A few weeks ago in Bend, Oregon, Matt Nathanson pulled a cellphone out of his pocket and took a picture of Dara (my wife) holding the T-shirt we brought to his pre-show VIP meetup.
That was the moment I realized that my wacky “Mythical Matt Nathanson Metal Albums” concept really resonated with my wife’s favorite recording artist, which is pretty cool. He posted a photo of the shirt on his Instagram page a few days later after the tour with Train and Barenaked Ladies ended.
The shirt was the cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s Diary of a Madman with a few modifications. Ozzy’s name was replaced with Matt’s, and the title became Diary of a Matt-man. Completing the shirt was Matt’s face placed on Ozzy’s body.
Wait, what? There’s a backstory, obviously. And it goes from Idaho to California and even Columbus, Ohio.
My wife asked if I would go see Matt Nathanson with her at the Egyptian Theater in Boise, Idaho in 2022. I wasn’t a Matt Nathanson fan — it’s not that I didn’t like him, I just didn’t know his music. I agreed to go. She purchased two fourth-row tickets and splurged for us to attend a “pre-show hang” that included Matt playing acoustic songs and answering questions from the 25 or so fans. One question asked what music he listened to growing up.
Now before I go into details, I knew Matt Nathanson was a metal head. He famously wore a That Metal Show T-shirt when he performed on The Tonight Show, a stunt that got him an invite to be a guest on the VH-1 Classic television show. He also released an EP of Def Leppard covers in 2018, titled PYROMATTIA, a nod to the band’s breakthrough Pyromania record.
In Boise that night, Matt talked about his love of early Metallica records. That led me to wonder, “What would Matt Nathanson’s Metallica tribute record be called if he were to record one?”
It had to be Kill’em Matt,” right? “Mythical Matt Nathanson Metal Albums” was now a thing, at least in my head.
The next day I tinkered around. I found a website that generates words in the Metallica font. I opened Photoshop (I’m a bad novice at best) and came up with a poorly executed cover. I shared it with another friend who made it better. He surprised me by having it printed on a T-shirt and sent it to me. I never wore it and it hung in my closet next to 30 or so other concert t-shirts I’d acquired over the years.
The next year, Matt was opening for Matchbox 20 at an outdoor amphitheater outside of Boise. I had the idea of somehow giving the shirt to Matt. A friend had good floor seats, and she agreed to take the shirt and try to get it to him.
Dara & I and some friends were watching the show from the lawn area. Mid-sentence, Matt stops and suddenly asks “Is that a Kill’em All shirt?” I couldn’t believe it. Our friend had been waving it around until he spotted it. She threw the shirt up to the stage, and he was genuinely surprised to see what it really was. He held up the shirt, went into a little bit about how he wished he could play metal, then dropped the shirt on stage and finished his set.
He picked up the shirt when the set was over.
I always wondered what became of the shirt. It took two years to find out.
In 2025, Dara took advantage of her fan club status for us to attend the “Last Days of Summer in San Francisco: A Weekend of Matt Nathanson.” The event was limited to 200 people – 100 fan club members and their plus-one. It would include a bonfire on the beach meet-and-greet for all 200, then he scheduled four intimate shows with 50 people apiece at a local print shop.
Once Dara booked the tickets, I asked her if I could bring another mythical Matt metal album T-shirt and she agreed. This time, I leaned on a true graphic designer to create the next album, which was Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. I renamed it Seventh Son of a Nathanson. The t-shirt design was epic, with my friend putting Matt’s head in Eddie’s hand instead of the unborn Eddie baby.
When we met Matt on the beach, we chatted and I asked him if he remembered the Metallica shirt. Without hesitation he said, “you mean the one my kid wears to school every single day?” At that point, Dara let him know that we had another shirt and presented it to him right on the beach. He got a kick out of it, as did many of the confused fan club members who had no idea what was going on.
I’ve continued to brainstorm ideas for more mythical Matt metal albums. When I was in Columbus in July for the Watershed panel discussion at Used Kids Records, I was fortunate enough to spend time with the band afterward at Combustion Brewing in Clintonville.
A few other Watershed fans/friends attended, and one of them had attended the Train/Barenaked Ladies/Matt Nathanson concert in Cincinnati the night before. I asked him what he thought of Matt. He pointed out that Matt called him out for wearing a Manowar T-shirt and then went into a little story about and played a snippet of Metallica’s One.
I told him my story, and that led to a few of us at our table started brainstorming additional mythical Matt metal albums. Watershed guitarist Rick Kitsinger came up with Ozzy’s “Diary of a Matt-man.”
When I returned to Boise, I sent my designer four mythical Matt albums and asked him if any of those would work. He sent me back three, and Ozzy’s was the winner. I had the shirt printed and presented it in Bend.
I’ve now seen Matt Nathanson perform four times, plus two pre-show hangs and a private show as part of the fan club weekend. I’ve grown to like more of Matt’s music and enjoy his shows. He’s a great performer and storyteller.
We are heading back to San Francisco next month for this year’s “Last Days of Summer in San Francisco” weekend. We will be presenting Matt with his next mythical metal album and keep my little funny idea alive & well. Dara is completely on board, especially since her photo now lives in Matt’s cell phone, and we have pictures to prove it.
Nick Jezierny is a graduate of Ohio University and a former newspaper journalist who worked at papers in Connecticut, Ohio, Texas and Idaho. He resides in Garden City, Idaho, and is fascinated by all things music, mostly because he has zero musical skills minus his spot-on karaoke version of Tommy Tutone.