Nardwuar the Human Serviette vs THOR


[WATCH VIDEO | PAGE TWO]


 
 
 

NARDWUAR: Oh my god it's Thor! Thor! How are you doing?
THOR: Hail, Nardwuar, Rock Warrior!

Now, Thor, what exactly is Thor? What is Thor?
Thor is thunderous music. Thor... is... me, Thor.

Thor!
That's correct.

Now Thor, you were one of the first to merge weightlifting and rock 'n' roll. Please explain.
Alright. It goes way back to the early '70s. I was a great admirer of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and when I used to train at Broadway Gym down the street, I used to listen to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, and used to pump up, man! That got me psyched up, so when I got psyched up, I said to myself, well why not combine rock with music, and wrestling, and thunderous music, and-

Body building! I mean, this is no small feat: you were Mr. USA and Mr. Canada?!
That's right. Mr. USA and Mr. Canada and also Teenage Mr. Canada and I competed against Louie Ferrigno in Mr. Universe.

Now you were taught by Doug Hepburn. Who is Doug Hepburn?
Alright, Doug Hepburn, in fact, we had offices just a block away from here, uh, on Broadway, and Doug Hepburn at one time was the world's strongest man. He was one of Vancouver's greatest sons.

Which you inherited!
That's right, and he showed me how to do a lot of strength feats and I incorporated them into my show, right, so the thing is I was always into Kiss and Alice Cooper so I said why not put strength feats and other special effects into the show which goes along with heavy rock music which I'm into, and it's, you know, I came up with the name Thor because it's uh you know like thunder rock, thunderous music.

You are the God of Thunder!
I don't, uh, say that I'm a god. What I'm saying is...

The Thunder God!
(laughs) You are Thor!
The band is called... Thor!

Now those muscles, Thor, what exactly was "Body Rock" and "Three Hat Productions" here in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where you began Thor?
(laughs) Okay, Body Rock was actually the first name before Thor. Uh, and also we played shows with a group called, well they're now called Trooper, but they were called Applejack then, so everybody changes their name a little bit right but as far as Three Hats Productions, they were out of Toronto, and they were an affiliate of RCA Records, so signed with Three Hats first, the production company, and then thus we went on to RCA for our first album, Keep the Dogs Away, which was right here! Rrrrr!

Rrrrr!
Rrrrr! Hey, Scottie! (looking at Nardwuar's hat)

Now Thor you have-
Yeah!

Thor, you have one of the wildest, the greatest stage shows on earth, don't you?
I feel it is one of the wildest and greatest stage shows and that includes Kiss, Alice Cooper, Nine Inch Nails, or what have you out there.

Take us back right now to the mid-'80s, you're still playing, you're going to be playing actually tonight as well, take us back to the mid-'80s, what happened on stage there? You rode onstage on a chariot, Ben Hur's chariot?
That's right. Charlton Heston was in that chariot and uh I rode onstage with a chariot uh and uh Cherry Bomb was at my side, we had incredible rock music and at that time we had Mike Appel as the manager and he was uh as you know Bruce Springsteen's manager before that so he helped put this whole wild show together and uh he was just way out there!

Well, specifically Thor, don't belittle yourself, this stage show, waterbottles, snakes, steel, lifting people, please explain, dobermans! What's going on?!
How did you know about the snakes?

I don't know. Just the snakes! Tell people a little bit about the Thor stage show, the '80s Thor stage show.
All right. This is the, this is not just the '80s Thor stage show, but it went all through the '90s and now into the new millenium. What we have basically is as I said before heavy rock music and I've got to do something. When people come and pay their price down on a ticket right they want to see a show and I fully believe in a show all the way, so when you go out there, you've got to give it everything you've got, so I've got lightning shields that shoot lightning, I've got beautiful girls on stage, I have-

Do you have waterbottles? Do you still blow up the hot water bottle Thor?
Yes, just to prove a point that I can still do it, I still blow up and explode hot water bottles, I bend steel bars, have bricks smashed on my chest, what have you.

Do you lift people with your neck? You lift people with your neck?
I did do that, but one time I tried to lift up a 400 pound person, and uh rolled off the stage with them. So I don't that one so much anymore.

What about rocks and stuff? Aren't there like rocks that are smashed against your chest by like the Magic Hammer?
That's (laughs)... you-

The Mystic Hammer!
You know a lot about my checkered past!

Well you ARE the Thunder God, Thor!
All right. Yes I do. Yes I smash I have bricks uh smashed off my chest with a pneumatic drill and also sledge hammers.

Who was Cherry Bomb and Pantera?
Okay, uh, Cherry Bomb was in the show, this very voluptuous woman, she was uh before Xena and uh she was called in England to have the biggest Bristols in rock!

Baboom!
Yes, vavoom!

And you are Thor. Blowing up water bottles and such, was there any problems? I understand there have been some bloopers or unfortunate incidences like some water bottle getting lodged into your throat? Has there been anything like that?
Uh, that happened when I tried to blow up a truck tire. The truck tire air came back into me - you see I tried to get my tongue into the hole, right? Which I try to get a lot of practice on at, and the truck tire air came back in and almost killed me, right? But I've had a lot of problems. I've stepped into live flash pods and almost got electrocuted. Things happen on stage, right?

 
 

CONTINUE ON, MY ROCK WARRIOR! >>