Drag Race's Alaska Thunderfuck on Red 4 Filth and the Club Q Tragedy

A formative moment in the life of Alaska Thunderfuck happened when her cousin Chad received a tape player and a copy of Ace of Base’s The Sign. Thunderfuck became green with envy.

“I was really jealous,” she recalls. “As soon as my birthday came around, I got the exact same thing. I think everyone always remembers their first CD or their first tape they listened to constantly, and that was mine.”

Alaska Thunderfuck, the stage name of drag performer Justin Andrew Honard, plays the Bluebird Theater on Sunday, December 18. It’s a show she’s heard described as “an outer space opera” with a soundtrack from her most recent album, Red 4 Filth.

Thunderfuck is best known for her appearances on RuPaul’s Drag Race, where she was a runner-up on the show’s fifth season. She won first place on the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars and has since produced a stage musical, released a vodka, hosted numerous podcasts and recorded four studio albums, among other accomplishments.

After she received her coveted Ace of Base tape, Thunderfuck memorized all the words, and one song, "All That She Wants," even makes an appearance on Red 4 Filth.

“We just made it gayer and dirtier and fiercer,” she says.



She adds that Red 4 Filth, her fourth album after Anus, Poundcake and Vagina, takes its overall sonic approach from late-1990s and early-2000s pop music. It’s not just a sound Thunderfuck enjoys — it also has a personal connection to her life and development as an artist.

“That’s sort of when I fell in love with music,” Thunderfuck says. "That sound is really nostalgic for me. It’s really imprinted on me, and it’s a part of me. We are sort of telling the story of Alaska’s origins.”

She adds that she has always tried to do something different on each album. The songs on Red 4 Filth tackle love, emotions and feelings more than those of its predecessors, an approach she enjoyed while the songs were coming together. That’s not to say it’s deeper than her other records, however.

“All my music is pretty deep,” she says. “Even if I’m singing about nails and eyelashes, I think it goes straight to the core of the soul.”

In addition to its millennial aesthetic and emotional content, Red 4 Filth is also Thunderfuck’s cleanest record to date, with far less swearing than her three prior albums.

“We had a checklist of how many times we say ‘fuck’ on the whole album,” she says. “I think there are only, like, four times we use it, so I’m proud of that.”

The record includes collaborations with the fellow drag performers of Stephanie's Child — Jan Sport, Lagoona Bloo and Rosé — and reality-television personality, actress and LGBTQ+ activist TS Madison, also known simply as Maddie, whom Thunderfuck finds “ridiculously inspiring.”

“I was just going to have her sing the hook on 'I Am Her (She Is Me),'” Thunderfuck recalls. "But she brought a whole verse that was really, really good. She went above and beyond. She’s so much fun to work with. Her vibe is contagious, and I am obsessed with her.”

She adds that the queens in Stephanie’s Child are all friends of hers, and she’s performed with them frequently over the years. Lagoona Bloo is currently on tour with Thunderfuck, so the two have been spending more time together lately.

“It’s been really fun just hanging out with her and getting to know her and singing with her and working with her,” she says. "But they’re all very fucking awesome.”

Thunderfuck’s current tour started in October; she was performing in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 19 when a gunman stormed into a drag show at Club Q in Colorado Springs and murdered five people before being overpowered and beaten by concert attendees. Prior to her show in St. Louis on the following night, Thunderfuck emerged on stage in a hoodie and sweatpants, sans drag, to address the shooting. She says that the tragedy and its aftermath have reverberated through the drag community.

“I didn’t want to just start the show as though this is all normal, because nothing about this scenario is okay, and nothing about it is normal,” she says. “I just sort of took a moment to honor everybody who was affected by the shooting in Colorado Springs, and just hold them in our hearts and minds.”

During her comments, Thunderfuck apologized to the crowd for bringing down the vibe, and acknowledged that many people see drag as a form of escapism. She doesn’t share that opinion, however, because she sees all art as speaking truths about the world. If we just escape from things we don’t like, then nothing will ever change. She sees a world that “desperately needs some fucking changes to be made.”

“Drag is like a really radical art form that is able to speak some really important truths for people,” she says. “I think that’s why it resonates with so many people.”

Alaska Thunderfuck, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, December 18, Bluebird Theater, 3317 East Colfax Avenue. Tickets start at $20.