that year's Ozzfest. But when I was in school, my favorite show was called "Much Loud" and it aired Saturday nights, broadcast from Canada. There I discovered things you don't find in the mainstream: Napalm Death, Nothingface early in their career! They played Black Metal like Emperor, which I don't like. I love Metal from Sweden, from Finland, but not from Norway. I joke that I started liking Satyricon more after they became commercial because then they started sounding like a Thrash band.
The full interview can be viewed here .
