From the metal of Metallica to the classical period of Mozart, music has been a big part of my life.

My mom graduated from Georgia State University with a master’s degree in music, taught piano and eventually ended up as a children’s ministries director at my church in Fairhope.

During my childhood, we’d often be in her car going somewhere and she’d all-of-a-suddenly ask, “Can you find the beat? What instrument do you hear? Who wrote this piece of music? What time period was this piece written in?”

I’d get most of them right, but learned a lot when I got the answers wrong. Most of what we listened to consisted of classical music.

Growing up, I had my favorites and some haven’t changed to this day. For example, I still love U2, Green Day and Nirvana, along with classical artists Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others.

I really hadn’t got into heavy metal music until late in college.

One of my best friends introduced me to Metallica, and the rest as they say, is history.

Last weekend, I had a few of my best friends down for the weekend, and we watched the documentary, “Some Kind of Monster.” The documentary followed Metallica through the process of making, “St. Anger,” an album that was released in 2003.

The documentary highlighted the struggle the band went through in making the album. I believe it definitely affected the quality of the music.

The album, as we often discuss, isn’t very good. They knew that, too.

To me, it’s always interesting to see larger-than-life icons in human moments, whether it’s acting through joy, anger and a myriad of emotions.

On Saturday, we watched The Beatles’ documentary on Hulu, “Eight Days A Week.” The documentary chronicled the popular band’s touring days early on and deciding not to play live anymore.

It was quite fascinating. I never knew they were so funny.

When we separated, I smiled because it was a great weekend and my love of music swelled just a little more.