Meet 'Metal Mom': This Wisconsin mom knits, does crossword puzzles — and can rock a Metallica shirt

STOUGHTON - Apparently a Viking ship-shaped float and "Game of Thrones"-esque seat adorned with spray-painted knitting needles was not a big enough Mother's Day gift for Nick Prueher.

No, he had to go big. He dialed it to 11.

The Stoughton native figured nothing says "I Love You Mom!" like creating a parade float for his mother to ride during the city's annual Syttende Mai parade. And then he thought, why stop at just a float? How about a Macy's Thanksgiving parade-style balloon featuring his 67-year-old mother's likeness?

Jeanne Prueher is known as Metal Mom. She's got her own logo and her Instagram (@MyMetalMom) and Tumblr accounts feature photos of her wearing her 60-plus heavy metal band T-shirts while doing more-typical Mom things like raking leaves, vacuuming, drinking coffee, barbecuing and putting a dollop of whip cream on a slice of pumpkin pie.

Though she good-naturedly wears Iron Maiden, Metallica and Pantera shirts her son finds in thrift stores and mails to her, Jeanne Prueher's musical tastes actually veer to James Taylor, Adele and Mannheim Steamroller. She doesn't listen to death metal or heavy metal or any type of metal music.

"If I were to ask her to name her favorite album it would probably be the John Denver Muppets Christmas album," Nick Prueher said in a recent phone interview from his New York City home.

So how did Jeanne Prueher end up as Metal Mom? Her son asked her.

"You don't say no to Nick," she said this week at a friend's home where her parade float is being constructed. "I'm a good sport. Nick is not out to embarrass anyone. He doesn't do anything halfway."

Which is how Jeanne Prueher ended up entered into the huge Syttende Mai parade in the Dane County community of Stoughton, which is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 p.m. May 20. She'll sit on a comfy chair outfitted with dozens of No. 8 and No. 10 knitting needles, smile, wave and knit throughout the mile and a half parade route through downtown Stoughton. Behind her several strong family members also clad in metal band T-shirts will pull her helium-filled balloon.

The Metal Mom persona began four years ago when Nick Prueher, a comedian who has worked for David Letterman and Stephen Colbert, saw a Metallica T-shirt in a thrift store and thought it would be hilarious if his mother wore it. That led to more T-shirts and soon he began posting photos on social media.

Last year, the Metal Mom parade float idea popped into his head. He called the chamber of commerce and learned anyone can have a float as long as it somehow spotlights Norwegian heritage.

Nick Prueher, 42, knows of Norway's proud tradition of black metal bands like Satyricon, Mayhem and Gorgoroth and thought what better way to celebrate Norwegian metal bands and Metal Mom than a float.

He launched a GoFundMe page to raise $7,000 for the balloon, parade float materials and three tanks of helium, with donors receiving Metal Mom temporary tattoos and patches, access to a short documentary and the option of suggesting a heavy metal song to be played from the float during the parade.

His father is on the board of directors of the Stoughton Players and theater prop shop volunteers are making the throne and float, which includes shields on the side of the Viking ship featuring a cup of coffee, ball of yarn, apple pie and an iron.

Jeanne Prueher, whose grandfather was a Norwegian immigrant, has given some thought to the knitting she'll do during the parade. She plans to use large No. 25 needles and red rug yarn so spectators can see her handiwork. Her costume will be pedal pushers and a black Mayhem T-shirt because it features the Norwegian flag. But she may wear headphones to listen to James Taylor during the parade.

As her son points out in the GoFundMe video, she's the quintessential Midwestern mom. She knits. She changes her dish towels according to holidays and seasons — currently, the spring-themed ones are out. She bakes, loves to drink coffee, hand-feeds the family dog and does crossword puzzles. Jeanne Prueher and her husband are traveling to Norway on a tour this summer and plan to rent a car to drive to her ancestral homeland of Stavern.

Nick Prueher, who was runner-up in the Syttende Mai parade ugliest troll contest in 1986, points out in his GoFundMe pitch that there are far more important causes to give money to and he encourages people to donate to charities. "But I can't think of a more wonderfully dumb cause than this."

One of Stoughton's heavy metal bands, Crackhammer, heard about the GoFundMe effort, contacted Nick and offered to write a Metal Mom theme song for the parade.

Heck yeah, he said.

Crackhammer lead singer Bill Faris, whose stage name is Billy Attila, said the band came up with a song that rocks but won't induce parents to put hands over their children's ears along the parade route. They're recording it this week to be played from the float's sound system.

"It's obviously family-friendly but we've basically taken Spinal Tap, Jack Black, accordion and three heavy metal singers and put together a really rocking anthem for her. The goal is to get the crowd rocking and laughing," said Faris, whose mother works at Stoughton's Norwegian heritage center.

The Metal Mom float and balloon will be one of 85 entries in the Syttende Mai parade, a tradition that dates to the 1950s in a community that proudly wears its Norwegian-ness. Syttende Mai is Norwegian for 17th of May, the day Norway signed its constitution.

The Stoughton phone book is filled with Olsens, Hansens and Halversons, the high school mascot is a Viking, third-graders all learn to sing the Norwegian national anthem and the downtown is filled with red, white and blue Norwegian flags flapping from light poles.

When Norwegian immigrant T.G. Mandt opened a wagon factory in Stoughton in 1865, he wrote letters back to his homeland extolling the plentiful jobs and beautiful farmland. Boatloads of Norwegians arrived. They're still in Stoughton. Or at least their offspring are and they love to dress up in Norwegian outfits, snack on lefse, krumkake and Rømmegrøt and watch the high school's Norwegian dancers perform every May, said Laura Trotter, executive director of the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce.

Don't bother looking for lutefisk at Stoughton's Syttende Mai festival, though. The Scandinavian dish of gelatinous cod soaked for months in lye is as wretched-tasting as it sounds and the Stoughton gathering is "lutefisk free," Trotter said.

Now the good folks of Stoughton may be starting another tradition. Nick Prueher said after all the time and expense to build a parade float for his mom and arrange for a giant balloon, this probably isn't a one-off. As long as Jeanne Prueher doesn't mind, Metal Mom might become a fixture at Syttende Mai parades.

"She's not someone who craves attention but she gets to knit on top of a 'Game of Thrones' throne with knitting needles. She’ll partially be in her element," he said. "I'm asking her if she can knit a Slayer sweater."