I want you to close your eyes for a moment – but keep reading – and picture if you can the stereotypical, clichéd image of a slightly ageing rocker, attempting in vain to deal with the fact he is now past his beastly, shirtless prime. A middle-aged dinosaur if you will. His diminishing thick and lustrous black coif, once a youthful, beaconing badge of Satanic honour, now more receding than stampeding, more white than tight, more… you get the drift.
Rock ‘n’ roll destiny suggests that in the late 1980s his lean, if a little pasty, body would have obligatorily become the proud owner of two or three crudely etched tattoos. This is a compulsory fate in our ageing rocker’s world. Maybe a serpent coiled provocatively around a double-edged dagger, jaw dislocated showcasing a pair of hungry fangs that threaten to penetrate the wanton flesh of any nubile temptress that dare invade its phallic territory. Or maybe it’s a horribly engraved bird of prey spread-eagled across our hero’s musk-odoured chest. Either way, it’s damn certain each ink-gash is poorly stencilled, inked with the permanent stench of amateurism and coloured in that weird-ass 1980s prison-tatt green that seems to be stamped on every AC-DC fan in this galaxy.
Yet they are badges of Luciferian worship and are thusly worn with dutiful, demonic honour. They must be taken seriously. As the old saying goes, “Tatts before child support.”
OK. Now ask yourself, “What makes a good priest good?” Contemplation? Prayer? Resistance to temptation? Those funky little white collar things they wear that nobody knows the name of? 168 Iron Maiden tattoos? An unquestioning devotion to an oft-questioned faith? Personally, and this is just my opinion, I believe it’s the 168 Iron Maiden tattoos.
Enter Marcos Motolo, our ageing rocker. He has been the minister of his local church in the São Paulo provincial town of Salto, Brazil since 2005. A celebrity in his town, he is now becoming not only well known in Salto, but an iconic hero to many disadvantaged youth across the state of São Paulo.
What makes Padre Motolo stand out from the thousands of other ministers in the region, I hear you ask? Let me tell you. In this already deeply religious part of the world, where the masses voluntarily and happily make daily pilgrimages to their sanctuaries of worship, our friend is making church much, much cooler than it has ever been before.
Pull up a pew in his church and ask yourself, “Why do these words he speaks sound so familiar to me? They’re definitely not from the Bible. So how do I know these words?”
Woe to you, oh Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the Beast
With wrath, because he knows the time is short…
Let Him who hath understanding reckon the Number of the Beast
For it is a Human Number, its Number is Six Hundred and Sixty Six.
Eventually it clicks. Motolo is preaching to his followers using only the morality of Iron Maiden lyrics. Not a single Bible to be found — unless of course you are a member of the Maiden Army, in which case every single Iron Maiden album is biblical.
Marcos Motolo, or Padre Iron Maiden to his followers, says that Iron Maiden is a religion in its own right. Not content with his 168 Iron Maiden tattoos, the self-proclaimed number one Iron Maiden fan in “God’s world” has even named his first-born son Steve Harris in tribute to the British metal band’s bass player, founding member and premier songwriter.
The 41-year-old has even been known to perform his sermon shirtless so his congregation can feel the maximum effect of Maiden’s power vicariously through his many tattoos. He displays these proudly, each one with its own story. Emblazoned on his chest is Eddie, the infamous skeletal mascot who adorns the cover of every Iron Maiden album and millions of t-shirts the world over. This particular tattoo has Eddie’s arms outstretched, tied down to Padre Iron Maiden’s nipples, his legs chained to Motolo’s belly button.
This is what the churchgoers see week in, week out.
How fucking cool is this church!
Let Him who hath understanding reckon the Number of the Beast
For it is a Human Number, its Number is Six Hundred and Sixty Six.
Padre Motolo preaches with an intense and concentrated passion, bellowing at an almost agonising volume. His booming voice is audible from well down the street of his humble church, which is an integral part of the main plaza of Salto. This is where street-food vendors cook all day for church patrons, scammers, businessmen and the homeless.
It is abundantly clear this is not a tourist town. Here, stray dogs rule the night. Religion, thievery, wealth and poverty all play their part here. The church of Padre Iron Maiden provides a temporary haven from the chaotic social structure of the region.
Strutting behind a beaten-up Yamaha keyboard, he reads from “Number of the Beast” and randomly pounds on whichever note may suit the mood of the moment. The keyboard seems completely unnecessary upon first observation, but as the sermon progresses it proves an effective tool in driving home his message. Padre Motolo’s followers respond with clapping, chanting and dancing as each blunt note stomps off into the ether.
There’s the vibe of a traditional gospel church, but with a most unique twist: heavy metal morality and gospel-soul attitude, with avant-garde theatrics and a semi-naked priest.
There’s a constant dialogue between the preacher and his congregation. Take a quick look around at the eclectic mix of people participating in the sermon and you soon realise Motolo’s style doesn’t only appeal to the young and rebellious. Old men dressed in tailored suits and bowler hats dance among the impoverished. Well-to-do businessmen sing and clap with working class housewives, while children as young as two also get in on the action.
It is easy to forget these people are not only singing, but worshipping to the lyrics and wisdom of Iron Maiden. Of course there is also the curious seeker of novelty and whimsy such as myself, who enters late and sits in the very back, just to observe, desperately hoping not to be noticed or worse still, stared at.
A typical sermon might find him quoting extensively from Maiden “scripture”, with some of his favourite lyrics coming from songs like “Number of the Beast”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name”, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son”.
Not a single Iron Maiden t-shirt to be seen mind you.
This musically-themed preaching style is fast becoming a mini-phenomenon in Latin America, Brazil especially, where Iron Maiden cemented their status as musical gods in the land of the Samba with their infamous 1985 Rock in Rio concert, performed to 350,000 metal-mad Brazilian fans. Three decades later and these churches are popping up everywhere.
The São Paulo provincial government is not happy about this and is vigorously attempting to ban these churches, with the promise of jail for any minister or follower who performs or attends such sermons.
Yet the unlikeliest of allies is thwarting the government’s attempts to do so: the local Catholic Church ministry. They see using the lyrics of popular artists like Iron Maiden as a powerful recruiting tool to draw in the young, disillusioned and impoverished to the church.
Padre Motolo firmly believes the Catholic Church is more open to new ideas than ever before and now is the time for it to experiment and implement “outsourced” material. Padre Iron Maiden is a much-loved local icon, who not only preaches in the local church, but also spends his spare time volunteering with charity groups. The respect he commands and his influence in the community have made state government officials nervous.
The people are winning and Marcos Motolo is proving to be very much the thorn in the side of the São Paulo government in this metal-themed battle of David and Goliath.
He passionately concludes each sermon with this passage from the final verse of the song “Revelations”:
“Bind all of us together
Ablaze with hope and free
No storm or heavy weather
Will rock the boat, you’ll see
The time has come to close your eyes
And still the wind and rain
For the one who will be King
Is the watcher in the Ring
It is you
It is you.”
Shoot Farken Extras:
Watch Marcos Motolo’s appearance in the 2009 documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666.
Watch Marcos Motolo explain to Brazilian TV how a heavily tattooed heavy metal atheist found God.
