Historians still debate whether any of the Aesir did, in fact, wear wrap-around shades
“I thought, well, if Alice Cooper can hang himself and David Bowie is the thin white alien,” he says, “why couldn’t I be this gladiator character, like gladiator rock, and come up there with swords and battle axes and put all this together with heavy music?”
Thor’s stage show is as renowned for his feats of strength as it is for his heavy music. And those feats of strength are genuine feats. Bending heavy steel bars held in his teeth, having concrete blocks shattered on his chest and blowing up hot water bottles with lung power have all been regular parts of his show. As one might expect, there have been occasional mishaps. “I would say I want to lift the heaviest person in the audience with my neck and teeth (using a special platform and neck harness built for that purpose),” Thor explains. “This woman comes up and she was about 400 pounds, and when I proceeded to lift her up with my teeth and neck, the whole platform broke and we both tumbled into the audience. It was quite embarrassing.”
That time Thor was injured. On another occasion, it was one of his challengers. “I was in Quebec, in a small town, and I said, ‘I challenge anyone to try to bend this steel bar,’” he says. “So this huge guy came up and all the townspeople were going wild for him. He was like a big lumberjack. He just grabbed the steel bar, not knowing that you’re supposed to wrap a cloth around it so you don’t damage your teeth. He put it in his mouth and he cracked all his teeth. He was screaming in pain. Things like that can happen. I’ve had different challenges over the years. I’m not out there to battle people, I’m there to entertain them.”
Along with his rock persona, Thor the thespian has appeared in several B movies and in England, where he enjoys a major cult following. A jury of British music critics named him one of the Top 100 rock front men of all time. He was the only Canadian on the list. He’s undergoing a resurgence in North America, too, with MTV Canada airing two different series of segments featuring Thor the Rock Warrior this fall. “One is called Dear Thor, where I answer fan letters in my own weird way, and the other one is called Thor Road Stories, which is (mostly) animated. They just film me in my full costume, sort of reminiscing about different tours I’ve done and mishaps that have occurred and then they take it from there.”
Recently, Thor headlined Northwest Metalfest in Chilliwack, B.C., and he has a brand new album for direct digital download called Into the Noise, a concept album on which Thor and his men go on a journey to the centre of the mind, and encounter fantastic characters like the “Sound King.” In all honesty, it sounds kind of corny. “Maybe I’m just a big old, corny guy,” he chuckles. The actual inspiration for Into the Noise came from contracting pneumonia after severely overextending himself. Apparently, even rock gods have their limits. “I was unbelievably exhausted to the point of almost collapse. I always would say to myself, if I ever got healthy again, I would go back into the noise.”
That’s exactly what he’s done. Despite the upswing in both his health and popularity, though, Thor downplays the suggestion that he’s currently having a bit of a renaissance or comeback. “I’ve always been there,” he says. “When you’re in the music business it’s very cyclical, there’s a lot of ups and downs. It’s like a roller-coaster ride. Maybe I’m just at a good point right now.”
