AN insurance salesman who plays a bizarre green goblin in Hollywood’s favourite band has managed to keep his true identity a secret.
John Goblikon has legends such as Post Malone, Terry Crews and Joe Rogan all singing his praises but no one knows who the little green goblin really is as he aims to disrupt the music industry forever.
12
12
12
12
Nekrogoblikon is far from your average band – made up of five blokes providing a cacophony of musical notes to a little green goblin who belts out heavy metal bangers night after night.
The goblin – known only as John Goblikon – has captured the whimsical imagination of US music lovers for over a decade now.
The self-proclaimed “mascot for the misfits” has taken his band of regular talented dudes to new heights and far away from the typical genre of heavy metal and rock and into a new genre – Goblin Metal.
John is regularly seen wearing a full shirt and tie paired with his smart work trousers and Converse trainers as the unconventional star rocks up for gigs.
Despite his popularity soaring in the last few years, John has kept his job selling life insurance.
Speaking to The Sun, his fellow band members in Nekrogoblikon dubbed him “every musician and comedian’s favourite musician and comedian”.
The band also said he’s become “more famous than any of us thought was possible”.
Guitarist Alex Alereza said: “John has the audience in the palm of his hand from the second he comes on stage.
“Our sound guy mentioned to us that the crowd’s response to his entrance is often so loud that he can’t hear his mix.”
John – with an impressive 37,000 Instagram followers – has gone on to have his own range of hot sauce, write a book, host a podcast, do hundreds of cameos per year and even meet some very famous faces.
He has spent the last few years travelling around the world, taking time off work to live out his rockstar dreams.
The “Kings of Goblin Metal” have done multiple UK and European shows and even joined the legendary Limp Bizkit on tour.
Nekrogoblikon’s close friend Brandon Dermer met world famous DJ Diplo after he saw the iconic No One Survives music video for the band directed by Brandon.
The DJ asked him to direct his new Major Lazer music video and they managed to get the White Chicks and Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor Terry Crews to star in the video.
Crews even compared himself to John, saying he knows what it’s like to feel like the goblin in the “No One Survives” video.
Dermer has shot all of the metal band’s videos and is an integral part in the media fanfare they’ve built up over the years.
After working for massive companies like MTV and Comedy Central, he also went on to shoot music videos for some of the biggest artists in the world like the Jonas Brothers, Young Thugg and Noah Cyrus.
Brandon took John under his wing and was determined to make him a superstar.
The celebrity shout outs continued as in 2020, Post Malone waltzed onto the Joe Rogan Experience and told the world how much he loved Nekrogoblikon.
Rogan and Malone watched clips of the band perform and according to the boys in the band themselves, this made them explode into the mainstream.
Surprisingly, John didn’t come into the world as the confident, bubbling goblin he is today.
The man who first saw John and recommended him to Nekrogoblikon was comedian Dave Rispoli who now helps Brandon with John’s career.
He labelled the goblin “the physical manifestation of anxiety”, and “the ultimate underdog”.
Dave – who’s an expert comedy writer and has worked for Sony and Hulu – also said: “We always view him as a ball of anxiety and a thing that’s relatable as it clashes with empathy all at the same time.”
12
12
12
12
When Nekrogoblikon first started they were just a band singing about mythical creatures and focusing their lyrics on goblins.
The band knew something was missing from their act but didn’t fancy donning green face paint and putting on a wild outfit to play a goblin.
After finding John on LinkedIn, the pair connected and Dave went to the band and pleaded them to give the little man a chance.
Nekrogoblikon always regarded what they did as “serious” despite the fantasy lyrics and wacky approach to the act, so they needed John to actually be able to sing.
After hiring him as a mascot for the first few years and getting him to come up on stage at gigs, the band started taking their new unworldly buddy to singing lessons and he became the lead singer.
Alongside John and Alex the band is made up of Dickie Allen, Joe Nelson, Aaron “Raptor” Minich and Eric W. Brown.
They’ve gone from strength to strength and despite the “gimmick”, they feel they’ve become an excellent group.
Brandon and Dave said: “The way people interact with us isn’t from a place of ‘oh look at this weird funny thing that’s pretty cool’ but in a much deeper way with some empathy.
“As they can relate to him it’s catapulted him as this figure as people don’t see it as just a one note joke at all.”
Alex remembers when the band first started to perform at pubs and clubs and even their first album when the idea of John was nowhere to be seen.
The guitarist said: “The inspiration for the band’s inception was purely comical.
“One of our bandmates thought it would be funny to make an album exclusively about goblins, so we did just that.
“We ended up with music that we genuinely enjoyed while still finding the subject matter hilarious.
“When the opportunity to work with John came up, an actual brilliant goblin, we sold our van and with Brandon’s help managed to raise enough money to do our first music video called “No One Survives”.
Nekrogoblikon has gone on to gain an army of fans since John’s arrival.
Alex puts this down to their take on the genre and how they’ve elevated it with the goblin man.
He continued: “I’ve been told by many of our fans that we were the gateway drug to metal for them, as it’s such a different approach to heavy music and John’s character gives them something to latch onto.”
Despite being heavily involved with the metal band, Brandon still gets suprised by the way crowds reacts at Nekrogoblikon shows and loves watching the group play.
He relates to a lot of their fans saying: “A lot of our crowds probably came from a sh**** job that day just like John from sales and it’s an incredible release, it’s just cathartic.”
Their fans range from six-year-old kids to 50-year-old men and women and the band recognises this as “the coolest thing” about their job.
Dave went on to say: “The music brings unexpected crowds together from people in all walks of life.
“Anything Nekrogoblikon or John related is just a very warm positive relationship, it feels like a little goblin army as its all positive and together – that’s what I’m most proud of.
“In a world full of trolls we need more goblins.”
Going forwards Dave, Brandon, Alex and the rest of the band have some very ambitious goals.
While Nekrogoblikon is mostly about making music and videos while keeping the fun involved in everything they do, there are plans for John Goblikon that go beyond this scope.
Brandon and Alex said: “We’ve always seen John as a character that can mould and grow as times change.
“Our long term plan could potentially be to make him president one day.”
But for now, John the goblin remains a life insurance salesman who spends his spare time playing in front of thousands and bringing in hordes of fans as he screams his lungs out.
Nekrogoblikon plans on continuing to disrupt the music and comedy industry one wacky stunt at a time.
12
12
12
12
Credit Gist New Today News in Newspaper Nigeria Headlines
