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When he was a baby and cried, I would quietly sing melodies by Maiden, Metallica, and other bands to calm him down.”

by Diego Demarchi Fernandes

The influence parents have on their children is enormous. It can be in their passion for a football club, in their professional career choices, political ideologies, religion, and of course, in their passion for music. And it is this passion for music, especially Metal, that I will address in this first text I am writing for Wikimetal.

When I was a child, I don't remember my parents listening to music at home often, so there wasn't that influence from my parents on my taste for Metal. It arose more as a curiosity in my adolescence, since at the school I attended, the coolest guys wore black t-shirts of bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. And this 17-year passion for Metal is only surpassed by the love I have for my son.

When my son was born, it was the greatest emotion of my life. When he was a baby and cried, I would quietly sing melodies by Maiden, Metallica, and other bands to calm him down. And it always worked! As time went by, whenever I put on an album to listen to, I would pick him up and show him the cover, the illustrations, say the band's name, explain what the songs were about. And he always had his eyes wide with amazement.

He, in a very low voice: 'I don't like Little Chicken. I want to listen to Metallica.'"

Then, in 2010 (when he was 2 years old), we watched Dio's "Holy Live" DVD together, as Dio had just passed away. I explained to him that the man who was singing had died, but that his music would live on forever. I think he didn't quite understand everything I said at the time, but that DVD would change our lives. The next day, when I got home from work, he was holding the DVD, waiting to watch it again. And this continued for several days until he learned to turn on the DVD player at home by himself and put on DVDs of Iron Maiden, Metallica, Europe, Queen, etc.

Then some pleasant problems arose. He stayed home with my mother-in-law, who looked after him during the day while my wife and I worked. When we got home, he would be holding a toy guitar, imitating everything musicians did, like shouting, jumping, and spitting! My DVDs were scattered around the living room, and scratches (on the DVDs) were inevitable. But while I didn't like the mess, I was filled with a unique feeling of pride. My son likes the same things I do.

On the last Children's Day, he had to be hospitalized due to pneumonia, and during one of the visits from the "Doctors of Joy," they asked him which song from "Galinha Pintadinha" (Little Painted Hen) he would like to hear. He, in a very low voice, said to the clowns' astonishment, "I don't like 'Galinha Pintadinha.' I want to listen to Metallica." At that moment, once again, my son made me proud. One of the doctors, dressed as a clown, had to access YouTube on her cell phone and play a song for him to listen to.

Today he's almost 5 years old and our connection grows stronger every day. Maybe when he grows up he'll start liking other styles of music and stop liking Metal, but for now I believe I'm raising him in the best way possible and every time he asks to watch a DVD, it fills me with pride.

*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.