Sludgeaholic Of The Month – April 2004, Nate S. Axel

Nate S. Axel

This month’s Sludgeaholic Of The Month is well known to those on the Gossip Board as well as those who went to Sludge’n In Vegas. It’s Nate S. Axel, who is a hardcore Sludgeaholic, as you can tell from the beautiful photo up above where he is showing off his stash of quality Metal Sludge Sludgendise! A Sludgeaholic after our own heart!

Congratulations to Nate for being our Sludgeaholic Of The Month!

1. Where are you from and how old are you?
I was born in St. Louis Park, Minnesota on February 22nd, 1982, so that makes me 22 years young. I lived in a few suburbs of the Twin Cities with my parents until we moved up to Grand Rapids (MN, not MI) when I was five. The claim to fame of Grand Rapids (MN, not MI) is that Judy Garland (Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) was born there. Of course, she hated it and only lived there as a young child. Grand Rapids (MN, not MI) is a great place to grow up as a child or to retire when you’re an old fart, but not much for that teenage/young adult group, so I moved down here to Minneapolis on January 3rd to go to college at the University of Minnesota. I didn’t make that decision until December 27th though! So with that and Vegas, I cut things
too close for my own damn good. But I’m living downtown now, and it’s great… right by the action!

2. Ambitions: Right now, to figure out what the hell I’m going to do next week. I plan for the future AND “smell the roses”, but lately I have too much shit to think about. I’m here, at a great university, and have the chance to do a lot of things, but my heart’s not into it. When I grew up as a kid, my father always said to do something that will make good money, and my mother always said “follow your heart”, so I guess that struggle still lingers at times. I know HOW I want to live my life… but I don’t know WHAT I’m going to be doing. Either way, I’ll be alright…

3. Turn-ons: In women, nice eyes… a nice body shape (something to hold onto, but not so much that I can lie and say I had a threesome the next day)… nice feet… nice breasts… proper hygiene… confidence in their image (whatever their style may be)… spontaneity (that’s big)… creativity… intelligence… intellect… a good sense of humor… the ability to understand mine (or
lack thereof)… quirkiness… a love of rock music… a love of me… kinkiness (which is more than wearing a Circuit City shirt during a blowjob)… a lil’ B&D… a lil’ D&S… a lil’ S&M… and probably quite a few other things. Good girls… bad girls… church girls… gothic girls… cowgirls… showgirls… or your girl… I don’t have a preference. If a girl has confidence in herself and takes care of her body, that works for me. Oh yeah, almost forgot… small hands too… makes my cock look bigger!

4. Turn-offs: Pretty much the opposite of everything I said up there in #3. I can’t get along with girls who are too shy… too serious (OR immature, goes both ways)… or have too many issues.

5. How long have you been coming to Metal Sludge?
Pretty close to the beginning. The earliest that I clearly remember was Nikki Sixx’s 20 Questions, and it says that was May of 1999, so at least four years now. We’ve both come a long way…

6. Favorite bands: I did this alphabetically (in my head, yeah, that’s it)… A.F.I., Bryan Adams, Aerosmith, Jessica Andrews (shout-out to Country Sludge, y’all!), Bang Tango, Betty Blowtorch (R.I.P. Bianca), Black Label Society, Black ‘N Blue, Bloodshit (motleyrob rules!), Bon Jovi, Cinderella (I’ll be bummed if they don’t tour this year), Alice Cooper, Damn Yankees, Deadeye Dick (remember them? They did “New Age Girl” which was in the movie “Dumb & Dumber”), Def Leppard, Dillinger Four (only because they did a song about the greatest drink ever, OK SODA, even though they hated it), DMX, Dokken, Eminem, Faster Pussycat, Fifty Seven Stitch (a local band that opened for Tesla… if you like guitar-driven rock music… check them out at http://www.57stitch.com ), Fozzy, Fuel, Goo Goo Dolls (Superstar Carwash… one of my favorite albums), GUNS N’ ROSES (my all-time favorite), Hanoi Rocks, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Killingbird (these guys kick major ass, on and off the stage), Kittie, Kix, L.A. Guns, Led Zeppelin, Live, Marilyn Manson, Marvelous 3, Matchbox 20, Metal SKOOL (R.I.P. Metal Shop), Alanis Morissette, MOTLEY CRUE (Vince or Corabi, they both rocked), Motorhead, Poison, Pretty Boy Floyd, Queen, Rammstein, Ratt, Scorpions, Tupac Shakur, Skid Row (“Wasted Time”… one of my top three favorite rock songs of all-time), Lynyrd Skynyrd, Slaughter (only a few songs, you bastards!), Stabbing Westward, Steel Dragon (the band in “Rockstar”), Tesla (new album rocks!), The Bangles (I always liked Susanna Hoffs’ voice), The Donnas (Donna A, C, F, or R… A, X, E, and L loves them all), Third Eye Blind, Toad The Wet Sprocket, Tonic, Tora Tora, Tuff ( http://www.tuffcds.com ) Van Halen (Roth THEN Ralph THEN Sammy then Cherone, in that order), Vertical Horizon, Butch Walker, Warrant, Whitesnake, Winger, Kip Winger (solo), Rob Zombie, ZZ Top…

7. Least favorite bands: The obvious ones are The Darkness (tried to get into them, but no luck),
Metallica, Creed, Limp Bizkit, and the rest of those bands, but two heavy metal bands I just never got into that much were Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister, ironically. The only reason I can think of is their voices, but I don’t know. I liked a few songs, but was never a big QR or TS fan.

8. Any formal education?
I got my AA/Transfer Degree from Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids (MN, not MI). That’s basically like a two-year degree consisting of all the credits and classes of the first two years of a major. I started that in the fall of 1998 and completed it in the spring of 2003. About four and a half years for a two-year degree! I withdrew twice though in-between there and lived in the Bay Area (very briefly, going to the APW Boot Camp wrestling school) and then in Vegas. My mother and sister had cancer, so I needed the time off (for better or worse). Right now, HOPEFULLY I’m completing my degree at the U of M. Most likely a Communication Studies
major…

9. What do you do for a living?
Right now, absolutely squat, but I’ll be getting a job soon to build up my Sludge-Trip-Concert-and-Tattoo fund even more. I’m still living off of the credit limit refund I got for spring semester. Although I still do the Sports Page for 91.7 KAXE in northern Minnesota ( http://www.kaxe.org ) every Thursday morning at 7:40 AM CST. I’m the “baseball guy”, but that’s a volunteer position that I still love doing, so can’t call it a “living”… more like a hobby.

10. If you could bang any Sludgette Of The Month, who would it be?
Sunday, some Helena Handbasket (4/01)… Monday, a little Melissa Rose (10/01)… Tuesday, a Brittany & Starla combo meal (12/01)… Wednesday, probably a little bit of Catpants (8/03)… Thursday, I’m thinking Rikki Sixx (11/03) for breakfast, Jen Hilton (2/04) for lunch, and StaticBeth (7/03) for dinner… Fridays I usually go eat light, so I’ll have one Stalker Jr (6/03) to go… and Saturdays I eat like a pig, so I’ll take Ette (1/02) and TinaLu (8/02) to complete the week. Honestly, combine all their DNA and it would be pretty close to a perfect woman….. or some freakishly mutated creature that would take over the world. Or, both.

11. What made you decide to take a bus all the way to Las Vegas for the Sludge’n In Vegas trip?
It wasn’t until the very last minute I decided to go. I was looking at a bus ride of a day and a half or two days either way. I was chatting with Polexxia and TinaLu on Tuesday morning (3/16) and going over the pros and cons like a pussy when I decided to click the “Purchase Ticket Now” button and it was on. I bought the ticket Tuesday morning, and the bus left just about 11 hours later. Honestly, I always saw how much fun everybody always had at a Metal Sludge event over the past few years (even though this was just a gathering of us Sludge freaks) and I always wanted to go, so after chatting with them and being on Tina’s boards for awhile, I thought “why the hell not?”. I guess it’s kind of funny saying that the bus ride was cheaper than a plane when it still cost me $310! I was thinking about it a week before that, and every day I’d check, I saw the price increase more and more since it got closer to the day the bus left. I just didn’t want to miss this opportunity when I saw all the people who would be attending. All in all, it was a bargain, and I said it before, but if all the bands cancelled and I lost ALL my money, it would still have been a great trip because of all the great people I met. What can I say? Some things are worth the “pain” you go through to get there!

12. When not reading Metal Sludge, I can most likely be found: Walking to/from the U of M campus with “Slave To The Grind” cranked up to ’10’ in my ears… checking out a cool concert… gambling at a casino… walking around downtown Minneapolis and checking out the shops… working out… thinking about imagining about considering doing my homework… going out with a date… hitting a movie… or wondering why I never get enough sleep while sitting online at 4 AM…

13. Why the tattoos? Are you in a band or something?
Yeah, didn’t you read our Sludge in Vegas reviews? Like Ette said, we’re called DIRTY SANCHEZ… you should come check us out. I shred on the accordion and harp, and double as the security guard. In all honesty, why NOT? I always liked ink and since I’m not overly artistic in any way, that’s what I do. I got my first one at 16, and I read somewhere that the “average person” gets them removed in four years. It’s six years later, and I’m still getting them. I see or think of things that I’m crazy enough to get etched in my body permanently. I just think body art rules on anybody… guys or girls. I like Bianca’s answer when you asked her (in her 20 Questions) why she’s got a lot of tattoos: “Cause I have a lot of skin.”

14. You pretty much purchased all our swag and everything we’ve ever sold. On that note, when was the last time you got laid?
Well, remember last Friday when your mom told you that she had to “work the late shift”? Let me just tell you that she wasn’t at the 711 pumping gas. She DID earn her money though, if you were wondering. Here are her “Before” and “After” photos:

BEFORE: (_|_) ………….. AFTER: (_O_)

15. How do you feel about being our April 2004 Sludgeaholic Of The Month?
It truly was a surprise. I was JUST going to get to sleep early tonight since I had shit to do tomorrow (now today), but I checked my email and found the questions, so I’ve been up for the last hour and a half answering them. In all reality, to join the ranks of such historical figures of American history like Jim Bob Dwarf, Arkansas Cracker, Soichi, Tollywood, Steve Ponchaud, and even Pop Rockett, who WOULDN’T be honored? In all reality, you keep things interesting, and to invoke a mediocre Tommy Lee album title… there’s “Never A Dull Moment”.

16. Personal Motto: I never really had one until the Sludge in Vegas gathering. I told myself… “Spend your life doing things you’ll remember forever instead of languishing through shit you’ll forget next week.” I’ve always liked to keep things interesting and exciting, so I pretty much go by that now. If I’ll remember it a year from now, it’s worth doing. If not, it’s no big deal. I’m not counting on “seeing the light” when I die someday, so I better live it up while I’m here on this chaotic blue bubble.

Thank you to all of you at Metal Sludge… without you, I wouldn’t have met some of the greatest and most fun people that I’ve ever met (on AND offline). I’m looking forward to everything you got in store. I’ll be there along the way… and before I finish, I wanted to get my FUTURE website shamelessly plugged. I’ve had the domain name for awhile (actually a couple of days), but nothing’s up there yet and won’t be for awhile, but SOMEDAY… everybody go to http://www.axel99.com , which will be my official website.

REST… IN… SLUDGE,

Nate S. Axel

Now that’s how you become a Sludgeaholic Of The Month! The photos with the Hollywood Rocks book and the Metal Shop CD were nice touches!

Congratulations once again to Nate!