Mr. Hogue… the man, the myth, the legend! He is like a celebrity in this school. And if you know anything about him, it might just be his excellent taste in music. The high school history teacher has been to hundreds of concerts, so it is no secret that he is a true fan of the art. I decided to take an opportunity to interview him and ask him specific music-related questions for this special teacher spotlight.
Mr. Hogue has been to A LOT of concerts. He has a big list of all the performances (musical, comedy, etc.) that he has been to, and it is a long list that is still being updated today. He has been to at least 787 performances, seeing a few artists more than once. His first concert was in 1979 where he saw Donna Fargo at the Erie Field House. Concerts that stood out to him the most were the two where he saw Pink Floyd. After considering all the concerts Mr. Hogue had attended, I felt the need to ask about the mosh pit, and if he ever decided to fight anyone there. His response was no, but he did have to avoid one at an Offspring concert.
Mr. Hogue has had some memorable experiences actually meeting some performers. He got to stand on stage with the comedian Emo Phillips, he got to say hi to the rock band Starcrawler, and Mr. Hogue is actually friends with and emails with Chris Vrenna from Nine Inch Nails!
A particular artist that got Mr. Hogue into the heavy metal genre was Ozzy Osbourne from Black Sabbath, which makes sense because of Black Sabbath’s early influence that helped develop the genre. Some heavy metal bands Mr. Hogue feels had the biggest impact on headbangers are Accept, Motley Crue, Metallica, Aerosmith, and Kiss.
After all of this information, I decided to ask some opinionated questions to see what Mr. Hogue’s preferences are. He prefers Megadeth to Metallica because he enjoys Megadeth’s composing of guitar solos and the general writing of songs. I asked him what AC/DC singer he prefers between Bon Scott and Brian Johnson, and he said that he’d have to go with Bon Scott because of his unique vocals that started it all. He did say that Johnson did a great job at singing after Scott’s passing though. And finally, Mr. Hogue’s favorite musical decade would have to be the ’70s.
It was great to have a musical discussion with Mr. Hogue. He is a very good teacher who works hard to teach his students not just history but also life lessons. One thing he wants all of you reading to know, is that “Going to a show can be quite important. It’s a way to keep one’s sanity.”
