As a freshman at Palmer High School, Toryn Green ran with the nerd herd. He wore glasses, got good grades. He wasn't the last kid chosen for teams in P.E., but he was definitely in that desperate-faced huddle of last resorts.
Funny what 15 years, a personal training certificate and some tats can do.
Green, 32, beat out 1,200 other singers to become the new frontman for rock band Fuel, which has a double-platinum album and the Top 40 hit "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" under its studded leather belt.
In May, when Green played his first festival with Fuel, he realized his days of being overlooked are over. In a phone interview last week, he remembered scanning the sea of 22,000 faces and thinking: "Life will never be the same after this."
Fuel rocks Anchorage today at Chilkoot Charlie's for a gig that sold out more than a week ago.
"I can't wait to bring the band to Alaska," Green said. "The guys are excited to come. I think they wanted their first trip to be in the summer, but I said 'We have to get up there now!'
"I hope Alaska is prepared for a good time, because we're going to bring it."
Green moved with his mother to Palmer from New Mexico when he was 10. Known there by his given name, Will, he attended Palmer Middle School and Palmer High. In his sophomore year, he transferred to Colony High School, where he graduated in 1994.
At age 15, he started studying martial arts at Okamoto's Karate. He began pumping iron and bought contacts. "The contacts got me a girlfriend, who showed me how to dress and taught me what not to say to people," he said. "By senior year, I was named 'Most Reformed' -- from nerd to ninja."
Green had sung with his father since he was a tyke, but his first solo show was Alaska State Fair karaoke. Afterward, a girl he had a crush on finally deigned to talk to him. "That's when I realized, 'Oh my God, the power of song,'?" he recalled, laughing.
At 22, Green relocated to Los Angeles. He landed a day job at a Gold's Gym, first selling memberships, later as a personal trainer. In his free time, he did the grass-roots rock band thing, eventually finding moderate success as vocalist for Something to Burn.
A longtime Fuel fan, Green heard about the band's online audition process to replace its lead singer and he immediately sent in a recording. Twelve finalists were brought in to record demos for Epic Records. Green was signed in July 2006. Soon after, the band recorded its August 2007 release, the brooding and earnest "Angels and Devils."
The album peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard 200, and its first single, "Wasted Time," hit No. 24 on the mainstream rock charts. It's more buzz than Green has ever experienced, but it doesn't match the band's popularity five years ago. "I was expecting more of a push from the record label," he said. "But I guess the industry climate is changing. Many bands selling millions of records years ago are seeing a serious decline in record sales."
The related album tour has kept Green away from his North Hollywood home since May. "I wake up, open the door of the bus to see a Dumpster in the back alley of some club somewhere in America, look for food, do sound check, play a show, do meet-and-greet, then drive through the night, wake up, open the door, there's another Dumpster," he said. "Our guitar player says touring is like living in 'Groundhog Day.'?"
In between tour stops, Green has found time for several side gigs, including singing the national anthem at NASCAR's Ford 400 race last month, and appearing on TLC show "L.A. Ink" last season. Green already had his first Fuel album commemorated with an ambigram tattoo -- in one direction it reads "angel" and in the other direction it reads "devil." On "L.A. Ink" Green got a second ambigram: sinner/saint. He said both are reminders of the duality of human nature.
When asked what he's done to earn the "sinner" tattoo, Green laughed: "Come out and have a beer with me and you might find out."
Find Play reporter Sarah Henning at adn.com/contact/shenning or call 257-4323.
Fuel
When: 8 p.m. today
Where: Chilkoot Charlie's
How much: Sold out
Web: www.fuelweb.com, www.myspace.com/fuel
Fuel up in Fairbanks
9 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, The Blue Loon. $35. (1-907-457-5666, www.theblueloon.com)
By Sarah Henning
shenning@adn.com