I respect the he - better make that "heaven" out of Pat Boone for recording this album. Not because I thought that it was particularly to my taste, or even that I found it hysterical, but because Boone took a stand and didn't waver.
I don't know if many of you remember the fallout from Boone recording this album, or showing up on a music awards show with fake tattoos and sunglasses. It was all obviously a joke, but a lot of fundamentalist Christians went berserk over Boone "falling from grace." As a result, Boone's TV show on one of their fundie networks was forced onto hiatus, and even board members of the charity golf tournament he holds in my hometwon actually had to decide whther they wanted Boone back that year.
Some of those holier than thou types even suggested that if Boone apologized for venturing into metal, "all would be forgiven." Boone's response was unwavering: he stood by the metalheads. He said that he had nothing to apologize, because he had done nothing wrong.
He said in interviews that as an evangelical Christian, he used to believe the garbage he heard about heavy metal. But after he became friends with Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, and Alice Cooper, he realized that heavy metal and hard rock was unfairly maligned. He recorded "In a Metal Mood" as a joke, obviously, but also to send the message to his more conservative fans that heavy metal music and its fans were nothing to be afraid of.
During this time he was banned from fundie media, he said in interviews that while those holier than thou types were shunning him, metal fans who saw him out and about were treating him like a friend. Boone never stooped to the level of mudslinging, but he did comment that the metal fans were treating him with the compassion that many of his critics claimed to espouse.
So there you have it: Pat Boone, unsung hero of the hard rock and metal community
