Toggo Ultrarock's
life is like a bizarre reality show – only if you
saw his life on TV, you would think it was all made up.
It all started when he was a kid…
“Toggo’s obscene
musical performance today leaves me no choice –
we have to let him go. I warned him, but he wouldn’t
listen.”
These were the parting words
of Toggo's deeply religious teacher as she expelled him
from Musical Kindergarten at the tender age of 4. But
the only thing on young Toggo's mind as he walked out
with a huge smile on his face was the massive audience
response he had received for his performance.
Toggo gets
his first guitar lesson from his dad
Ever since then he's been
consumed by his passion to entertain and move people with
his music, and even though he's all grown up now, his
explosive musical expression and hang-on-to-your-seat
live performances leave little doubt about where he came
from. Yep, he is the same kid who made "Donald Duck
aint got no class - he shot a cork right up my ass"
his swan-song at Trondheim Musical Kindergarten.
At 19, Toggo moved to Hollywood,
CA to hone his musical skills by attending Guitar Institute
Of Technology. While there, he was fortunate enough to
get to study with rock virtuosos Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big)
and Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson), which made a huge
impact on his playing.
By the time school was over,
Toggo had fallen in love with LA, its people and way of
life, and decided to make the City Of Angels his permanent
home. He threw himself head first into the local Hollywood
music scene; recording, performing, producing and writing,
growing his rock'n roll shoes several sizes in the process.
His hard work paid off.
Within a few years, Toggo turned the local Hollywood scene
upside down with his flashy, larger-than-life alt rock
band "Scared Of Girls". From their colorful
looks, high-octane concerts and celebrity guest performances,
to a PR-machine that set a whole new standard for bands
in Hollywood, Scared Of Girls was a force to be reckoned
with.
Scared Of
Girls
Hungry for
success, and with a fresh album (Sonic Boom) and financial
backing in place, the boys inundated Hollywood with promotion.
10 000 of their glossy colorful post cards were handed
out for every show, while virtually every telephone pole
in Hollywood had a Scared Of Girls poster stapled on to
it.
At one point,
their postering efforts caught up with the Laurel
Canyon Association, who along with the Hollywood Police
gave them the choice between paying thousands of dollars
in fines, being arrested, or removing the posters immediately
(there was a LOT of posters up!). Let's just say that
the boys didn't get a lot of sleep that night.
Scared Of
Girls with Toggo's friend Angelyne
- Hollywoods Billboard Queen
In other words,
it was hard to be in Hollywood without noticing Scared
Of Girls. This would not go unrewarded.
Toggo and
good friend Rayko of Dig Jelly in usual style, after a
Scared Of Girls show at The Roxy Theatre on the Sunset
Strip.
Los Angeles'
most influential music industry publication, Music
Connection Magazine gave the band glowing reviews.
They announced Toggo's group as "One of the hottest
bands in LA", and featured an article with Toggo
and crooner legend Tony Bennett giving advice to musicians
on how to get rid of stage fright.
This
"rockumentary" about Scared Of Girls, produced
for Japanese teen-show "Beit", was not the boys'
proudest moment. The result is cheesy at best, with the
low point being the band reluctantly agreeing
to getting "scared" by a girl on the street,
to signify the band name - in the unhippest way imaginable.
Oh well - the teens in Japan seemed to love it, as the
show as repeatedly aired on Japanese ESPN2:
From his devoted
fans to prestigious music authorities like listen.com
(who describes Toggo's music as "Expertly crafted
rock that runneth over with enthusiasm and good vibes"),
and producers like Kim Fowley (Kiss, Runaways), there
was no doubt - Toggo and Scared Of Girls were going to
be the next big thing.
Scared Of
Girls headlines The Las Vegas AVN Awards to a crowd of
porn stars, celebrities
and rock stars, including the infamous Rick James, and
Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmeister.
But fate had other plans.
At the brink of national attention, an almost unimaginable
chain of events led Toggo to lose almost everything he
held dear - his band, house in Studio City, car, money,
bank account, and a name he had made for himself from
years of hard work - all gone. The only thing left when
the smoke cleared was his guitars, master tapes and a
large case of incurable optimism.
Toggo's popular
avatar
The surreal
and traumatic experience pushed Toggo right to the brink
of a complete breakdown. But instead of submitting to
his fate, he took a 180 degree turn, relocating to Minneapolis,
Minnesota, where he slowly started working himself back
in the game by performing weekly casino shows with infamous
gangster Al
Capone's grandson, Jeep
Capone (in case you didn't notice yet - the word "conventional"
doesn't exist in Toggo's dictionary).
Jeep Capone
(left) and grandpa Al Capone (right.)
To process
what had happened to him, while sharing an incredible
story with the world, Toggo decided to chronicle the events
- he started writing a book. In addition to being a testament
to how far you can get in life by following your dreams,
Rock'n
Roll Virus takes its readers on a mental, physical
and spiritual thriller-esque rollercoaster with a storyline
so surreal and unthinkable that many a reader will find
the story too far fetched to believe. For those who do
believe, chances are it will leave them holly convinced
that Toggo has lost his mind. That's Rock'n
Roll Virus in a nut shell.
