LORDI frontman Tomi Petteri Putaansuu — a.k.a. "Mr. Lordi" — recently spoke to MTV.com about the comparisons that have been drawn between his band and GWAR due to both groups' "monster" image. "I am not offended, but I didn't know [about] GWAR until people in Germany asked me about them in interviews," Putaansuu said. "They are so obscure in Europe that it's easy to miss them. I was much more influenced by people like Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface and Pinhead and the Cenobites from 'Hellraiser'. I have always been fascinated with monsters and learned to do prosthetic makeup when I was 10 years old."
LORDI remained an underground phenomenon until last year, when they were contacted by staffers at the pop-music Eurovision Song Contest to represent Finland.
"It's a really kitschy competition, and there was no way in hell any band in Europe would join if they wanted to take themselves seriously," Putaansuu said of the event that launched his band's mainstream career. "But at the time, we had nothing to lose because we were kind of marginal. Metal people thought we were too melodic and mainstream audiences thought we would come and burn their churches."