A Virginia family credits their plans to attend a Metallica concert with saving their lives from a deadly truck crash.
David and Kristin McKee said they avoided being hit by a vehicle that drove into their home on May 7 because they went to bed early.
The parents normally would stay up and watch television in their living room, but they decided to rest up for the Metallica concert they were taking their 14-year-old daughter Madeline to the next day.
Young Madeline had dreamed of seeing the rock band perform live, and her family had secured tickets to their show at Lane Stadium.
The 14-year-old told WDBJ her love of Metallica ‘started [because] my dad used to listen to it a lot when I was younger.
‘Then when “Stranger Things”, like, season four had came out, they had Eddie playing “Master of Puppets” and that was mostly when it started like a lot more for me.’
David and Kristin believe those Metallica concert tickets saved them from being killed when a truck crashed into their home around 2 a.m.
‘”[I asked David] you want to sit up” and he was like, “Nah, I think I’m just gonna go on to bed” and I said, “Okay, I’ll go on to bed too,”‘ Kristin told the local news station.
‘Then just a few hours later we heard a loud explosion, glass shatter, and it was just madness from that point on.’
Stewartsville-Chamblissburg Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the scene and arrived to find a single pickup truck crashed into the home, but miraculously with no injuries or entrapment.
Although the family was unable to attend the concert while they dealt with the damage done to their home, they are thanking Metallica for saving them.
‘We were so fortunate that that night, my daughter could walk down that hallway and found us in the rubble, and you know, I thank God every day and Metallica for saving us because that’s exactly what did it,’ Kristen said.
Madeline decided to write the band a letter to show her gratitude.
‘You saved my parents’ lives. I will be forever grateful. Good luck with the rest of your tour and hope to see you on the road. Sincerely, Maddie McKee,’ she said.
The concert the McKee family missed actually ‘rocked so hard’ that the legendary metal band triggered an earthquake.
The show, which was held at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia, as part of Metallica’s M72 World Tour, reportedly created enough shaking from the jazzed-up fans that it registered on a seismograph a mile away at the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory.
According to Virginia Tech Geophysics professor Dr. Martin Chapman, the band managed to trigger vibrations similar to a minor earthquake after it played the introduction to its 1991 single Enter Sandman.
He said the seismograph readings were detailed enough to allow the scientist to pinpoint two different times when the crowd appeared to trigger an earthquake, with the first being early in the concert, around when the crossover hit was teased.
But the group forced fans to wait until the encore to finally hear the lead Black Album cut, and the second burst of vibrations appeared to line up with that moment at the end of the concert.
The Metallica fans must have been doing plenty of jumping and stomping and dancing, as Chapman said the readings for the concert were ‘probably four to five times bigger than what we see typically for a football game.’