INTERVIEW: Hulu premieres a new series forged from heavy metal
The world of heavy metal is the focus of the new Hulu series Into the Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal, created by Jason Eisener and Evan Husney, the creative forces behind Dark Side of the Ring. The show, which premieres today, Sept. 22, goes into the fascinating stories of this often misunderstood music genre, highlighting everyone from guitarist Randy Rhoads to British stalwarts Judas Priest to Hellion’s Anne Boleyn. These are not the stories that everyone knows; instead, Eisener and Husney are interested in the tales of metal that sometimes have been forgotten about or were never known in the first place.
“It was awesome because some of the folks at Hulu were big fans of our show Dark Side of the Ring, which, of course, is about professional wrestling, another childhood love of ours,” Husney said in a recent Zoom interview. “It was sort of an exploration of what other worlds would we want to examine and that we could collaborate with them on, and this was always for us the next logical step.”
Husney, wearing a Napalm Death t-shirt during the interview and positioned in front of an Alice Cooper poster, said he has loved the metal genre since he was a child. He first discovered Black Sabbath, Pantera and other bands at a young age, and that admiration for the art form has carried on to this day.
“I grew up as the odd guy out in terms of growing up in my high school, and discovering this kind of music really set me apart and gave me that sense of identity and gave me that sense of catharsis from the very mundane, boring suburbs,” he said. “It really shaped who I am. I don’t even know who the hell I’d be if it weren’t for that, to be perfectly honest, so I’ve always felt this deep loyalty to metal.”
Eisener and Husney have had metal music on the radar for some time, and they are so happy that Hulu came aboard as a partner.
“I just never would have thought we’d be seeing Death on Hulu, which is very exciting to me,” Husney said about the legendary death metal band. “It’s really cool. It’s been an amazing process. Day one was a scary day because these shows don’t happen overnight. They take their time before they come together. And you get the green light, and you get off to making the show. I just remember that day one was like, OK, here we are. We’ve got a lot to do and a lot of people to meet because we didn’t really have much street cred in this world. Wrestling, people know us. Metal, nobody knows us, so we had a pretty steep hill to climb in terms of getting to know people, talking to people, getting them to know where we’re coming from.”
Some early interviewees thought the team was going to produce another sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll exposé, like so many other documentaries about harder music. Instead, the two executive producers were after a different approach.
“I’ve been saying that metal, to me, feels like the original scapegoat in pop culture,” he said. “Rock ‘n’ roll was, of course, in the ‘50s and ‘60s, for sure, but it’s on a whole other level in terms of when metal was really starting to get popular in the early-’80s because not only was it a lightning rod for controversy but also was something that was commodified and weaponized by other groups. Very right-wing Christian groups were using it to further their moral crusades, and then you had all the stuff with the PMRC [Parents Music Resource Center] in the late-’80s or early-’90s and things like that.”
Husney pointed out that metal has been blamed for teenage delinquency and crime, and every few years that argument resurfaces in mass culture. Today, however, he is happy that metal is more accepted, with millions of people enjoying some head-banging and throwing up some Devil horns.
“That was something that was really important for us, to walk away from the clichés or to really separate a band like Death or a band like Pantera from Bret Michaels and Dee Snider and the stuff we’ve seen so many times on television,” Husney said. “I feel like it’s often misunderstood, miscategorized, but it’s definitely more accepted and celebrated. When you see Jack Black getting up there singing ‘Mr. Crowley’ perfectly, that stuff probably wouldn’t have happened 40 years ago with a Hollywood star like that, so, yes, it’s definitely more accepted now.”
The first episode of Into the Void — which is named after a famous Black Sabbath song — is centered on Rhoads, the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne in the 1980s. They chose Rhoads, who died quite young, because Osbourne was the quintessential figure in metal history. Of course, Osbourne’s final concert and unexpected death were the main headlines of the metal-verse this past summer.
“Randy’s story is, I think, a very relatable one,” he said. “Obviously his tragic death is something as fans we’ve heard about a lot. … It usually falls under the banner of an Ozzy story, and so to be able to tell Randy’s story kind of on its own we thought was very interesting and the idea that he was this reluctant rockstar.”
Husney added: “All the years and blood, sweat, and tears he put into playing the guitar like he did, and then here’s this opportunity to join Ozzy, and he’s not even a Black Sabbath fan. He’s not a fanboy of that stuff, but he realizes that this is an opportunity that doesn’t come along all the time. And he goes with it, but then he finds that that lifestyle is not everything he thought it would be.”
Husney said the story of Rhoads, as a person in his mid-20s who was more interested in classical music, can connect to viewers today.
“I just thought if we could somehow tap into who Randy was as a person, what made him tick, beyond the very sensational headline aspects of his story and, of course, his death, would be really interesting for me,” he said. “He’s still beloved today. He’s somebody who is one of the most iconic guitarists that ever lived.”
By John Soltes / Publisher/ John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Into the Void, created and executive produced by Jason Eisener and Evan Husney, premieres today, Sept. 22, on Hulu. Click here for more information.
