THE KUDZOO INTERVIEW PAUL THORN
By Michael Buffalo Smith Paul Thorn has been consistently touring,
both solo and with his excellent band, since 1997. He has recorded a series of fine albums filled with his “songs that he made up,” as he says. The music is the best of all worlds. It can make you laugh one minute, cry the next, and shout “Holy!” the next. The Tupelo, Mississippi born singer has
been around the block a time or two, working many years in a chair factory before becoming a championship boxer. During our most re- cent phone conversation, we discussed his music, prior careers, his artwork, religion and much more.
Buffalo: Howya doing, buddy? Paul: I’m doing good. How you doing, Michael?
I couldn’t be better if my name was bet- ter. As my Grandma used to say, finer than snuff, but not half as dusty. Well, you know Paul, your die-hard fans, like me, know all of your history but it seems like we’re always finding folks that have yet to become “ThornHeads.” So, for that reason I want to talk just a minute about the years prior to you be- coming a superstar, rock & roll star and musician. Tell us a little bit about your two best known jobs. I never re- ally have asked you about the chair fac- tory. What did that job entail, when
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you worked there…. Making chairs…? Well I had to show up at 7:00 and punch my card in and I directly to this one section in an assembly line. We were building love seats, recliners and sofas. My job was to put springs in the seats – those metal springs – and then they put the padding over the metal springs? So chances are, if you’ve sat down on enough chairs with springy bottoms, you may have sat down on one that I was responsible for making. There’s a good chance of it.
One time I sat in one of them chairs and one of them springs popped up through it and stuck in my butt! – ya reckon that was one you made? Well you know, there was a disclaimer that you should have signed. When you sign off when you buy it, whether you know it or not, you sign off that if you get stuck in the butt, I’m not responsible.
(Laughing) Yeah, now that was before you were a boxer right? Well that was actually going on at the same time. There’s very few boxers that can actu- ally make a living at being a boxer. You know most boxers have to work a day job, because unless you’re an absolute superstar in the sport, there’s really not much money there for you. So I worked in the factory for 12 years and I was boxing and writing songs and doing all that. At the factory, if you were more than three minutes late, they would dock your pay 30 minutes. So I learned real good to be on
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