Kevin Lee Nelson is an author, researcher, and adventurer. He has written and lectured on topics of the paranormal, the occult, and folklore for nearly 30 years. Kevin has appeared on ABC's Scariest Places on Earth, Discovery Channel's Mystery Hunters, and Discovery Channel's Travelers. Kevin is co-author of the Back Roads Lore series, The Van Meter Visitor: A True and Mysterious Encounter with the Unknown, Wendigo Lore: Monsters, Myths, & Madness, The Big Muddy Monster: Legends, Sightings, & Other Strange Encounters and is a contributing author to a number of anthologies on American monster folklore. He is a founding member of the folkloric collective Back Roads Lore. Kevin currently lives in eastern Iowa on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. A nomad at heart, Kevin spends much of his time roaming America’s back roads in his black muscle car hunting down strange legends and mysterious encounters.
What role does music play outside of your investigative work?
I'm a big music fan — always have been. My tastes vary quite a bit. I like: Classical, Delta Blues, Industrial, Gothic Rock, Surf, Psychobilly, Neo-Folk, Exotica, and Dark Ambient — just to name a few. But what I generally listen to the most is Horror movie soundtracks. I have a massive collection of Horror soundtracks on vinyl. Often this music ends up being part of the soundtrack of my life. There are many times where my colleagues and I will be comparing research notes at some backwoods bar and "Carry on My Wayward Son" from Kansas will randomly play on the jukebox. It was made famous for being the de facto theme song for the Supernatural TV series. We all laugh at the irony because here we are hunting monsters along America's backroads just like the young characters in the show. A reminder that truth is stranger than fiction.
Was there a particular artist or album that really shaped you growing up?
As a teenager I went through a bunch of musical phases, from Pop and New Wave in the 80s, to Electronic and Metal in the early 90s. But during that time one artist stood out that I listened to the most: Sting. It was kind of an anomaly, as his musical genre (however you classify Sting) wasn't really something that I typically listened to much at all. His album The Soul Cages really spoke to me in particular. As a young teen I felt a bit adrift in life, and that album encapsulated a lot of those feelings. I even spent weeks painstakingly reproducing a painting that appears inside the album. It was kind of an obsession at the time.
Who was your first concert?
My first concert was Motley Crue in 1989 — the Dr. Feelgood tour. It totally blew my mind.
Who was your last concert?
I don't really go to live shows much anymore. Just once in a blue moon. Ticket prices have become outrageous and in general I no longer enjoy being in very loud places, or near large crowds. My teenage self would be shaking his fist and saying, "If it's too loud, you're too old!!". Well, I guess I'm old now. The last show I saw was The Handsome Family a couple years ago. They're kind of a dark folk/country/Americana duo that sings about haunted convenience stores, bottomless pits, and alien abductions. They also sing the theme song to one of my all-time favorite shows, True Detective (Season 1). The performance was at a place called "The Shitty Barn". Yes, that's its real name. It's just what it says, an old barn that can only accommodate 80 people, so it was a very intimate show. Great time.
What is the last album you've listened to?
I was just listening to the new Rob Zombie album, "The Great Satan". It just came out yesterday. Not his best, but still good.
Do you listen to music while researching or writing?
When I'm on the road going to strange places, I always have music playing in the background. It serves sort of like soundtrack to my adventures. Whether Classic Rock, or the scores to Horror films, I use it to set the mood. On the flipside, I rarely listen to music when I'm writing. I find it too distracting and it affects my concentration. Once in a while I'll play instrumental music on low, but I find anything with lyrics too distracting when I'm writing. Competing words. When I write I kind of go into the "Zone" and don't like any interruptions or distractions, so I typically prefer it to be dead quiet.
Have you ever had a strange or unexplained experience connected to music or a specific song?
Yes. Funny that you ask. Years ago, my co-authors Noah Voss, Chad Lewis, and I were in Lake City, MN to work with a TV production company filming a "sizzle reel" about a new cryptid/paranormal show they were pitching to various cable channels. Basically, a sizzle real is like a trailer for the potential show, and we were the cast, though it ended up going nowhere. The subject matter for this sizzle reel was Pepie the lake monster of Lake Pepin. During the weekend of filming, I began noticing something very peculiar. Every time we went into a store, restaurant, gas station, or whatever, a song by the 80s band The Police would be playing inside. There's that Sting connection. This happened over and over to the point that it became a joke among us. It was uncanny — a real synchronicity, like the universe was playing a joke on us. I began to wonder if there was a reason for it, like perhaps the band recently got back together, or one of the trio died or something and radio stations were doing a tribute. I checked the news and nothing like that occurred. Finally, on our last day we were gassing up our car, and I said to the guys, "How much to you want to bet that when I go inside to pay that a The Police song will be playing?" Considering how the weekend had been going, neither of them were willing to make that bet. It's a good thing they didn't. I went inside and sure enough The Police was playing over their speakers! I was floored. Even stranger — the name of the song was "Synchronicity II", and part of the lyrics describe a lake monster! How's that for strange!
Are there parallels between music and 'the unknown"?
Absolutely. Various musicians, researchers and occultists have explored the linkage between music and the occult and other paranormal experiences going all the way back to Ptolemy's "Harmonics" in the 2nd century A.D and Giordano Bruno's esoteric theories on music in the 16th century. Russian classical composer, Alexander Scriabin, composed much his work based upon occult principles. Even some modern artists have done a lot of exploration of these arcane areas, most notably composer and jazz musician John Zorn. Zorn even composed 72 experimental pieces based on the 72 demons of the notorious grimoire, The Lesser Key of Solomon. There's a new book out on this topic titled "Hermetic Music: As sounds the Heavens, sounds the Earth" by Jasper C. Hernandez that looks really fascinating.
Let's pretend that you rub a Genie's bottle and are given the opportunity to choose any one musician or band to join you on an investigation. Who are you picking and why?
I think I would have to pick my friend and fellow writer and researcher, Lyle Blackburn. He's the frontman for the Goth-Western band Ghoultown, but he's also an experienced cryptozoologist and has written many books on Bigfoot and other creatures. While as wild as it would be to have someone like Keith Richards or Billy Idol tag along for an adventure, I think most would just slow me down because they wouldn't have the background in folklore and the paranormal. Whereas Lyle would make a great asset to the team. If you haven't heard Ghoultown, I highly recommend giving them a listen.
Have you ever been genuinely scared during an investigation?
Unfortunately not! After doing this kind of work for years you get a bit desensitized to spooky places. I've stayed at over 100 allegedly haunted hotels and inns, usually by myself, and while thrilling, I can't say I've been truly scared. I've been startled by things a number of times, but never something I would call actual creeping dread and fear.
Have you ever left anything OUT of a book, because it's too strange to be believed?
No. Not that I can think of. In general, things can never be too strange for me. The few times I have left things out is because they werent strange enough or might have some potentially mundane explanation. I've never liked it when other authors over-hype minor occurrences, so I generally don't include them.
How does mystery and music come from the same human need - maybe from building an idea around something bigger than ourselves?
I think music and mystery both feed a need that most people have for a degree of transcendence. Mystery stimulates our curiosity and makes us wonder what's possible in this world and nudges us to test the barriers and limits of our perceived reality. Music does the same thing in many ways. It can paint pictures of fantastical places or carry our emotions into unexplored areas of our psyche. Both can serve as a vehicle to other realms. While there can be trite, derivative, and commercial music that takes us nowhere, just like cheap dime store mysteries. Great music and profound mysteries and can open doors in our minds we didn't even know were there and provided passageways to new worlds of experience.
Recently you visited a Tiki bar and mentioned “Exotica.” As someone still searching for the perfect Tiki bar—one that extends beyond décor into authentic Tiki music—that really stuck with me. That being said, what song or album (not necessarily Exotica) would you say best aligns with the way you investigate Fortean phenomena?
Yes, that tiki bar was the Bahi Hut in Sarasota, Florida. It's the second-oldest tiki bar in America — the real deal. Hmm… that’s a hard question. Considering the research I’m currently doing for my next book, I would choose the song “Hellhound on My Trail” by Robert Johnson (1911–1938).
For those unfamiliar, Robert Johnson was a Delta blues musician in Mississippi during the Great Depression. According to folklore, he sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads so he could play guitar like the Devil himself. Before that, he had only modest talent, but almost overnight he gained extraordinary skill and became a guitar sensation. Using new techniques, he created sounds and songs no one had ever heard before — music that would eventually inspire entirely new forms, including rock and roll.
Johnson’s recordings carry an old-time atmosphere that perfectly captures early 20th-century rural America. When I’m traveling backroads searching for legends and local lore, his music feels just as appropriate today as it did then — timeless. According to legend, those hellhounds eventually caught up with him when the debt came due, and he died very young, like many musical legends. In many ways, he became the first member of the so-called “27 Club,” later joined by artists like Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison.
You can buy your own copies Kevin Lee Nelson's books here.
Now Playing: "Roadside Cross" - Deadbolt
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