Metal Jesus Rocks talks about his retro gaming Youtube channel & more

By Gemma @Thegebs24

I've long been a fan of Metal Jesus Rocks' Youtube channel and can fondly remember when his channel first sprang in to action way back in 2010. His Retro Video Game channel has grown considerably since then and upon myself, returning to Youtube in march 2014, I felt compelled to try and catch up on the two and a half years worth of videos I'd missed needless to say I'm still watching videos I've never seen. His popular playlists like Hidden Gems and Forgotten Games helped to catapult his channel to well over 200,000 Subscribers at present. That's seriously impressive stuff and Metal Jesus Rocks is arguably one of the most widely known Retro Video Game YouTuber's out there. 

I reached out to him to talk more about about his incredible channel. Let's see what he had to say...

MJR Logo

1) Metal Jesus, remind the community of how you got your Youtube name?
I worked a corporate job with a lot of people in cubicles and button down shirts. However, I typically wear rock t-shirts (just like my videos!) and I had thousands of rock and metal songs on my computer that was shared out for anybody to listen to. One day in a meeting, a fellow coworker called me “the Metal Jesus” and it just stuck!

2) Tell us about your favourite gaming memory of all time
I really loved playing the Atari 2600 with my cousin back in the early 80s. His bedroom had wood panelling and he had a ton of classic AC/DC vinyl records. We would pop cartridges in all day and rock out pretending we were rock stars. Those were great times!

3) What is your favourite playlist on your channel?
That’s a tough question because I have over 330 videos…but probably the playlist I’m most proud of is my Special Episodes playlist. That playlist is full of episodes that were very challenging and interesting to create from a producer / video editor point of view. Specifically the I HATE U videos, which had a live camera person, green screen footage, gameplay and much more. It’s incredibly challenging to take 2 hours of footage and cut that down to 20 minutes and still keep the narrative entertaining. 

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4) Who is your idol or main hub of inspiration? This can be related to anything that drives you
I pull inspiration from almost everything: Film, TV, Documentaries, other YouTube channels, commercials, Music Videos. I have been a lover of shooting and editing video since I was a kid and now I can fulfill that dream on YouTube. But the best part is that people seem to appreciate it, and for that I am eternally grateful :) A specific example is a gaming party video I shot a few years ago. When it came time to edit it, I watched a bunch of MTV shows to see how they edited random party footage. They did things like speeding up and slowing down footage, crazy filters and just the pacing of the cuts. I used that to give me some direction on how I would take my video, and it worked pretty well.

5) If you could change one thing about Youtube, what would it be?
I wish there was a way through YouTube I could easily and safely use copyrighted music in my videos. Specifically I would LOVE to PAY to have access to all of ASCAP’s music for my videos. Wouldn’t it be great to pay $50 or $100 a month to have access to all of the recorded popular music? Hell, I would even include a link to their song on iTunes so people can go buy it… I would really love to see that happen.

6) How did you feel when you passed 100K Subscribers? It must seem like a long time ago now as you're well over 200K
It was a great feeling crossing the 100k mark for my channel, because in the beginning you struggle to even get 50 or 100 subscribers… I am very grateful that people like my videos enough to subscribe. But at the same time, I would like to do YouTube full time and I know that the real goal is 300k or 500k subscribers to make that financially possible, so at 100k the work and dedication had only just begun :)

7) If you could have any celebrity featured on your YT channel who would it be?
Any celebrity!? Tough one… I probably would love to see somebody crazy famous in my game room. Actually now that I think about it, it would be funny to get Robert Downy Jr and my friend TheBigJB together on a video and have them do a competition where they play an Iron Man game or something… TheBigJB gets the Iron Man comment all the time on my videos and man, that would make a great thumbnail!

8) What is your most prized gaming possession and why?
I have a lot of really amazing Big Box PC games in the collection that I never thought I would get back again. A lot of classic Sierra titles from when I worked there… but also some of my other favorites are System Shock 2, Planescape Torment, Half-Life, and all of the gold box SSI D&D games.
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9) How do you cope with haters on youtube?
Here’s an import thing about my YouTube channel: it is not a Democracy. It’s my name on the channel and I get final say what happens there and that includes the comments. Some people don’t like that, which I understand…and there are literally thousands of other channels out there that let you can post whatever you like. But on MY channel, I do not like it when people post nasty negative comments about my special guests or post comments that are not constructive criticism of what I make. And often I don’t even engage trolls, I just delete the comment. If the troll posts again, they are blocked. No warning. No discussion. I know not everybody is a fan of my methods, but it has worked pretty well so far and it makes for my videos to be a generally positive place to interact with fellow viewers. 

10) What can expect from Metal Jesus in the future?
I keep a list of potential videos and right now it’s over 30+ long! With over 40 years of video game history to draw from, there is no shortage of topics to cover. What I can tell you is that I will continue to bring on really cool special guests who are passionate about gaming and will help bring variety to my YouTube channel. I really love having a diverse class of people each week who bring their own knowledge and personality to the channel!
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Thanks Gemma for questions!
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Check out the Metal Jesus Rocks Website here
Subscribe to Metal Jesus Rocks here
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