Who is KORY CLARKE?
It's a good question, and there are many answers.
Musically, he has always been very experimental, beginning in his teens as a jazz fusion drummer, taking lessons from a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to broaden his percussive abilities.
After leaving high school, he veejayed at various clubs, and became a leading influence in some of Detroit's most avante-garde Art-Punk bands, including L7 (not the all girl Grunge band) and THE TRIAL, who's live show featured two video cameras and two 25-inch television screens playing pre-recorded tapes.
After the demise of The Trial, some "legal issues" forced Clarke to leave Detroit, so he relocated, first to London, then to New York in 1985.
Soon after he found himself behind the drum kit for an embryonic version of RAGING SLAB, with whom he played for around 18 months.
Kory then got a job as a VJ at the achingly hip New York nightclub called Danceteria, controlling the giant video screens there three nights a week.
On nights off he performed at the Pyramid Bar downtown, a transvestite bar that specialised in spoken word and performance art.
His confrontational one man show was entitled "Warrior Soul", but before long his love of music resurfaced and took his focus in a different direction.
Keeping the WARRIOR SOUL banner, Clarke put together a Heavy Rock band of the same name, and within 6 months and 5 gigs together, the fledgling band were snapped up by major label Geffen Records.
The band's debut album, "Last Decade, Dead Century", was like nothing else released by a major label in 1990, stark, hard-rockin' and fiercely individual, with lyrics filled with grubby reality, politics, drugs, poetry and punk spirit.
METALLICA took Warrior Soul out as their support act on a European arena tour, and the band proved to be a formidable live act, with Clarke in particular equal parts shaman, rock star, political firebrand and genuine insurrectionist.
Back in the States, the band toured coast to coast withDANZIG, and recorded a second album.
"Drugs, God & The New Republic", was every bit as startling as it's predecessor, but the American label and management, seemed unsure how to market the band, sending them out on the road with QUEENSRYCHE, a billing that seemed to polarise audience opinions.
Album number 3, "Salutations From The Ghetto Nation", proved to be yet another brilliant set, with the songs shorter, harder and more focused, and the lyrics more biting and vitriolic than ever before.
However, yet again, Geffen dropped the ball, and the band fought to get out of their deal, but the label refused to relent, demanding a further album.
That album, "Chill Pill", proved to be a denser, more low key, introspective, artier record than it's predecessor, and was to be the last they'd record for Geffen.
Following personnel changes, a new look Warrior Soul signed to Music For Nations, and released "The Space Age Playboys", a blistering collection of songs, with a punkier edge than previously. The record fared well in Europe, where the band toured relentlessly, with the likes of THE ALMIGHTY, BANG TANGO and HEADSWIM, and played at both the Dynamo and Donington Festivals.
However, just after the album was released in the USA on the Mayhem label, the band imploded, and it looked to be the end of the road for Warrior Soul.
Clarke resurfaced soon after in a decadent Glam infused Punk act called SPACE AGE PLAYBOYS who released two albums on the Dreamcatcher label, but this band too soon disbanded.
After the demise of SAP, Clarke released his first solo album, "Opium Hotel", then a collection of Warrior Soul outtakes entitled "Fucker" in Europe and "Odds & Ends" in the USA, before reforming the classic Warrior Soul line up in 2000 and re-recording an albums worth of classic WS songs as "Classics", before that line up imploded yet again.
Clarke then joined DIRTY RIG, and released an album with them called "Rock Did It", before putting together a new line-up of Warrior Soul featuring English and Swedish musicians.
The new line up debuted with a live album, "Live In England", and have since toured Europe several times.
Clarke also found time to tour and record as the drummer with THE STONED, and recorded an album with a new project featuring ex-KILLING JOKE bassist Paul Raven, called MOB RESEARCH. Sadly, Raven died of a heart attack before "Holy City Zoo" was released.
Warrior Soul released a new studio album through their website in 2008 entitled "Chinese Democracy". After the initial run had sold out, it was again made available through the site as "And We Rock'n'Roll". It was finally given a proper release in 2009 with new cover art and another different title, "Destroy The War Machine".
A fine collection, it combines all the best elements of the band's past, and updates their sound for the new millennium.
A second solo album, "Will Work For Food", surfaced late in 2008, and is a collection of demos, collaborations with other artists and cover versions of bands as disparate as TED NUGENT, SCORPIONS, DEF LEPPARD, JUDAS PRIEST and JOURNEY.
Clarke is also now the lead vocalist for Chicago Doom/Classic Rock veterans TROUBLE, and debuted with them on their 2009, "Live In Los Angeles" album.
2010 sees Kory Clarke now living in Berlin, performing his new rock cabaret "Kory On The Rocks" with local backing band STASHBOX, and recording a studio album with Trouble in Chicago, provisionally called "The Dark Riff".
He is also gearing up for a new Warrior Soul album due in 2011.
So, you tell me.
Who is Kory Clarke?