In Montreal, the journalist Louis-Philippe Messier is mainly on the run, with his office in his backpack, looking for fascinating topics and people. In this city chronicle he addresses everyone and is interested in all areas of life.
• Also read: A visitor record for the Olympic Park
• Also read: Metallica at the Olympic Stadium: This is what we thought of the two shows, the sound quality and the audience of 125,000 metal fans
During Metallica’s performance at the Olympiastadion on Sunday, August 13, drummer Lars Ulrich reached out to a young concertgoer, lifting him onto the stage and handing him his drumsticks to play with the band.
During a break between songs, singer James Hetfield spoke to the audience. Did this monologue bore his friend Lars Ulrich? The latter unexpectedly interrupted him by putting a young, unknown drummer on his drum kit… who I found!
Timothé Letendre, aka Timo, 12 years old, immediately began to understand the introduction to “Enter Sandman”.
Instinctively (or rather, through Pavlovian conditioning), guitarist Kirk Hammet, bassist Robert Trujillo, and vocalist James Hetfield spontaneously played notes to accompany him.
Ulrich clapped his hands to encourage Timo and get the crowd to applaud.
“Lars has just gotten better!” joked Hetfield when he heard this surprisingly competent child drummer for his age.
“Lars Junior! It will be a story he can tell at school!” added the singer.
An incredible opportunity
Where did this young person come from and how did he get on the stage?
I met Timo and his father, Éric Letendre, in their backyard in Rosemont, just north of Maisonneuve Park.
Timo poses with the chopsticks that Lars Ulrich gave him and the sign with which he was able to attract his attention. Louis Philippe Messier
To say that Timo wants to cherish the wands Lars Ulrich left him is an understatement:
“I’m going to put them in a frame and leave them there until I die, and then I’m going to take them to the grave with me,” he says.
An extraordinary combination of circumstances favored this young drum enthusiast and imitator of the late Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison.
Because he and his father didn’t have tickets that would give them access to the floor…
“I asked a stadium employee if she would like to give me the black wristband for the floor, but she said, ‘Sorry little guy, you don’t have a ticket for that!'”
He received a second rejection.
The third employee addressed was touched: “I’m not supposed to do that, but… hey! For you and for your father. Good show!”
To prevent his son from being jostled in the flood of people near the stage, the father put him on his shoulders.
A great stroke of luck: generous spectators saw them and gave them bracelets that gave them access to the donut-shaped “pit” in the middle of the stage, where it was quieter.
There Timo just had to hold up his sign that said in English: “I want to play drums on stage” … and you already know the rest.
“My brain shut down, I was in my world, playing and I couldn’t even hear James Hetfield speak. I told myself: If you mess up in front of 63,000 people, you’re going to suck.”
Timo has been playing drums for two years.
His parents paid $3,500 for lessons and an electronic drum set (to avoid war with the neighborhood).
They limit battery life to prevent exactly that.
In elementary school, he was able to practice with a friend who played bass instead of playing outside at lunchtime.
This week he began his first secondary education at the Joseph Francois Perreault School in the music studies program.
“I want to create a group that will revolutionize metal like Metallica, Slipknot or Korn,” says the young man.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to think he will succeed.
The young drummer in his alley in Rosemont during a party with neighbors three weeks before his incredible experience at the stadium. Courtesy of Eric Letendre