Joe Fowler is a rock star.
His co-workers at Andrews Truss might be surprised to hear that. Fowler himself admits he doesn’t have whatever it takes to play guitar. But on every Halloween for the last 25 years, the local native has been a center of attention across Cherokee County for coming up with creative costumes that match the smallest details.
When he and friend Michael Bone famously portrayed The Blues Brothers years ago, they bought the exact car used in the movie, painted it up just right and even broke the side-view mirror in exactly the right place. It had to be a 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan, which they found in Peachtree for $500 and was bound for a demolition derby, which makes perfect sense if you’ve seen the movie. And, yes, they had a speaker on the roof, getting second and third looks everywhere they went.
“The crowd fell out,” Fowler said of when they accidentally wandered into The Learning Center charter school’s annual Makers Mash and were greeted like part of the program. “It was really cool.”
When he portrayed iconic Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS, Fowler assembled the elaborate outfit piece by piece over three years, using plaster clay, spray paint and adding 4-inch heels to a pair of combat boots. His attention to detail with that costume in particular made him stand out from other Halloween pretenders.
“With the way people look at you and talk with you,” he said, “I was Gene Simmons. And it just snowballed from there.”
This year marks a milestone in another way: it’s Fowler’s last on stage. After two and a half decades, a total of about 60 costumes and too many appearances to remember, the survivor of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – “the Lord worked with me on that,” he said – is calling it career with the King. As Elvis Presley, he first surprised staff at Andrews Elementary School before attending truck or treat at the Valleytown Cultural Arts Center on Saturday.
To preserve his legacy, Fowler has built a clever museum in an otherwise nondescript garage behind his home in Marble, using mostly recycled materials. His best outfits are carefully preserved behind glass, along with an eclectic collection of other fun memories, from models to memorabilia.
If you ask him nicely via Facebook, you might even get a tour – and I won’t spoil any of the surprises. Just know you enter in a different place than you might think, and the first room is only a start.
It hasn’t been easy, as planning for the next Oct. 31 began on Nov. 1, or earlier. While Fowler did it on a modest budget, the price of one item he purchased along the way could only be told in a hushed tone, despite being by ourselves in an open yard. Thankfully, his wife and daughters have been supportive of his Halloween habit.
Fowler has been both Angus Young and Brian Johnson of the rock band AC/DC, as well as Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead and Slash from Guns ’n Roses. He has portrayed fictional characters like Forest Gump, Sherlock Holmes, The Joker and Doc Brown from Back to the Future. He has played historical figures like Blackbeard, Fidel Castro, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin.
However, the time Fowler became Abraham Lincoln stands out as extra special.
“When my daughter was at Marble Elementary School, I picked her up in character,” he said, looking back on the memory with a smile. “A little black child hugged my legs, looked up at me and said, ‘Thank you Abraham Lincoln.’
“That kind of thing makes it all worthwhile. I got thousands of stories.”
One of my favorites is his Evel Knievel tale. Fowler didn’t even know how to ride a motorcycle when he decided to portray the famous bus-jumping daredevil, but he was never one to let that sort of thing stop him.
“I was still leaning when I was riding out one day as Evel Knievel. My wife had made a cape, and I was trying to get it under me so the wind wouldn’t pull me off the bike,” Fowler said.
“I look to my right, and there’s a gang of Harley guys. I tried to ignore them, but one guy kept asking me to pull over, so I finally did. I was getting nervous about the time he asked, ‘Can we have our picture with you?’ It’s just cool. It’s been a ride. ”
Then there was the time he held up a train while dressed as John Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn persona.
“I had a BB rifle and pistol one day, and was waiting on the train to wave to the passengers in full getup. Bryson City police came and said the heard someone was shooting, but of course they saw it wasn’t real,” Fowler said. “When I asked them, ‘Where’s the train?’ they said it was delayed in the gorge while police came to check me out, and six more officers were on the way.
“So I held up the train! That’s the best part; seeing people’s reactions down the line.”
Everyone wants to be remembered, and Fowler has done good job of making himself unforgettable. The king lives on.