by SARAH ROWLAND

Paul Green is a failed musician who became a music teacher. But instead of teaching Schubert, Mozart and Yo-Yo Ma, he shows young, malleable minds how to get the Led out, salute Sabbath and bow down to AC/DC. His methods include spastic diatribes on the virtues of Ronnie James Dio, screaming matches about the importance of practicing and a whole lot of loud, physical comedy. In fact, sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s more mature: the students or the adult in charge. All that doesn’t matter, though, because Green’s techniques get results. His after-school program boasts over 30 future Eddies and Jimis.

Sound familiar?

Well, it’s basically the plot for Richard Linklater’s 2003 School of Rock, starring Jack Black. But it’s also Green’s real life, as seen in Don Argott’s thunderstruck documentary Rock School, in which we see the highs and lows of preparing his Philadelphia students for a Frank Zappa tribute concert in Germany. Officially, there is no connection between the two films. Unofficially, however, Green has his own theories.

“Put it this way: If they [producers of School of Rock] didn’t know of me, then they have some very lazy interns ’cause we were getting a lot of press at the time, and I own schoolofrock.com,” says Green, who is calling from New York, where he is opening another school. “So let’s just say that they may have accidentally gone on my site once or twice.”

Green vs. black

Unlike Black’s character, there was no definitive moment of revelation when Green realized that he was going to have to get a day job.

“For me, it was more just a slow fade,” he says. “I was just some dumb kid playing in a rock band. I loved it, we played some shows and that was that. So I’m only a failed guitar player in the sense that everybody who has ever been in a band that didn’t make it is, which is almost everyone in the world. And the whole School of Rock thing didn’t come out of a conscious decision to teach rather than do. It was actually an organic thing that started when I was teaching guitar to put myself through college.”

According to Green, there are some other major differences between him and Black’s on-screen persona.

“Only one of us is a real rock guitar player,” he says, referring to himself. “I mean, isn’t he in a comedy rock band or something? But seriously, Jack Black’s cool. I don’t want to start talking shit about him.”

Ride on, folk off

Throughout Rock School, Argott presents a very even-handed portrayal of Green. The first-time feature filmmaker starts off with some testimonials from the students—including a suicidal bassist, a guitar prodigy with a bone disorder and a lippy Quaker vocalist who made the mistake of admitting she likes Sheryl Crow. These mini headbangers talk frankly about how their bombastic instructor beat the folk and Limp Bizkit out of them and changed their lives forever with the power of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. But they also admit that his outbursts are a little unnerving at times, something Green plays down.

“I only scare them when they first join,” says Green. “But then they get to know me and just think I’m a big fat blowhard. A couple of my teachers on staff don’t yell; they just quietly glare when a kid messes up. Now that’s scary.”

Along with a montage of his fits, there’s also a damning scene, where Green is listing off all the things this one shy, goth keyboardist sucks at.

“It was sort of taken out of context ’cause it looks like I’m laying it on a little thick,” he says. “But that whole conversation was about me trying to get her to pick one thing and really stick to it.”

Green may have mixed feelings about how he’s portrayed in some parts of the film. But seeing as he has just opened eight other schools across the States, has plans to open three more in Canada and recently incorporated a School of Rock chain, he’s willing to overlook it.

“Yeah, it makes me look like a jerk,” he says. “But I figure that if it didn’t have a dramatic element, it never would have been picked up. If it was just kids learning to play music and all happiness and rainbows, then it’s not really a movie, so I’ll take the PR hit. Besides, almost all the parents whose kids go to my school have seen the movie, and nobody’s quit. So I guess I don’t come off looking too bad.”

Rock School opens Friday, June 17

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