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Tales From The Pit: Joey Vera Has Some Fun In The Mosh Pit at Metallica

posted Aug 25, 2009 at 10:45 PM by returntheknife.  (2 Comments)

We've been talking to bands to get their best mosh pit stories. This one is from Joey Vera when he was on tour in 1986 with Armored Saint, opening for Metallica and WASP.

"Just about every night, whoever happened to be watching Metallica's set from side stage, got invited out to sing the 'DIE!' part at the end of Creeping Death. One night in Texas, there I was, hammered and waiting for my nightly invitation. Sure enough, I get the wink from my gracious host, Cliff Burton.

"On I go and give my best beer soaked "DIE!". After my part is played, I walk to the edge of the stage in front of Cliff's floor monitor, turn around to face him, and with all my strength I hurl myself in a back flip into the audience. Luckily the crowd takes pity on my poor aerial form and catches me. Then I find myself in a flurry of sweaty limbs as I begin to surf towards the front of the stage. Metallica's crew pulls my sorry ass out and back onto stage while Mr. Burton tops my score with a thumbs 'way' up. Good times."

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2 Comments on "Tales From The Pit: Joey Vera's Mosh Pit Flips"

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SHREDDER13's avatar

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1. SHREDDER13 writes:

Fukkin ace man! I once saw a guy do a corkscrew flip off a balcony into the crowd below. lmao...kidding!

\,,l "Heavy Metal Maniac" by Exciter l,,/

# Sep 1, 2009 @ 2:45 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address
Blindgreed1's avatar

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2. Blindgreed1 writes:

Any mosh pit story involving the late great Cliff Burton is made of WIN!

# Sep 1, 2009 @ 6:14 PM ET | IP Logged Reveal posts originating from the same IP address

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