I Wrote The Unforgiven II in a dream.

Twenty years ago. It was the summer of 1995, I was 6 years old. I remember it being a hot night. Much warmer than the usual late July/Early August. I remember the heat keeping me in this dreamy daze. I couldn’t tell if I was awake or not. Anyway I was walking into a church, pipe organs and acoustic guitars were playing this chord progression. Am C G Em. I walked through these doors that seemed to be a hundred feet tall. Vibrating. Their frequencies vibrating at a frequency that seemed to match the key of the song. I could hear a simple melody humming from a distance. I wasn’t sure why I understood this so well at the time. It was so lucid and clear to me. As if I’ve understood this my entire life. (im sure the dosers know the feeling I’m talking about” I opened these long doors and into the church, gazed to the front. Someone was speaking..

It was my father. A much older version than the one I knew then. He was speaking to his old crew. You see he was a member of the Hell’s Angels before i was born, That’s a story for another time. However he was giving a speech to his brethren. The words were:

“Lay beside me, tell me what they’ve done

Speak the words I wanna hear, to make my demons run

The door is locked now, but it’s opened if you’re true

If you can understand the me, then I can understand the you”

I never forgot these. They hummed to the melody. I remember writing them down in my dream. Etching them into the wood of the church pew I was sitting at with something I found in the floor. Right as soon as I finished, He spouted another verse

“Lay beside me, tell me what I’ve done

The door is closed, so are your eyes

But now I see the sun, now I see the sun

Yes, now I see it”

Before I could write it down the church started to rumble. The sound was deafening. It began raining in the church, I was covered in water. My father and his brethren had escaped on their motorcycles. I was alone.

The next thing I knew I woke up. I’d never sweat so much in my life, I was covered in sweat. Soaked, however inside my head it was an orchestra. I could hear Kirk’s guitar solo. I could hear the wah, I could hear his fingers touching the string initiating the vibrations. I could hear the church doors rumble, I could hear the pipe organs playing the chord progression. I could hear my father humming the simple melody. In fear I ran to the bathroom as fast as i could. I opened the door and looked in the mirror. I didn’t see myself. at first. It was James. Just for a brief second. I didn’t know him at the time, but I eventually recognized the ghastly figure later in my life. The words were all written on the mirror. I tried to smash it, but before I could touch the glass I had awoken again.

It was morning…I was dreaming. I peaked out the window and watched the most serene sunrise of my life. I could still hear the simple melody being hummed. In perfect harmony with the birds chirping in the trees, and the wind making a calm sound and it blew fresh air through my window.

Anyway, it was about 2 or 3 years later that I heard my song on the radio. I knew every part of it. I think that night I was a part of Metallica, Our collective conscious has harmonized to create something. It took me a long time to piece it all together, but I still can

‘t listen to that song without hearing the humming…that humming that will stick with me forever.