INTERVIEW + CONTEST: Full Metal Jackie Discusses Book, Radio Career + Heavy Metal Memories

On Thursday (Feb. 19), radio legend and longtime music industry executive Full Metal Jackie joined Loudwire Nights to dive into her heavy metal life — and celebrate a new printing of her 2009 book, Full Metal Jackie Certified: The 50 Most Influential Heavy Metal Songs of the 80s and the True Stories Behind Their Lyrics.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article and enter to win a personally-signed copy of Full Metal Jackie Certified.

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"I've created a lot of edits so that I can play these songs on radio," Full Metal Jackie told Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong about how playing songs on the radio led to her book.

"With that, you are sitting there and you are staring at the lyrics and you are realizing not only have been singing the song wrong, but you are really absorbing what these songs are about."

She admitted that today, nobody really sits around like fans used to, staring at the liner notes or lyric sheets of a new album.

"We're listening to, we're consuming our music digitally," she said.

"And I miss that, I miss holding whatever it was, a CD, cassette, vinyl and looking, reading the lyrics and reading all that other information."

Because of that, Full Metal Jackie said she was inspired to not simply share 50 of the best songs from the '80s, but dive into why those songs' lyrics are so important.

"I wanted to bring the lyrics and the subject matter to the forefront with this book," she explained.

"I interviewed lyricists of all of these songs. It wasn't about ranking the songs, [it was] about understanding them, straight from the artists who wrote them."

That means she dove into songs like Judas Priest's "Breaking the Law," Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" and Megadeth's "Peace Sells." And not only did she celebrate "Peace Sells," but Dave Mustaine wrote the foreword for the book, too.

"Dave and I have known each other for a really long time and when I told him about what I was trying to do, he understood exactly what the book was trying to do — take metal seriously," she shared.

"Not as nostalgia or noise, but as something intentional and intelligent."

Enter to Win a Personally-Signed Copy of Full Metal Jackie Certified

*Contest runs Friday Feb. 20 through Monday March 2 at 10AM ET.

What Else Did Full Metal Jackie Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

How her book feels like a textbook, in more ways than one: "There was a college in Florida that was using [the book] in a metal class, which was so cool. I used to Zoom in on classes with them. What I want people to take away from this book [is] metal matters today. Metal matters."
One of her favorite live shows: "I've been recently thinking about Chris Cornell a lot and I'm so glad I got to see that Temple of the Dog reunion. I got to see those songs that I, I played out that record to where it didn't work anymore...and also, the Chris Cornell tribute show that happened in Los Angeles where everyone came out and was performing. That was something."
Her all-time, number one band: "Type O Negative, man. Growing up in New Jersey, the New York area, I actually got to see Carnivore, which was Peter Steele's band prior to Type O Negative at L'Amour in Brooklyn as a kid. I would see Peter Steele at shows when we would go out to shows sometimes and there is no other, there will never be another Peter Steele. Yes, I have the Playgirl issue, by the way."