Thor 
God of Fuckin' Thunder:
The return of Thor
"I'm tensing up there, I'm flexing, I'm grabbing hammers and swords, I'm putting hideous masks on..." I always knew that I would someday get this call, although I thought it would come from Valhalla, where all the used-up heroes go, not a payphone in Hamilton, Ontario. But when the God of Thunder calls, you listen. "We've got wild costumes, and I portray the character of Thor, and I bend iron bars after say, twenty people in the audience try to bend it at one time. It's a steel bar that can hold up a two-ton truck." Back in 1978, when the Sleazegrinder was a mere scruffy pup, I picked up a record called "Keep the Dogs Away" by a Canadian body builder-cum-glam rocker who had the audacity (and the muscles) to simply call himself Thor. He even looked like the guy in the comic book, and on the cover, he was strutting down an alley, wearing nothing but leather pants and a flowing mane of Samson-like yellow hair, holding the reins on about half a dozen vicious Rottweilers. The battle hymns inside all sounded like Gary Glitter on steroids, and I remember reading in Circus magazine at the time about how Thor would ride onto the stage in a horse-drawn chariot just like Ben Hur, and blow up hot water bottles like they were party balloons. "I've tried everything on my tours. I came out with dogs when we did the "Keep the Dogs Away" tour. I had other shows where I toured with Charlton Heston's chariot, and came on stage with horses. That was tough one to deal with."
Thor laughs, the sound of rolling thunder. "In the same show, I had midgets, and I fought giants, guys were walking around on stilts...the circus was definitely in town." And now, 22 years later, that circus is rolling back into town, with a vengeance. It's been a long time coming. Thor had his second coming in the early 80's, when he re-emerged as a heavy metal warrior, pumping out fist pumping pop metal anthems. He also began a career as a b-movie hero, crashing through low budget slashers like "Zombie Nightmare" and "Rock and Roll Nightmare", but by the cocaine decade's end, when grunge effectively killed off the reign of comic book cock rockers, the mighty Thor went underground, quietly planning his next attack. And that time is now, baby. With a comic book, a new, brilliant record, "Triumphant" (Thortoen), a whirlwind, 40 city North American tour, and his big meaty hands in a new film, the crazed metal head epic "FUBAR", Thor is most certainly back on the map. "There's a whole culture of head bangers, right?" Thor uses "right" like most Canucks use "eh". "So, "FUBAR" is about a day in the life of these two guys, and they're head bangers, but religiously, it's their life. And there are these real life issues that happen to everybody, even head bangers. It's a humorous movie, but it also deals with real issues that can happen to anybody. It got great reviews in Canada, and at Sundance, and now we're trying to break it in the US." Beyond FUBAR, Thor is also involved in other film projects. "I've always had my hands in the movies", he says. "I was in 'Rock and Roll Nightmare', 'Zombie Nightmare', 'Recruits', and some others as well. I'm coming back in both records and film. I just did a series of movies besides FUBAR. I'm working on Rock and Roll Nightmare part, two, The Intercessor."Is that the one where you get hit by the car?
"No, that's 'Zombie Nightmare'. This is the one where we go into the house to rehearse, and one by one everybody gets killed off.
Oh yeah, right. What does "Intercessor" mean?
"He who intercepts demons."
Of course.
"I feel that an artist should be a multi-media type person, able to go into other forms of media, not just music but film, internet, video, games, whatever. I like to go into all sorts of media. I enjoy acting and I like to be on stage, which is another form of acting. I mean, you're portraying a character when you're on stage."
The new record, "Triumphant", is amazing.
"Thanks. It sort of merges the 'Keep the Dogs Away' period with the "Only the Strong" or "Unchained" period. Music is forever changing, and it's forever evolving. Back when I made "Dogs", punk was huge, the Sex Pistols, Ramones and all that. I had a lot of influence from Bowie, 'Diamond Dogs', and Alice Cooper. Then, later on in the 80's, it was Judas Priest, leather and studs. The heavy metal stuff was really starting to break, that's when we were making 'Unchained'. Then the metal stuff just exploded, with Twisted Sister, WASP, bands like that. That's when we made "Only the Strong" and toured England, and we were right in the middle of all the heavy metal madness. There's a fine line between punk and metal, anyway. But the first record was more rock and roll, more power pop, I'd say, and this one kind of merges all the eras."
You also did a split EP with a grindcore band recently- how did that come about?
"Well, I appreciate the new bands. After experiencing the 70's and 80's, the new bands sound like hybrids of all the music that I've been into. So I like to get in there, and work with guys that are working in the now, that are happening. So hey, Coalition Against Shane were big Thor friends, and they said hey, Let's do a split EP, so I said why not? Let's do it. I appreciate all forms of music. I've done all sorts of projects over the years. I've released a lot of albums."
If you don't mind me asking, what ever happened to your wife, Pantera? Are you still married to her?
"No, we're divorced now. But we had 18 great years. Well, the last few might have been a little stormy, but we had some great times. We toured all over the world together. She's still doing modeling, I think, and singing. She was a great talent herself, and she looked great, too. She was on the cover of a lot of men's magazines as well, as "Cherry Bomb." Anyway, we've got a new female warrior, Ani Kin the Squid Girl."
Squid Girl?
"She's sort of the undersea female warrior, you know. She's in the Thor comic book, too. It's a great comic."
You haven't run into any trouble with Marvel for having a Thor comic?
"No, because they have "The Mighty Thor", and mine is "Thor the Rock Warrior", and it's part of my name, and I've proven that I've been Thor for many years...and I know Stan Lee very well. The first time I met Stan Lee, I walked into his office and blew up a hot water bottle until it exploded and knocked all the comic books off the shelves."
How's the new tour going?
"We just started the tour, and it's been crazy. There are times where it feels like a marathon...like stop the tour; I want to get off! But there's such tremendous audience response, you don't care how tired you are, you just give it your all, you give it everything you've got. There's some hardcore fans that are just going crazy. We're getting encores...In Sudbury, and Quebec city, we've got some of the French guys yelling "T- Whore! T-Whore!" Stuff like that. Pretty amazing. What's interesting to me is that on this tour, we're getting a whole new generation of Thor fans showing up. I mean, I'm in my late 40's, but I've got teenagers coming to the show. We still have the old Thor fans, but there are a lot of young kids out there."
So what can we expect from the Thor show?
"If we went out there in jeans and t-shirts, I think we could rock out with the best of them", Thor says, but merely rocking is the stuff of lesser men. When you are graced with the presence of the God of Thunder, you can fully expect him to take it all the way. "There's going to be some great entertainers with us. Damien Storm is flying in from New Orleans; he's a real wild character. Nasty Disaster, who are a real wild act... It's just rock and roll mayhem", he tells me. "Feats of strength, yeah, I'll be performing some. But, we're also concentrating on showing that we've got a great band, and that we've got some great songs...it's just a circus, really. There's a lot of action going on." I don't want to appear sacrilegious, but Thor is pushing 50. I'm only 33, and I get winded climbing steep stairs.
These feats of strength, they can't be real, can they? Can a rock and roller, even a Canadian one, really blow up a hot water bottle? "Not too many people on this Earth can do it. Not too many people would
want to. Blowing up a hot water bottle until it bursts really burns the lungs. It's a very dangerous feat of strength, but yes, I can do it." What about the steel? "Yes", he assures me, "It's a real hunk of steel." Isn't that impossible? "When people see it, that's what they always say. There was this one guy, his name was Doug Hepburn, he was once named the World's Strongest man, and he was able to bend dimes in his fingers, and railroad spikes, and he showed me how. There's a technique to it. But it is real. It's the secret of the steel, right?" Right. But can other body builders bend steel, or is particular to you?
"Well..."
And then the line went dead. I swear to God. 5 minutes later, the phone rang again.
"I think that was the Strongman's Guild", Thor jokes. "They didn't want me revealing the secrets."
Fair enough. Pressed for further revelations, he simply tells me, "That's it. That's my life. I put my guts and soul into the whole thing."
All photos courtesy www.thorkorr.com