It’s a tale as old as time: A woman enjoys a particular band or album, and then is asked to qualify or quantify her fandom. TikToker Zaria Joyner had a great response to a recent troll about her Metallica shirt.
Before Christmas, the North Carolina-based musician and singer posted a few TikTok videos where she’s wearing a Ride the Lightning-era Metallica T-shirt. One commenter, paytonnsmith, responded with a predictable, patronizing troll: “Name 3 Metallica songs.” Others remarked that she doesn’t really like Metallica.
Joyner, 21, didn’t just name three songs, she played them: “Master of Puppets,” “Enter Sandman,” and the guitar lead in “One.” The video has more than 400,000 views.
“I decided to respond to that comment because I’ve been a Metallica fan for such a long time but I’d never showed that side of me on TikTok,” Joyner tells the Daily Dot. “I’ve been a self-taught guitarist since 15 and Metallica was the band that influenced me to pick it up and inspired my journey with music.”
The paytonnsmith account is now deleted or private (“likely from all of the people tagging him and denouncing the comment,” Joyner says) but she’s entertained other Metallica songs, like “Battery.” She joked on TikTok that she’s “taking requests I guess.”
“I really just thought it would be funny and I didn’t expect the response that the video received,” she says. Joyner adds that “the supportive comments just kept rolling in.”
She’s moved on from the trolls and is now doing the more important work: Getting Metallica’s attention.
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