A feature story in the April 4 edition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages entitled "Sympathy for the Devil" details the troubles of Shane Bugbee and his wife Amy as they tried to set up a business manufacturing blueberry soda in the small town of Ely, Minn.
Bugbee, an ordained priest in Church of Satan, and the director of Extreme Associates' soon-to-be-released The Witches Sabbath, claims he and his wife were essentially "run out of town" when his past and affiliations were discovered by the townsfolk.
While the City Pages article quotes locals as denying Bugbee's version of events, the satanic blueberry man told AVN.com a different story.
"The article made the whole incident seem like a funny story, but I felt really paranoid," said Bugbee. "I deal with low-life dangerous people all the time, and I put myself in scary situations, so I have to tell you things weren't as nice as the article made them seem."
Bugbee noted that the isolation of Ely didn't exactly inspire confidence in his and his wife's safety. "Ely is four hours away from anything. We were isolated, so it was scary. People can shotgun you. That's what they do up there," said Bugbee.
However, Bugbee said that worse than the threats of physical violence was what he describes as "conspiracy" to shut down his nascent blueberry soda business. "There was an active conspiracy to shut our business down. That's illegal. That wasn't made clear in the article," said Bugbee.
So what of this satanic blueberry soda? Plans are on hold for now.
And Satan wept. Because he likes blueberries.
