Greek finance minister is ‘fat’, looks ‘evil’, says look-alike musician

ATHENS—A British heavy metal vocalist who has become a cult sensation in crisis-hit Greece for his dead-on similarity to the nation’s finance minister has dismissed his look-alike as ‘fat’ and evil-looking.

“I’m not sure, but I think there’s something evil hiding behind his gaze,” Steve Grimmett, the 52-year-old frontman of heavy metal band Grim Reaper, told leading Ta Nea daily on Wednesday after performances in Greece last week.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, 54, has made few friends in recession-plagued Greece for spearheading an austerity drive of wage cuts and tax hikes to secure bailout loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Videos of Grimmett, with comments on his uncanny resemblance to Venizelos, began circulating on Greek websites and satirical shows after Grim Reaper played a series of gigs in Athens, Thessaloniki, Komotini and Ioannina last week.

“From the moment I set foot in your country, everybody says I look like your minister,” Grimmett told Ta Nea.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t see much of a resemblance. Perhaps a few years ago, when I had a few extra kilos. This gentleman is quite fat, despite the fact that he probably has quite a lot to do,” he said.

Hit songs of the band, which was formed in 1979, include “See you in hell”, “Fear no evil” and “Rock you to hell.”