Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.10.2005, Page 12

12 • Lögberg-Heimskringia • Friday 21 October 2005
Heavy metal thunder
Thor weighs the perils ofhis music career
David Jón Fuller
Sometimes it’s not easy be-
ing the God of Thunder.
Just ask Jon Mikl Thor,
a.k.a. Thor, the Rock Warrior.
Thor hit the road this year
to support his latest album,
Thor Against the World, in the
United States and Canada. He
had performed in 40 cities and
towns in as many days when at
a September show in Portland,
OR, he was figuratively struck
by lighting — but the shock was
real enough.
To understand how this
could happen, it takes a bit of
context. Thor, who was born and
raised in Vancouver, BC, pio-
neered many of the theatrical as-
pects of heavy rock, which were
later picked up by bands such
as GWAR, Armored Saint, and
others. The stage shows feature
larger-than-life medieval-style
costumes and weaponry, mock
battles, and in Thor’s case, feats
of strength.
Thor’s career in music
was parallelled by his career in
bodybuilding. He came to in-
temational attention alongside
the likes of Lou Ferrigno and
Amold Schwarzenegger. One
of his memorable performances
was on the Merv Grifftn Show
in 1976, during which he per-
formed his rock music (clad
very scantily), with violins and
homs as backup.
In terms of putting on a
rock concert, Thor built upon
what glam rockers such as Al-
ice Cooper and Kiss did, using
sheer muscle. He bent steel bars,
twisted mic stands, and using his
lungs blew up hot water bottles
until they burst.
The recent accidental elec-
tric shock was the second he’s
experienced onstage, the first
having been in the seventies.
Of the recent Portland show,
he says, “I have a metal axe
onstage, and I do a part where
I’m going to chop off the head
of my opponent — I eventually
don’t chop his head off, I wrap
the microphone stand around his
neck. I chipped a piece of the
wire, and I didn’t know that it
was chipped. So I actually got an
electric shock when I was bend-
ing the steel bar and the wire'
was touching the microphone
stand.”
He had to stop the show and
cancel the remainder of the tour.
“It was a very complicated, stu-
pid accident,” he says. “I’m very
angry about that — I could have
been killed.”
Thor came by his stage per-
sona through a fascination with
Norse and Greek mythology,
as well as the Marvel Comics
interpretation of “The Mighty
Thor.” (Incidentally, the “Mikl”
in his name is an Austrian spell-
ing of “Michael” — though he
was intrigued to learn that it is
very similar to the Icelandic/
Old Norse word for “mighty.”
Marvel has copyrighted “The
Mighty Thor” but with an Old
Norse reading, perhaps Jon Mikl
has his own version of it.)
The appeal of the thunder
god, he says, went with his love
of loud, thunderous music, which
he enjoyed listening to as he
worked out, as well as perform-
ing. “My music was thunderous,
so I wanted to have that persona.
So I just called the whole band
Thor, and for a nickname, my-
self Thor.” He adds that “Thor”
is now legally part of his name.
“Of course, when I played
Minneapolis, it was one of the
only cities where there were
more Thors than myself in the
venue,” he laughs, referring to
the Icelandic and Scandinavian
population there.
His heavy metal rock per-
formances are a far cry from his
first musical instrument — the
accordion, which he took up at
his parents’ urging. After see-
ing the Beatles on television,
he quickly moved on to guitar
and fell under the influence of
heavier bands, such as Iron But-
terfly.
It seems as though having an
over-the-top stage persona has
helped him keep his career and
his private life separate. “When
I go onstage, I become a differ-
ent person,” he says. “I psyche
myself up into a frenzy.” He de-
scribes is as a kind of euphoric,
“berserker” state, wherein he can
pull off his live-action stunts.
He does admit that as he
gets older, it gets more difficult.
He pushes himself to exhaustion
every night, and does occasion-
ally wonder if might not be time
to hang up his hammer. As the
“Evel Knievel of Rock,” as he
puts it, at some point he will
have to call it a day.
Maybe then he’ll have time
to delve into his family history;
he speculates that amongst his
Austrian heritage there may be
some Norwegian or Icelandic
blood. Iceland, he says, is a place
he’d like to visit one day — “It’s
a fascinating place to me.
“I’m a big fan of things that
are going on in Iceland,” he says,
mentioning a recent United Na-
tions survey that ranks Iceland
near the top in its Human Devel-
opment Index. “Like Icelanders,
I believe in myself.”
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