Jon-Michael Marino

Before every Metallica concert for the past year and a half, the band spends about 45 minutes in a small backstage room with Jon-Michael Marino. As enhanced experience director for the heavy metal band, he leads a small group of mega fans who shell out big bucks for a backstage pre-show hangout with James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo (all of whom he describes as “genuine and caring guys.”)

For a longtime fan who has loved Metallica since his uncle first took him to see them live when he was 13, his job is a true rock-and-roll fantasy.

“I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up,” the 31-year-old says.

A music industry major who also got his MBA at Drexel, Marino started working security at concerts around Philadelphia as an undergraduate. His first full-time gig in the business was with Philadelphia-based CID Entertainment, which curates VIP experiences for music fans. One of his many projects over seven years with CID was creating a “MUSEum” for the British band Muse. Metallica later partnered with CID to create their own program. More than a year and two massive tours later, Marino left CID to work for Metallica directly.

Among his duties was creating a Metallica museum that travels with the band on tour. It features memorabilia like the late Cliff Burton’s signature bass and interactive exhibits that include playable guitars through the band members’ own effects boards, and a properly staged full drumkit photo opp.

“After several years of developing programs for a variety of country, EDM, jam bands, rock tours and festivals, [I’ve learned that] the items and experiences that fans always enjoy the most are the ones that are the most intimate,” Marino says. “Unique vantage points such as a front of house platform or inner barricade pit, intimate facetime with artists, or access to personal effects that people don’t even get to see at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame…it’s one thing to see wardrobe and set lists of your musical heroes behind glass, but to actually be able to strap a guitar on and let it rip through a pair of headphones and have it sound like it’s supposed to, is a pretty special experience.”

As glamorous as touring with Metallica around the world appears, it can also be a grueling job. Still, when Marino sees the smiles on satisfied fans’ faces, nothing else matters.

“It takes a special breed to go out there and do 18-hour days and switch back and forth between sleeping on a bus and sleeping in a hotel in different time zones,” he says. “On this tour, more than any other I’ve worked on, what we’ve created has surpassed people’s expectations. To have thousands of examples of overwhelmingly positive musical experiences, that’s what keeps me going.” — Mike Unger