I met Ari Lehman a few years ago at Texas Frightmare and was kind of amazed that he’s managed to make a lifelong career out of a few brief seconds on-screen as the original Jason Voorhees in the first Friday the 13th film. We should all be so lucky.
In case you’ve forgotten, in the film’s coda, a deformed teenage Voorees unexpectedly pops out of the waters of Camp Crystal Lake, dragging the flick’s final girl down to its murky depths. Only 14 when he was cast, the scene has provided generations of kids with the ultimate bed-witting moment of on-screen terror.
Now a middle-aged man in his fifties, Lehman fronts a wholly popular band called--what else--First Jason and tours everywhere across the country to the frights and delights of horror-fans and metal-heads alike. He’ll be performing tonight at the Winchester Drive-In in-between a double-feature of Friday the 13th and the Oklahoma-lensed Son of the Saw.
Admission is $10 and gates open at 6 pm and he will be signing autographs, taking pictures and all that stuff that horror icons do. I sat down with him before the winter storm hit Oklahoma--I was assured that the show will still go on as I wrote this--to talk about his bloody life, his thrilling music and his machete-wielding capabilities. Ki-ki-ki...ma-ma-ma...
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