Thunder and Mud
Thunder and Mud is a 1990 musical documentary film directed by Penelope Spheeris and starring Jessica Hahn, Tawn Mastrey, and Sam Mann.
Summary
The film depicts a show as presented by Sam Mann with a local DJ host alongside Jessica Hahn, who a few years prior was known as having an affair with Jim Bakker of The PTL Club; jokes involving sex and PTL are done throughout the film, which includes skits. Several bands are shown with brief performances before mud wrestling is done, with each wrestler in a fight being a representative of the bands. Various wrestlers and performers are seen, such as Jeanne Basone, Tiffany Million, and Quisha; Bill Gazzari, once described as the "godfather of metal" and previously featured in Spheeris' The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, is also shown.Production
When doing an interview in 1999 for The A.V. Club, Spheeris was asked about the film. She stated, "How about that for a flaming piece of crap? That was a matter of… God, how did that happen? Thank God nobody has ever asked me about that until now. There was a guy working with Miles Copeland, and he said, "Let's do a live show and tape it, and then put it out straight to video." And I said, "Like what?" It wasn't really my idea, I don't think, but he said, "How about doing heavy metal and mud wrestling and putting the two together?" I said, "Yeah." So I did it. And I don't even think I got paid for it, which is kind of pathetic, don't you think?"Paul Colichman, president of I.R.S. Records along with a producer of The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, has stated that he and Spheeris came up with the idea, with him wanting to do a "pay-per-view event" that would combine wrestling with music, which he thought would work since he had seen mud wrestlers handing out with metal bands at
the nightclub Gazzarri's.