Tarnished Iron: Danny Marianino

Fighting. Something Metalheads have been engaged in many times since the dawn of time, from the fist-a-cuffs in the pits, to the backstage brawls, to the battlefront known as the internet. Why we fight is for a series of reasons, from band members settling disputes ranging from girls/drugs/money/musical notes/etc, to the accidental punch-in-a-face inside a pit that leaves the receiver seething with anger and vengeance, to arguing about a band "style of Metal (aka, sub-genres debate)" on a forum/message board/YouTube Channel/random internet median/etc that escalates to a fight of words. While this act of violence (and especially words) is a natural trait amongst our people, it is nothing special to see 2 guys go at it (where as seeing 2 gals go at it is).

One night in Tuba City, Arizona, on July 3, 2004, changed the spectrum of what fighting amongst the Metal ranks was all about when Danny Marianino from the "Thugcore(?)" band North Side Kings took a swing and nailed Glenn Danzig, knocking him to the floor.


CREDIT: BlankTV
The back story has been repeated time in and again, but here is the condensed version: North Side Kings drove six hours from some shithole to perform, Danzig wanted to perform early, threw opening bands off stage, Danny Marianino confronted Danzig, Danzig pushed, Danny punched, :::BLAMMO::: punch seen around the world (more like the planet of internet trolls).

The reason this story became so popular is the fact that a nobody (Marianino) managed to knockout a somebody (Danzig, although at the time of this incident he was already a nobody), and was :::SURPRISE::: captured on video. Once the video became a internet "hit" (every pun intended), the incident took a life of its own, from Danzig saying the footage was doctored, to Danzig passing out pictures of Marianino to security staff at venues and instructing the yellow-shirts to deny entry of Thugcores greatest representative.

Time to provide a bit of an observance. The scrap (as would be said by the 5 or so fans of North Side Kings) occurred in 2004, we are now in 2013, close to 9 years after the incident, and it is constantly brought up every once in a while on the internet, and the reason is pretty simple, Danny Marianino, today's Tarnished Iron recepient.

While Mr. Marianino is not Metal, the incident in question did occur after a Metal show, and essentially it is his actions of extending his 15 minutes of fame to many years (with the unintentional help of Danzig making up excuse after excuse after excuse of the punch while holding many belts from martial arts to null and void his claim).

The Tarnished Iron qualifications for Thugcores poster child was the book he wrote, "Don't Ever Punch A Rock Star - A Collection Of Hate Mail & Other Crazy Rumors". In essence, this is quite possibly (doubtful) the apex of the whole incident, with the hopes that now we can put the incident to rest from the prying eyes of the internet (I know this is wishful thinking), but when you think about what the book is all about, and what it took to make it happen, it is about as pathetic as it gets. Danny Marianino indicated he received many emails and death threats, but most likely scoured the internet searching (through Google most likely) for posts from people who posted anything and everything about the incident and just copy and pasted the those comments into the book. What's worse the book is a autobiography of his personal experiences and about bullying.

Finally, to add to his credentials of shittiness, the cover of the book looks like something from Garbage Pail Kids (an insult to a 80's icon).

I feel the best way to end this post is by having the best hilarious tribute to the incident, courtesy from the fine folks at Metal Storm.