All language subtitles for This.is.Gwar.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG_English

-First step is make sure
the air pressure is out of them,

so they don't blow your face off
when you undo the plug.

And then,
you add the dye.

It's a hypoallergenic
powdered food dye.

They used to get it
from France.

I don't know where
they get it now.

It's FDA approved.

No more mold,
no more maggots in the hoses.

At every venue, you gotta find
out where the hose hook-up is.

Sometimes it's behind the bar,
under a sink.

We've had to hook them up
to toilets before.

It's...

kind of a mess.

We've had a few mishaps.

We've had these connections
to blow off mid-show,

and just send a geyser of blood
20 feet in the air.

But man, people love getting
spewed on, and I love doing it.

I never really knew
that I enjoyed

just spraying people with blood
as much as I do.

♪♪

-GWAR was a big body, violent,
sexual theatrical rock show.

-Basically, they are barbarian
interplanetary warriors

who play heavy metal music,
and shoot various bodily fluids

all over the audience.

That's pretty much GWAR.

-They were the scum dogs
of the universe,

banished to the shittiest planet
they could come to.

Is that --
that's the thing?

That part seems
pretty accurate.

-It's performance art,
but it's also,

it's this performance art that
doesn't take itself seriously.

It's fucking crazy.

-The greatest fucking metal band
that ever was --

alien, human, otherwise.

-What you're not seeing
is what's going on

behind that stage

that's making
this whole show work.

And it's people frantically
working their asses off

the whole time.

This bands is not just
musicians.

They're artists.

They build and they make
everything themselves.

It sounds like a really messy,
mindless joke, I suppose,

but in reality,

it's one of the greatest
social commentaries ever.

That's sort of the beauty
of GWAR is,

as much as they'll say,

"We're here to destroy
the human race,"

they're actually here
to save it.

-Listen, you're gonna go, you're
gonna be absolutely entertained.

Some of the stuff
may offend you,

but you gotta go in there
with an open mind.

-There's something very punk
and raw about GWAR's art.

And it's not supposed
to be safe.

It makes you feel uncomfortable.
That's part of it.

-It was a really powerful group
of awesome artists

converging at
the same time.

And it was a joke,
and we just kept going with it.

It's like, joke's on everyone
else, now, 30 years later.

It's a joke
with no punchline

[Laughs]

-The most amazing,
cataclysmic rock 'n roll event

of the century,
ladies and gentlemen.

This is GWAR.

♪♪

♪♪

-So, Richmond in the '80's
was a conservative city,

capital of
the Confederacy.

It was dangerous.
It was dirty.

-It was a good place
to get your ass kicked,

especially if you were
a college student,

especially if you were
an art student.

-There was a pretty happening
punk scene

that grew around the art
school at VCU --

Virginia Commonwealth
University.

♪♪

-Here in Richmond, there's
a building called "the Dairy."

It's a really
bizarre building.

It has milk bottles
as corners.

-The dairy was an old
milk-bottling plant

from the '20's,

and it had long since fallen
into disuse and disrepair.

There was junk everywhere.
There was leftover machinery.

-They wanted to gut
this building.

And they used to hire
a lot of artists to do shit

like tear out the asbestos,
and shit like that.

And in order to, like,
keep the whole project afloat,

they rented
the different chambers

of the crazy maze-like building
out to local artists

and musicians, who wanted
practice spaces and stuff.

[Music plays]

-Bands started moving in.
Weird artists started moving in.

And then, there was
this whole scene there.

-And it was illegal
to live there,

but everyone did
live there.

-And one of those early people
was Hunter Jackson.

♪♪

Hunter was building
these weird crazy costumes

for a science fiction movie
he wanted to do

called "The Scum Dogs
of the Universe."

-Yeah, I graduated.

I have a Bachelor's Degree
in Commercial Art.

But my teachers hated
my art.

I was the exact kind of student
that a Commercial Art professor

does notwant in their class,
and that is somebody

that's into fucking comic books
and animation.

You know, my teachers
didn't do anything

but tell me not to do what I do,
and so, there you go.

-Hunter got the studio
at the Dairy to make props,

and have a set that he could
just sort of more control over.

Other people in that scene
found out

about the Dairy through him,
so the type of thing

he was looking for
sort of surrounded him.

-Hunter and I first met
at a friend's house.

And we were playing
D&D.

We were into things that
weren't considered high-brow.

We liked horror movies.
We liked science fiction novels.

We liked stuff
that is considered schlock.

-So, guys like me,
Hunter Jackson, Shaw,

when we got accepted to VCU,
we had high-faluting ideas

of being fantasy
comic book artists.

And once we got
into school,

we realized that
that shit just doesn't fly.

If you brought a Frizetto wanna
be painting into critique,

you're getting shredded.

-It really broke down
their egos,

and said, "The shit
that you like is stupid.

"Dungeons & Dragons,

and Japanese
live-action pictures,

and Kiss,
that stuff is stupid.

It's not art."

-It was natural for us
to get together,

and want to do something

that really was kind of
a big "fuck you"

to the Art department.

-The movie that they started
to make

was "Scum Dogs
of the Universe,"

which they wanted
to be more punk rock,

and use that
sort of energy --

you know, fun,
and not elitist and alienating.

-I wanted my
science fiction movie

to have a punk rock
soundtrack.

And I like
Death Piggy's music,

and I thought that
it would work.

♪♪

-As soon as you got
to Richmond,

if you were at VCU,
there was a buzz.

There was Death Piggy.

-You couldn't not know
Death Piggy and Brockie.

We loved him because they were
the only punk rock band

that had a sense of humor.

-And you would see his graffiti
before you met him.

That was just cool.

-Dave Brockie had moved down
to Richmond to go to VCU,

and he had formed a band
called "Death piggy,"

which was
a punk rock band.

And he was known for
his theatrics on stage.

Like, he would put mayonnaise
down his pants,

and a piñata that he filled
with candy,

and quarters,
and cat shit.

So, the audience would beat it,
and it broke open.

-They all dived to the ground,
and were clawing through

this mess,
trying to find the quarters,

and they're actually
going through cat shit

while they're doing it.

It was just like...

-My biggest influence
throughout all high school

was Monty Python.

I thought that was the most
brilliant shit I'd ever seen.

And I really wanted to make
fucked up, weird music.

As long as it was loud,
and fast,

and I could go down
and hurt myself,

I was into it.

-What the fuck
is going on?

Hi.
-Hello.

-Hi.

-Dave Brockie was
a funny,

really talented performer
who was always on.

I mean, he lived like he was
on stage all the time.

And just to know him,
he was hilarious.

-Yeah,
he was my first big love.

He was so creative,
and smart,

and he had such a big
fanbase already.

Like, everyone always wanted
to be around him

because of
his personality.

Every time you were around him,
everyone was in a good mood.

[Indistinct talking]

-One thing that Dave had
in common with me

is that he was willing
to get up there,

and pretend like
he's jerking off

in front of an audience,
you know, and shit like that.

Not very many lead singers
of a band that want to be cool

are gonna want to do
things like that.

But Dave was game for whatever,
and beyond.

-That's one way that Dave
and Hunter really connected

was this sort of eshewing
the self-seriousness

that was really worthy only
of contempt to them.

I was just like,
"Art's great," you know?

And they're like,
"No. Art fucking sucks."

People who draw a bunch
of squiggly lines,

and then stand next to it,
and smoke cigarettes,

and act cool,
those people suck,

They hated that.

They wanted to
destroy that.

-He shared a lot of
the sense of humor

that I had about crazy
over-the-top stuff.

And that's why
we clung together,

because, in a way, we were
driven by the same demons.

-Death Piggy's
recording studio

was just on the other side
of the wall

from the original slave pit
that Hunter and I had.

And it was inevitable
that we would meet.

-So, we're over there
at the slave pit,

working on
Hunter Jackson's movie,

and Dave Brockie comes in over,
and he says,

"Hey, I've got
a great idea.

What if we borrow
these costumes,

and we open for ourselves
as this insane barbarian band."

-Hunter's making these props
and sets for a movie,

Dave's in this crazy performance
punk band.

And Dave says, "Hey, I'll wear
that stupid shit on stage,

and see what happens."

"We'll call it...

GWAR."

♪♪

-The first couple times
we tried it,

I would just show up with all
the stuff in a garbage bag.

Everybody would just
put shit on.

Dave would just borrow musicians
from here, there, everywhere,

within the Dairy.

They'd get up on stage.

having probably practiced
the music once or twice.

They hardly knew the songs
at all.

-Those first few shows
were very awkward.

We had never done anything
like that, so we had --

if you can imagine --
a kind of a stage fright.

-I think we've almost got
the problem solved,

ladies and gentlemen.

And we're gonna play
that first song again

because it was so bad.

-I kept trying to justify
doing this by saying,

"Oh, this is gonna be
a scene in my movie."

And I had these characters
that I had created.

But then, people would start
playing those characters,

and they would take
the character

in their own direction.

The idea of "Scum Dogs
of the Universe,"

the barbarians from outer space
gets stranded on earth.

And then, they're slowly sort of
sucked away into adult life.

One of them gets a girlfriend.
One of them becomes a stoner.

One of them joins
a rock band.

Death Piggy was gonna be
the rock band.

But you pitch anything
like that to Dave Brockie,

and he's gonna take it over,
which is what he did.

♪♪

♪♪

Without Dave,
it's not a band,

and without Hunter,
it's not space barbarians.

So, the two of them, and their
ideas colliding together,

was this kind of
supernatural event.

-Immediately, everybody
in Richmond loved it.

-They loved it.

And GWAR blew up
after that.

-You really gotta give credit
to Hunter,

and his brilliance,
and Brockie, and his energy.

Two stars hit,
and then, it was like, boom.

They couldn't have done it
without each other.

-It was a pretty quick snowball
of this movie

starting to roll down
a hill,

and then, all these people
jumping on it,

getting bigger
and bigger and bigger.

-We had a lot of
creative people

that were just basically moving
in, and setting up shop,

and no one was saying "no"
to them.

And if we had said "no,"

maybe GWAR never would've been
as cool as it was.

So, I will defend our open-house
policy of misfit artists

till the end.

♪♪

-Halloween 1986, GWAR plays
their biggest show to date

in a big commons area
in the middle of VCU.

It's called
"Shafer Court."

Iggy Pop played there.

A lot of big touring bands
played there.

-And that place
would be packed.

There'd be 500
to 1,000 people there.

So, when they hired GWAR
to play Halloween,

that was a really big deal
for us.

-All of us worked together
really hard

to make this one
particular show.

And we were gonna debut
a lot of stuff.

A giant dinosaur and a cockroach
come out, and fight.

Terrorists take over
the stage.

Every GWAR villain
comes out.

A giant airplane engine
falls out of the sky,

and lands on stage,
and kills people.

-Boom!

It was so awesome.

It was so awesome.

-I think we all came away
from that with a feeling that

"This isn't just
a joke band anymore.

This thing really
has potential."

I remember feeling like
"This is what I want to do.

This is gonna be huge."

-So, Dave and I broke up,
and anybody who was near us

hated to be around us
when we were in the same room.

[ Laughs ]

They had a meeting,
and everybody voted me out.

And I was like,
"I'm gonna be strong."

And I'm like,
"Have a good life."

But I knew GWAR had so much
brilliance in it,

and so,
I was really disappointed.

But, you know,
that's life.

-During the beginning part
of GWAR,

a lot of it was financed
by my job as a prison guard.

I got an offer to move
to Detroit.

And me,
a little boy from the sticks

who always wanted to live
in the big city,

I couldn't resist.

And I took off for Detroit
for a year.

Literally, they said,
"Okay, at Shafer Court,

we're gonna get serious."

And then, a month later,
everybody quits.

Hunter decided to move
to Detroit,

and all the
musicians quit.

-We don't even have
the costumes anymore,

because Hunter took those,
as well.

-That was horrible
because we had no idea.

We thought everything
was going great,

and we had this great show
at Shafer Court,

and, all of a sudden,
we were losing, like,

our most talented people.

-Don and Dave basically said,
"Well, we're gonna do this.

Don's gonna be in charge of
the Art Department now.

We're gonna find a whole new
band, and some new artists,

and we're gonna
make this work."

-Don was really
instrumental

in bringing new technologies
to GWAR.

He always wanted the style
to be more polished,

and more
professional-looking.

-One of the biggest
breakthroughs was latex rubber.

Don used it to make
the Chernobyl cockroach.

And the next thing you know,
we have latex in our blood.

-All the new characters
were made

by Don and Chuck
right then.

♪♪

♪♪

-Hunter would take
blood balloons.

He'd put carrot syrup
and food dye

into these
water balloons.

And he would tape them onto
one of the spikes of a mace.

♪♪

That was okay.

But we were thinking,
"Okay, what else can we add?"

And I took
a hot water bottle,

and ran a tube out to
the shoulder, here.

-You're my hero, man.
I've always wanted to meet you.

If I could just
shake your hand, man.

-And I squeezed the water
bottle, and spewed blood.

I think I might have reached
somebody in the front row.

I don't know.

But from then on,
it was just like,

"Where can we do
this effect again?"

And "Why sit there
and use the water bottle?

Let's do pressurization
in a fire extinguisher."

So we started stealing
fire extinguishers

from the VCU campus.

And that's the way we've been
doing it ever since,

just getting bigger and bigger
canisters to pressurize,

and shoot spew.

It was just a cornucopia
of body fluids

spraying all over
the audience.

And I was like, "What!
You can't do tha--

You can do that?"

-It was, like,
very cathartic.

-When you go to a GWAR show,
in 90 minutes,

you're gonna get to see everyone
you hated that year get killed.

You get to see a lot of the evil
in the world

get their comeuppance.

-You get blood
shot at you,

and you don't know
who's getting decapitated next.

And it's just this blur
of performance art

rather than a rock show.

And it's low-brow,
and it's nasty, and it's fun.

[Chuckles]

-If there was somebody who
wanted to go see a GWAR show,

and they didn't know
anything about them,

I would just say --

I'd give them a new T-shirt,
and I'd say,

"This is just
what everyone does."

I'd just watch him as he just
gets pelted with cum, and blood,

and various combinations
of the two.

-And when they see you
up-front,

and they know
you're standing there,

they're gonna fuck with you
on purpose.

If you're going up-front,
you're gonna be covered.

-I don't wanna consider myself
some sort of dandy,

but I might be the guy who,
like...

when you're like,
"Hey, you like GWAR?

I'm like, "Oh yeah, yeah,
for sure."

They're like, "Do you wanna
go see GWAR,

and stand right
up close?"

I don't know.

I don't know if I do.

-One time, we played,
I think it was The Tabernacle,

and the club was, like,
so apologetic.

They're like "You can't set up
for another couple of hours

'cause we're still cleaning up
the blood

from the GWAR show
last night."

[Laughs]

They make a mess.

You figure, if you're gonna do
a show, you put on a show.

♪♪

-Dave decided it was time to get
a real band.

And there was this new kid
in high school

who was playing in this
band called "The Guilty."

And everybody
was talking about him.

It was like, "Oh, have you
seen Guilty?

It's like, "Beefcake, man,
this kid Beefcake,

he's crazy.
He's like --

He plays bass like I've never
seen, using his fingers,

and he's all over
the place."

Everybody respected him.

He was the best bass player
in Richmond.

And so, he stole Beefcake
out of The Guilty,

and out of high school,
and he said,

"You're gonna be in
my band."

-Hate me.
-There's a lot to hate there.

Hate me.
Yeah, really.

There's too much of me
to hate.

-Beefcake The Mighty, when I was
in the punk scene in Richmond,

I gave myself a punk name,
which was Beefcake.

-Just everybody knew him.

He's a kid that
would walk in,

and they would all go,
"Oh, it's Beefcake."

The local pizza place,
he we would walk in.

"It's Beefcake.
Slices, slices, Beefcake."

-It's very tacky.
-Are you ready?

-I would never
wear it.

-So, he was the only one
who didn't have to come up

with a stage name,
because I just said,

"You can be Beefcake,
'cause that'll work."

-Thank you.
I am Beefcake The Mighty.

And the purpose of GWAR
is, of course,

as you can tell from
our accoutrement, to destroy.

-So, they put together
all these musicians,

and actually wrote 15
punk rock songs,

and went up there,
and recorded it.

And we're really proud
of it.

I remember first
hearing it.

I thought it sounded
pretty bad.

♪ 'Cause we are GWAR

♪ We've got guitars

♪ We'll eat your cars

-We got it done.
We were all excited.

We had a big
listening party.

And we just sat there,
and dropped the needle on it,

and it finishes,
and everybody is like,

"Oh, dude,
that just sucks."

-Yeah, it was horrible.

It sounded like
it was coming out of

a fucking Japanese
transistor radio.

♪♪

-That idea of wanting
to demonstrate

that you're
a good player

because you're also
in this costume,

that kind of shaped the way that
the band sounded.

And the result
was kind of awful.

♪♪

-The band was just dumb.

And it really wasn't until we
started thinking about the band

in a more serious way,
the people that are out there

doing really good music
right now,

and we got those guys.

♪♪

-My name is Balsac
the Jaws of Death.

I didn't think I was
a punk rocker at all.

I was just a kid who played
guitar and liked weird stuff.

Brockie liked that I made
weird faces with my jaw.

'cause, like, when I played,
I would do a lot of stuff --

which is funny,
because I put on a mask,

and nobody could ever see
what I look looked like

when I play guitar.

♪♪

-Mike Bishop calls me up,
and we set up an audition,

and there's two
other guys

that are gonna audition
the same day.

And one guy doesn't have a kit,
so he's gonna play my kit.

He played
the audition first.

And then, I just went up,

and just whipped his ass
on my own set.

It wasn't that hard to do,

'cause he wasn't familiar with
my drum set-up, but I was.

And I just listened to
what he played,

and then, I just went in,
and did it better.

[Laughs]

I was like, "Oh, this is
a great opportunity.

I could use GWAR as a stepping
stone to a career in music."

And, you know, 30 years later,
I'm still in GWAR.

[Laughs]

-I was checking out the GWAR
shows, and everything.

And I'd be bouncing off
the walls, and stuff.

And that's kind of
where they saw, like,

"Oh, wow, Danielle's
this crazy dancer."

I think they came over
to my house

in the middle
of the night, like,

"Danielle, we need you
to go to this show."

And I mean, I was in college,
and everything,

so I didn't really think it was
gonna be, like, a career move.

I just was like, "Okay, I'm
going to New York this weekend."

You know? [Laughs]

Before I had joined
the band,

the character had been
called "GWAR Woman."

And I really wanted
to give her a name.

I was always, like, men's fear
of menstruation, like,

"Don't have your dad
buy tampons."

It's just kind of a stigma
in our culture.

And it's just something
that happens.

So you're a sex symbol
with this bloody crotch.

It's kind of like,
"Ew, how sexy."

You know?

So, Slymenstra Hymen.

-When they decided that
they we're gonna do

the Techno Destructo song,
I wanted to come back.

-One day, Dave saw him
coming down the street,

with his giant stilts --
8 1/2 feet, 9 feet tall --

walking down the street,
coming at Dave.

Dave was like,
"Oh, my God."

It was terrifying.

I think Dave,
right then and there,

knew he wasn't
gonna argue.

Hunter wanted to be back
in the band, so, "Okay."

-I will always come back,

no matter how many times
they cheat, lie,

and use deceitful tactics
against me.

-Hunter was totally
autobiographical

about anything he conceptually
came up with.

Techno Destructo was here
to get control of GWAR again.

And if he couldn't
get control of them,

he was going to
destroy them.

You don't have to be Freud
to fucking figure that one out.

-One of these days,
GWAR will be destroyed.

-My attitude was like,
"You've been gone for a year.

You haven't been working.

You dropped a notch or two
on the ladder."

Well, now, like, Don and Chuck
can say like, "Oh, we've got..."

what did they say,
"...skin in the game now,

because we've created
these new characters."

It's like, "This is a real
collective going on, here."

-I always wanted
to be an artist.

And I thought that
art school

was gonna be very different
than it was.

I expected it to be
a little more weird.

I went to Dave.

I went to his office,
and I was like,

"I wanna join the band.
I'm quitting art school."

And he was like,
"Well, you know, I don't wanna

fuck your life up,
or anything."

And I was like, "Dude,
I'll go back to art school.

It'll still be there.

But GWAR is doing stuff,
and I'm getting paid."

So, he was like,
"Alright. Fair enough."

That was it.

-Okay, Matt,
hold up your number.

-I met Matt Maguire,
and we had a lot in common.

And I was hoping that he
and I could collaborate

on some of my crazy
wrestling comics, and stuff,

'cause he had some wrestling
comics that he had been doing.

But then, he was really hot
to get into GWAR.

-The first show I went to,
that was it.

I was hooked.

I was just like,
"This is freaking amazing."

I was in high school, whatever,
just, "Oh, my gosh.

Look at all this cool stuff.
There's this chick blowing fire,

and this is happening,
and heads are flying off."

-Matt was Hunter's
assistant,

and Hunter liked to keep Matt
away from us.

But as we realized how good
of an artist Matt is,

it was, like, well, we're all
hanging out in the back room

having a blast.

So, when he stopped working
for Hunter,

he'd come back there,
and hang out with us,

and Hunter would get
all mad.

But Don was always just like,
"Well, fuck that."

-It's hard for me to think
how Hunter must have felt

having this vision
about a movie --

this was originally
what GWAR was,

was his movie --
taken over by the band

where Dave gets to shine,
and Hunter doesn't.

-So, what do you really
wanna do?

-Well, I don't know.
Whatever you guys want me to do.

-I was doing the mail order
at that point.

I was in there
licking stamps.

You do every single bit of grunt
work that nobody wanted to do.

That's how you made yourself
useful in the band.

-They got the shittiest jobs,
and they had to suffer.

They put up with it
for years.

Bob and Matt,
they earned their chops.

Gosh, I hope it was
worth it.

-Let us toast
our glorious destiny.

[Laughter]

-He's ready.

Hey, Dave.
Alright.

Hey. You ready to go?
-Yeah!

-Ready to
rock and roll?

-GWAR, in the early days,

had these International
Harvester

school buses
that they traveled in.

-We tore all
the seats out.

So, you go in, and there's two
couches facing each other,

and that's where you
hang out.

And then, there was
a plywood loft,

and there was upper sleeping
and lower sleeping.

-We just all slept in there,
like dogs,

you know, like,
just animals herded together.

We painted the school bus.
It was just covered in graffiti.

The top of it said,
"Ed Gein's mom's car."

And so, we would get
pulled over a lot.

-The damn thing only went
55 miles an hour,

'cause it had a governor on it,
'cause it was a school bus.

And it was like
the Partridge Family on acid,

rolling down the road,

always getting hassled
by cops, like,

"What the hell
is this?"

At least in the second school
bus, you could take a piss.

We built, like,
this little cubby hole

in the back,
with a door.

I open the door to think

there's gonna be some sort of,
like, toilet there -- nothing.

It's just a fucking
oil funnel cone

with a hose that goes to
a hole in the floor.

And we were just
pissing in the cone.

And you can look out
the back window

and just see, like all your
urine, like, hit whatever car.

I'm just watching, like, a whole
family, kids in the car,

windshield wipers come on,
and it's just our urine.

Those were the
school bus days.

-It is difficult being the only
girl, and you're all grungy,

and gross,
and dirty, and sweaty.

And you're staying at punk
rocker's house on the floor.

-Dave would book these
cross-country tours

by just calling numbers out of
the back of Maximum Rocknroll.

And we just took off
with it,

a Rand McNally Atlas
and a bunch of quarters

to use the payphone
when we got lost.

♪♪

We made it
across the country

probably about six or seven
times in these school buses.

Broke several axles on 'em,

and got stranded a couple
of times in the Rockies,

but it was fun.

Those were fun days.

-I wouldn't trade those memories
for anything,

'cause traveling cross country,
and all those windows

and just laying in
your bunk,

and going around
with the circus...

The thing is,
I remember even Dave,

who was was, like, the biggest
rock star in the world,

was such a geek
and nerd.

-I'm working on D&D, that stupid
game that your boyfriend plays.

-We were always into Dungeons
& Dragons, and all that stuff.

And Brockie was into it.
And he was good at it.

You played it,
and you were like,

"Well, this isn't stupid at all.
This is really fun."

Because, you know, he was like,
any one of the campaigns

that he ran could have been
a great fantasy novel.

-I remember one of the first
times I went out of town

with GWAR,

him reading a "Conan" book
by a flashlight to us

all listening,
like we're sitting around

a radio in the 1930s.

It was, like, absurd, but it was
so, like, quaint and special.

-Why did you lie to me?
Why? Why? why?

Where is he?

-My new shoulder pads
are too bouncy, and it's just --

I don't know what to do.
I can't fix something like that.

-I'm so sad for You.

-Fuck! God!

♪♪

-It was one of the first
school bus tours.

I remember, we were late
to a show,

and we pulled up, and there
was actually a line

all the way around
the building.

And that was
an impressive feeling,

to know that we were gonna
sell out a club.

-Look at all this beer
we get now.

Check this out.

This is all our water
and shit to drink on stage.

And then,
look at all this stuff.

This is all so sweet,
and...

Are we big time, hip, cool,
rock stars now, or what?

-As we were growing,
so was the stage show.

This shit kept getting
bigger and bigger.

Even the monsters
were getting huge.

And that's where
I came in.

I became the big giant
monster maker.

-Some friends of mine said,
"Hey, have you heard of

this band GWAR?"
I go, "No".

They said, "Oh, my God,
you gotta see them.

They're amazing.
They run into to the audience.

They throw meat at people,
and blood."

They said, "You'd love them."
I go, "Oh, okay."

I saw them at CMJ,
and was just blown away

by how amazing it was.

I'm sitting there
talking to my friends.

I go, "Oh, my God,
If these guys are half sane,

I have to work
with them."

So, it turns out
they were very sane,

and, obviously,
we did.

♪♪

-We brought in a real producer
into Richmond.

And I thought it was really
funny, because he was from LA,

and I didn't really know
any California guys back then.

So...

-Can't eat any cheese
before you record.

And we have to go eat
this Chinese chicken salad.

Every day, we would eat
the same salad.

-What're you eating?
What are you eating?

-You know, we were drinking
cheap beer, and smoking pot,

and he was worried
about us eating cheese.

♪♪

That was the best time
for us writing,

because we didn't really know
what we were doing.

We weren't -- hadn't become
the metal band we are now.

We were still
these punk rockers

trying to play a heavy metal,
and not quite getting it,

but reveling in the fact
that we didn't quite get it.

♪♪

♪♪

You know,
we're making fun of it.

We didn't wanna be
too good at it.

♪♪

-Huge leap in musicianship
from the first album.

It's night and day.

I had the first album,
and loved it.

It's kind of schlocky,
and it's kind of fun.

But when they put out
"Scum Dogs of the Universe,"

I was like, "Whoa.

These dudes had been
working on their chops."

-The fact that they were able
to play that well

while wearing
all that stuff

is something that really
doesn't get talked about a lot.

Because those guys
could shred.

They were phenomenal
musicians.

It takes a lot to be able
to play music like that,

not to mention being covered
in sticky blood.

-The thing that GWAR, musically,
has to fight against,

is how amazing it is
aesthetically.

And it...

"Gimmick" is not even close
to as strong enough word

to describe
what GWAR is.

GWAR is what they are.

It's beyond gimmick.

-I don't know why
a lot of people think that

having a sense of humor
does not go along with rocking.

I think the two
can co-exist peacefully.

But it doesn't work
if there's not skill

and talent
to back it up.

GWAR's got the talent, and
everything else is just icing.

-Everybody in GWAR
can fucking shred.

Maybe it's a joke
in the packaging,

but the musicianship
is very sincere.

♪♪

So, the ultimate joke
of GWAR is...

that they're good.

That's the joke.

-"Scum Dogs" is definitely
a huge step up.

And when I get the full record,
I'm like,

"Oh, my God,
this is amazing."

It's an epic piece of work
that they did.

-"Hell-o" would get
some traction,

but "Scum Dogs"
had broke GWAR.

During that tour,
of course,

all this stuff happens
where life imitates art.

The story is about
censorship,

which was a big hot button issue
at the time.

-Does the title of "Purple Rain"
give you an indication

that the material
is about masturbation?

-They mean the album title,
"Purple Rain"?

-And on the tour that
we're mocking,

and talking about GWAR
being censored,

GWAR gets censored,
gets arrested.

Dave gets arrested for
the Cuttlefish.

We played in Charlotte,
and we're doing a regular show,

and we have this priest
that comes up on stage,

and gets stuff
jammed up his butt.

-Priests were always known for
raping young choir boys,

so, in GWAR's show,
the priest gets raped.

So, there's this big fake
rubber butt,

we're shoving a crucifix up
Father Bohab's ass,

dicks in it,
swords in it.

It's like a fucking butt
bouquet potpourri

of fucking swords
hanging out of this thing.

-We didn't know it, but
the Charlotte Police were there,

and they didn't think
it was very funny.

-They were just like,
"You can't do that to a priest."

-And we're like, "It's not.
It's a big fake rubber butt."

-These cops come busting into
the dressing room.

There's Dave, halfway out of
the Oderus costume,

just standing there
with a big penis on.

And they're like,
"Alright, you're under arrest.

Where's the guy
in the priest outfit?"

And Bob was out of costume
already, and so he was like,

"Oh, we don't know
which one that was."

So they had no choice
but just to arrest Dave.

They confiscate the Cuttlefish
of Cthulhu, which is the huge...

between Oderus' legs.

It's really a fish.

It's not a dick.
It's a fish.

-And they took Dave's dick away
in a five-gallon bucket.

That's the only thing
they took,

was just the dick
in a five-gallon bucket.

-We never got the Cuttlefish
back, either.

It's still in evidence room
in Charlotte,

North Carolina,
somewhere.

-When I heard he got arrested,
I was like,

"Oh, what did he do?"

And they told him me
what he did.

I said,
"He didn't do anything?

He was just wearing his costume?
Really?"

-"Oderus Urungus will be
in court in Charlotte,

North Carolina, next week,
to face obscenity charges

filed after
a GWAR concert

in the heart of Jesse Homes
country last month."

-When Dave
went to trial,

the presiding judge
was Dick Boner.

That was the judge's name
in real fucking life.

-I was a big fan of Lenny Bruce,
and I thought

that was really cool
that we're getting charged

with the same stuff
that Lenny Bruce did.

That made me
pretty proud.

-We're here interviewing people
on the street about the GWAR

show that was just shut down
by the Athens Police.

How do you feel
about this?

-Well, there goes
the Constitution,

and everything else
it stands for.

-♪ All we are saying
is give GWAR a chance ♪

-If you enjoy the music
of Barry Manilow,

Liberace, or the Bee Gees,
then you're gonna hate GWAR.

-"Their name is GWAR."

-"GWAR, the band from hell."

-That band, GWAR,
has gotta be the raunchiest,

most rotten band.

They are the worst.

-Oderus...
-Yes?

-...your act has been described
as "obscene" and "disgusting."

What'd you say to that?
-Very accurate.

-Oh, this is one of
the best ones, okay?

I'm gonna read you this.

"To Grawl..."
-- G-R-A-W-L --

"...I am a highly concerned
Catholic Christian

who watched your video cassette,
Tour de Scum.

I've seen many horror shows
in my lifetime,

but nothing compared to what
I saw on Tour de Scum.

I..." -- all caps --
"...WANTED TO PUKE.

You creatures have the morality
of cannibalistic psychotics.

In conclusion,
you need to change

your attitudes
toward the human race.

Believe it or not,
there are some good people

on the planet, too.

God help all of you."

-So, the label
gave us $50,000,

which was typical,
for a music video.

And we said, "Well, instead
of just a music video,

why not just do
an entire music movie?"

-That's like more money
than we'd ever seen.

Do one song?

No. We're gonna do
a whole movie.

-We did months
of pre-production -- months.

And we hired a production team
from Canada.

-I was like, "Why don't you just
let me direct it?"

They're like, "No.
We don't want you to direct it.

Even though you have
a college degree in film-making,

we have to find
a professional director

that knows what
they're doing."

-All these dudes came
from Canada,

and they had found a director
they had worked with before,

and been happy with.

He was in Richmond
before we even started filming

for probably two
or three weeks.

-He's, like, got these leather
pants on, strutting around,

like, "Hey, you've gotta give me
a double bed with all the chicks

I'm gonna get
while I'm in Richmond."

-And then, the very first night
of production,

he has a fucking
nervous breakdown.

-Oh, yeah,
Ray lost his mind.

He quit.
He flew home.

[Chuckles]

You don't wanna tell Dave
what to do,

and you don't wanna tell Hunter
what to do.

That's, like, the worst
situation you could be put in.

-We're just like, "Dude, you
gotta get the fuck out here."

Because it was like,
"We're doing this."

Then, we're left to pick up
the pieces.

It was fucking
ridiculous.

So, everybody's, like,
directing, and performing,

and then fabricating sets.

And so, you're, like,
getting no sleep.

I'm painting a set,
then I'm doing a scene,

and then I'm coming back
and doing another thing.

-I was playing a role.
I was painting the sets.

I was building props.

Even still during the making
of that movie

I was waiting tables
to pay my rent.

They'd call me up,
"We need somebody's mom!

We need a grandma!"

So, I'd be like, "Hey,
you wanna be in our movie?"

[Laughs]
While I was waiting tables.

it was like that.

-Everybody would
pitch in.

It was like how Hunter
called the slave pit

the "slave pit" because
everybody came in and worked.

You had girlfriends,
and wives, and kids,

and everybody just piling in
to make the show happen.

-And it was a big chaotic mess,
like everything we do.

And it turned out
pretty silly and awesome

in its own weird way.

-Do you really know GWAR?

-I'm their fucking
manager.

-I'd really like
to meet them.

-And you know what?

The thing fucking still
got nominated for a Grammy.

♪♪

Yeah, "Phallus in Wonderland"
gets nominated for a Grammy,

and we're just all thinking,
"Man, somebody really fucked up.

Somebody's losing
their job."

-Till this day, we don't
understand how the Grammys work,

because it's like Annie Lennox,
and MC Hammer, and GWAR?

-I remember, Hunter came in,
and was sort of...

He was really matter-of-fact
about it.

It wasn't like, "Man,
we got nominated for a Grammy!"

It was just like, "We got
nominated for a Grammy.

Ehh, just a Grammy."

[Laughs]

-We are gathered here
in this great Hall of Justice

to prove that this alleged fish
is actually a penis.

♪♪

♪♪

The president of that
organization was not amused.

He did not like us
at all.

We had to take the picture,
and we were like,

"You know what, man, that's just
who we are in character."

And he's like,
"Yeah, whatever."

The dude was angry.

♪♪

-We were invited out to LA,
to go to the awards ceremony,

but we were specifically told,
"Do not bring the costumes."

Like, "Oh yeah, yeah,
sure, sure."

-Black was the color of choice
for most, but not all.

The loudest fashion statement
was from a band called GWAR.

-We're in costume,
so, of course,

I immediately go up,
and harass Chaka Khan.

I'm just like,
"Chaka Khan."

I was like, "You Earth girls
are making me hot."

And immediately,
her guy there was just like,

"Out of the way, kid."

-So, we lasted about 15 minutes
in the lobby of the Grammys,

and we, like, spilled a drink
on Leader Ford,

and then
we got kicked out.

We went back,
and put our tuxes back on,

sat quietly
in the audience.

And it was pretty boring
the rest of the time,

except for the parties
afterwards.

Those were fun.

-We went to a Warner Bros.
party after.

I did meet Madonna
that night.

I hung out with
the Chilli Peppers that night.

And I got to hold a banana
up to my crotch,

and George Clinton ate it,
at the party.

[Laughs]

That was
a crowning moment.

It was nuts.

And GWAR had no business
being there.

-♪ Divided by the attention,
not to mention the affection ♪

-No matter how you
gussied GWAR up,

and no matter what award
you give it,

it's always gonna be
exactly what it is,

which is this warty little
D&D-playing, snort-nosed kid.

that is...

[Chuckles]
Like, that's what GWAR is, man.

It's just geeky.

and it's wonderful
in that way.

But we didn't fit in
at the Grammys.

-♪ Oh, can't you hear
me calling? ♪

♪ Just like
a sad whale song ♪

♪ I'm on
that road behind ♪

♪♪

-I am Flattus Maximus.

I play guitar.

-Dewey was just moving into
a different point in his life.

He had his own
construction business,

and he was just like,

"I'm not gonna be
a rock 'n roll guy anymore."

How I remember it is, Pete just
showed up at The Slave Pit,

drove a solid 20 some hours
from Texas

with a huge bag of weed,
and was just like,

"I'm gonna be you guys'
new guitar player."

-Okay, I'll tell you
about Flattus.

That's who I was supposed to be
when I joined the band.

So, I'm like, "Alright, I'm
one of them now, I'm a monster."

So, I'm after a show,
and I'm looking in the mirror,

and I go, "You look like
a fucking dipshit, man.

I was like, "Wayne, I need
a mask, or something,

'cause my face
is not intimidating at all."

They made me a new costume
with Rydal shoulder pads.

And they fit good,
so I can fuckin'...

-Pete is an assassin.

He is such a good
guitar player.

[ Guitar solo ]

Fucking amazing.

♪♪

-We seemed to not be able
to get on MTV at all.

Where do we put
these GWAR videos?

"Headbangers Ball,"
120 minutes, I don't know.

This doesn't this make
any sense.

It doesn't fit.

-Mike Judge, apparently,
really liked us.

And he was like,

"Okay, my characters,
they're these people.

What would their favorite
band be?"

"Oh, it would be GWAR,"

Of course,
Beavis and Butt-Head's

favorite band
would be GWAR.

-"Beavis and Butt-Head"
was such an important show.

And because of the autonomy
that Mike Judge had

in programming that show,
he was able to go over the heads

of the people of the Music
Programming Department...

...and expose them to places
in the country

where there weren't even
that many radio stations.

-You have to watch TV for, like,
hour and hours and hours

before you see this video,
but, like, when you do,

then, it's all worth it.
-Yeah.

-We were playing
these little punk rock clubs,

now we're playing
this ginormous place,

'cause "Beavis and Butt-Head
loves GWAR,

so we gotta go
check 'em out."

And everybody was like,
"What is that shit?"

I gotta go see it."

So, our tours
were packed out.

You know,
we were on our way.

-There's too much cool stuff
to keep track of.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-The "Beavis and Butt-Head"
thing turned into

the SAGA Genesis Game,
which was a really big deal.

-The point of the whole game
was to go to a GWAR concert.

I just thought that was
the coolest thing,

when I was a kid.

-I wrote one of them riffs
on that song,

and it ended up
on the game.

They put it on,
it was like...

[Vocalizes]

"Hey, that's badass.

Why did I come here?"

-It seemed like there was
another thing every other week.

Now, we're gonna do
"Jerry Springer."

-There always is black humor
in times of change,

in times of revolution.

It's been
all throughout history,

and all throughout
literature.

-Okay. Hold on.
-Will you welcome...

GWAR!

-We can blow one of our songs,
and rose to 300 feet in the air.

-And hang on the Empire
State Building.

-You probably have already done
that on Sally Jesse, but...

[Laughter]

-We did a skit in our show
"The Idiot Box"

where you sacrifice
your daughter to GWAR,

and they come to your house,
and then take your daughter,

and she ends up in the show,

and gets fed through
a giant meat grinder.

The whole thing is
super violent.

And there would be people
in the audience

who were kind of
freaked out.

And even Heather
was freaked out.

-Well, she got put into
a meat grinder.

-I know,
but it wasn't real.

We weren't really
gonna grind her.

-You never know.
-Yeah.

-Remember the name for
your games -- Circuit City.

-We were in a movie called
"Mystery Date."

In the script it was written,
"there's a bar band playing."

But they say,
"Oh, let's get GWAR for that."

And so, it made for
a much better scene,

'cause he goes, into
this punk rock show,

and there's blood
flying everywhere.

And the girl goes,
"Oh, I love this."

-"Empire Records,"
another one.

When we did it,
the audience had no idea

what was going on.

I mean, but that's to be
expected at a GWAR show.

Weird shit happens.

-I was not the first person
that crawled

through that cavity
that week,

so it wasn't
this sterile environment.

I do remember that.

-Brockie had some lines,
He was gonna do them,

but we're at the show.

so, as Oderus, he probably said
a few curse words,

so they dubbed some other
voice actor's voice onto it.

-"You love GWAR.
Why don't you join the band?"

-And they put a big
blurry thing,

'cause he had the Cuttlefish on,
'cause it was our live show.

-When they shot it,
it was the full dick,

which, I remember, he used,
like, masturbate it.

But on the movie, they, like,
did this prism digitization.

But it's a cuttlefish,
it's not a dick.

Do they really look that much
like dicks, cuttlefishes?

-That's how they try to
get away with it.

-That's how they get away
with it.

-So smart.
Because indecency laws.

-To see it turn into such
a cult classic, it was awesome.

-The movie is not
about GWAR,

but that was a gateway
for a ton of people

to find out about,
like, us,

and start buying our albums,
and coming to see us.

So, all those things
sort of add up

to this sort of infamous sort of
notoriety we have --

not famous,
but infamous.

My dad saw
"The Joan Rivers" show.

-What did he say?
-"Weird. Weird."

-That was GWAR.
That was GWAR.

And...

they were a little too strong
for our airways, here.

-We got off the ground
being a rock n' roll band,

but we never were
a rock n' roll band.

We were
an art collective.

-Hunter, Don,
a lot of the guys,

a lot of the artists,
were like,

"We wanna make movies.
Wanna make full-on movies."

Don came -- We were riding bikes
through Richmond,

and he's like --

"So, we were talking
about this character,

and I think his name is gonna be
Skulhedface."

We're riding bikes,
and I'm like,

"What the fuck
are you talking about?

I don't understand."

It was typical
GWAR fashion.

There's the cart, and the horse
was somewhere back here.

-We had learned a lot
when we worked on

"Phallus in Wonderland."

We took that knowledge
into working on "Skulhedface."

and we kind of did it
without the Hollywood

people there this time.

-We decided to do something
even more ambitious.

We had twice the budget.

And so, "Skulhedface"

was this really huge production,
by our standards.

-The production level
shot way up.

Every inch of The Slave Pit
was a set.

We made a full animatronic
Skulhedface.

Everybody's ideas
thrown in.

-That's what I love
about GWAR.

The most insane idea,
"Okay, let's do it."

And then, we do it --

and spend a ton of money
and time doing it.

♪♪

♪♪

Really a lot of people's hearts,
and, like, months.

I mean, I lived in my outfit
for weeks in that summer.

We wanted to have
all our commercials,

so we could have the
really fun side projects.

♪♪

-Stuffed dolls, pajamas,
video tapes, lunch boxes,

vitamins, towels, bedspreads,
and coloring books.

-Blow me, fat boy.

-Yeah, let's do that.

Let's film
a 35-millimeter thing

about Alien
Butt Head Queens

who produce juice
out of their foreheads

that powers the world.

And a corporation
wants to buy it,

and suck all
the coolness out.

I mean,
it's just ridiculous.

It's so insane.

I think it's, like,
our high water mark

because it's so weird,
and hard to digest.

That's why I like it
so much.

-That was fun.

Let's eat.

-Unfortunately,
there was that thing.

"Who's the director?

Is it Melanie, or is it Hunter,
or is it Dave?"

I'm still proud of it,
but if you watch that movie,

and you can explain
the plot to me, uh, cool.

[Laughs]

-We filmed "Skulhedface"
in 35 millimeter

with the intention of it
having a theatrical,

midnight movie
cult release.

None of that happened.

After, we were like,
"Oh, we're going up."

Grammy nomination for this one
that we sort of threw together,

Now, we're putting
all this effort into it."

And then, it's just, like,
forgotten, cut-out bin.

I know I saw it physically
with Chuck and Don.

The sudden disappointment
really soured them.

We were like,
"Okay, we got a Grammy

for this last movie.

'Skulhedface,' we're gonna start
making movies, and comics,

and we're gonna be
a punk rock Disney."

But it's also where it...

it all fell apart,
to a degree.

-We were mixing...

"Toilet Earth."

♪♪

-We were mixing the album,

and we had to drive back
to Richmond for a photo shoot.

-We were in
a station wagon,

and Pete was sitting
in the back.

We had to take a piss,
so we pulled off.

And right as we did,
this car next to us turned,

very deliberately,
in front of us, right?

So, we clipped, like,
just barely hit, his back end.

-Right away, I'm like,
"Drive off. Drive off.

They're gonna rob us."
It was so obvious.

-Guys in the car that hit us
immediately hop out,

and pull out a gun.
"Oh shit!"

So, he floors it,
and we just take off.

And they start
shooting at us.

-It was like an automatic --
semi-automatic handgun.

It was like...
[Imitates rapidfire]

-One, two, three,
four, five.

And poof, came through,
hit me in the chest.

Everything went
slow motion.

I'm like,
"Wow, I have been shot.

I never thought
I'd be shot.

Wow. I've been shot."

-He goes,
"I'm shot. I'm shot."

-Straus puts his hand
on Pete's chest,

and he pulls it back, and you
could see his hand was all red.

And he starts
freaking out.

And when he did,
he kicked the driver.

So, the driver of the car
goes into the median strip,

and flattens two tires.

-Blows out the tire

probably about
five blocks away

from where the guy
has just shot at us.

-We open the back of
the station wagon.

Pete is laying on that,
and he's sucking wind,

because his lung
is punctured.

So, he's going like...
[imitates heavy breathing]

Right?

And we're watching him die.
That's what we think.

-I jump into the back with Pete,
and, like, the tail gate's open,

and he's just sitting in
the back of the station wagon.

And here comes this car,
flying around the corner,

hauling ass up to us.

Everyone just bolts
into the ghetto.

But Derks stayed there
with me.

-All these guys with guns
jump out of the car,

fucking pointing them
at me and Pete.

-And they put guns in the air
and they go, "Freeze."

-"Freeze."

-I immediately soiled my pants,
'cause I had to pee.

Remember, I had to pee.

I was holding it
after they shot me.

That's pretty good.

They shoot me,
and I'm still holding it.

It seemed like an hour went by,
and he finally goes,

"Gang patrol."

I'm like,
"Damn. Thank God."

'Cause I thought
he was gonna shoot me

right in the
fucking face.

-And they were just like these
plain clothes gangster cops.

I guess they infiltrated gangs,
and stuff.

But they looked like
fucking gangsters.

-I didn't experience them
as police.

Like, they got out,
and I just started running.

And they pull us all back.
And Derks is still there.

Derks never ran.

He stayed there with Pete,
thinking that he was gonna die.

He just stayed there.

That's the kind of guy
he is.

-Yeah, he's not very smart,
is he?

[Laughs]

No, I love Derks
to death, man.

We have a bond, man.

'cause I would've been running
like a motherfucker.

[Laughs] I'm kidding.

I relayed all the information
to the cop.

And he's looking at Derks
and he's like,

"I'm worried about that guy.
He looks like he's in shock."

-Yeah. I kind of...

blanked out
after that.

I don't remember getting to
the hospital.

-We were on the way to do
a photo shoot,

and I didn't make it,

and they still had to do
the shoot.

-What I remember
about this,

we've already rented
the cameras,

we've already got
the lights.

It's all set up.
We have to film this tomorrow.

We're coming to get you
in this van, me and Derks.

And Derks,
at this point,

like, I am more worried
about him than I am Pete,

because he's rattled, man.

Like, he's not talking
at all.

And his eyes
don't look right.

And...

they put us in the back
of this van.

Like, they come up to get us
in a van

that doesn't have seats
in it.

it was just a back, right?

And so, every time the van --
it would bounce,

we would scream out,
'cause we were so raw.

And I resented that more than
I can describe to you right now.

That slave attitude
that I talked about earlier,

the dark side of that
is that the individual

didn't matter at all.

Not at all.

That's what it felt like
to me.

I felt traumatized by that.

And I didn't understand
why or how

they could let it
get to that point.

And so,
that's really why I left.

-So, Pete had to have a big
section of his colon taken out.

Lived with a colostomy bag
for years,

and still having health issues
related to it.

-Watcha gonna do?

Welcome to America.

But...

don't ride in a hatchback
if you're gonna get shot at.

[Laughs]

-But as soon as he could,
he was back on stage,

rocking out
with a colostomy bag.

♪♪

-Did you have
a cesarian?

-Oh, that's where
the ringworm went in.

Right there.
Big -- Big ringworm.

Texas ringworm.

♪♪

-Yeah, when GWAR was looking for
a bass player,

I knew the perfect guy for GWAR,
and it was Casey.

-Of course, Casey,
coming from Rigor Mortis,

that's, like,
legitimate metal player.

-I was 100% on board.

And then, he told me

I'd have to pay for my own
flight up to Richmond.

And I was broke
as a joke.

So, I said "I can't."

-I was like "Really?"

-Luckily, he called me
the next day,

and said he had
talked them into it,

and they were gonna pay for
my flight up there.

That was it.

I just had to learn some songs,
and I had them.

It doesn't take much.

You can put on a hat
and feel like a cowboy.

Put on
a Beefcake costume,

and I turned into that version
of Beefcake.

Man, it was like joining a
fraternity, joining a family.

You know,
it really was.

Beefcake The Mighty,
number 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

-We were on
"Metal Blade."

And metal blade was getting
picked up by Warner Bros.

-Which would be huge
for GWAR, right?

Like, the next step.

We would get into
more record stores,

we'd have a bigger push,
marketing-wise,

behind the record,
all of this stuff.

-At that time, Warner had just
been bought by Time Inc,

which is this huge
multinational corporation.

So, of course, the first record
we put out is a GWAR record

with a song called "BDF" --
"Baby Dick Fuck" on it.

-They were like, "Yeah,
we're not putting that out."

-It was so filthy that, I mean
I thought I'd heard it all.

But Brockie, wordsmith that
he is, managed to find a way.

-"If you get rid of
that song,

we'll take you to
the next level."

So, like, from here to here,
I guess.

and it meant
more money.

We had a meeting about it.

A bunch of artists and musicians
trying to come to one decision.

I was like, "I'm staying out
of this shit.

I'm the new guy.

It's like...[Babbles]

-Brockie made a speech

that would have made
Mark Anthony blush,

saying that we'll never
fall back on our art.

And so, Warner Bros.
dropped us.

So, we found out
the hard way

that we really cannot
get away with everything.

-"Metal Blade" backed us on it,
so they kind of missed out

on getting their major
Warner Bros. distribution

because of us.

-I'm a stern believer in
you sign an artist,

and they have a vision,

and they have what they
wanna say and do,

and they should do that.

I'm the last person to censor
what they should do or say.

To that fact, I mean,
we gave up a record deal

with Warner Bros. records

just because we couldn't put out
a GWAR record.

-We shipped 70,000 albums.
70,000 albums.

We charted at 168,
and we were so ecstatic.

And then, all of a sudden,
40,000 records get shipped back.

-They had some pretty poppy
songs that could have been,

not radio hits, but could have
been, you know, something.

But Dave would always put in
crazy lyrics in there

that would prohibit them

from getting ever played
on the radio.

-♪ Fish fuck, baby

♪ I'm gonna fuck you
with a fish ♪

I remember, one day,
I was talking to Dave,

and he's like, "Yeah, maybe
I shouldn't have messed that up.

Maybe we should have written
a pop song.

Maybe I should have not
put in five 'fucks,'

and whatever else
was in there."

"Well, there you go.

You probably should have
done that."

-The thing is, we never really
had the chance to sell out.

We never had,
"If you just do this,

you'll get this pot
of gold."

Because if that happened, you
know what, we probably would.

[Laughs]

As long as it's
a decent-sized pot of gold.

♪♪

-How many people out there have
heard of Slave Pit Incorporated?

Slave Pit is sponsoring
a special section

of the T-shirt tonight,
featuring --

featuring cool comics

written and drawn
by the guys in GWAR.

My goals were very different
from Dave Brockie's goals.

I wanted to publish comic books
and make movies.

Dave wanted to be
a super rock star.

Dave wanted to make movies
and comics, as well,

but he just wanted it
to be about him.

And that was where
our divergence and clashes

all eliminated,
basically.

-There was always tension

between all the
hierarchy people.

It was a little bit
destructive,

because there wasn't cohesion
with those people,

because everybody was vying for
their own position,

trying to fight to have
their spot in the band.

And the gladiatorial
competition

to have the stronger idea
survive,

I mean, Hunter and Dave
having to constantly battle

with each other,
and have this tension.

-To me, being in GWAR
was like being on

the world's greatest
basketball team,

but you never make it
to the playoffs

because your own teammates
are always stealing the ball

just as you're
about to score.

And I felt like I had to dance
with the devil

in order to get
a lot of things accomplished.

-Me and Hunter had static
multiple times from things,

where I thought
I'm helping Hunter,

and then he took it as
a slight towards him.

You know, instead of it looking
like master and apprentice,

he looked at it
as competition.

-Hunter is sort of
a genius.

Like, I'm a big fan of his art
and his concepts.

But he doesn't play well
with others, you know?

He thinks that, if anyone takes
one of his ideas,

and changes it --

which is the nature
of collaboration --

that it's someone
doing something to you.

-Listen to the songs
that Hunter Jackson sings.

Listen to what he's saying
in those songs.

They're all like,
"You fucked up.

You ruined everything.

You took this away
from me."

It's like, all of that stuff
was there on stage.

-♪ How dare you try to make
a slave of me ♪

-And everybody knew it.
Hunter knew it, you know?

So, it was always
like...

real, but also at the distance
that art allowed.

-♪ Won't you die

-Me and Bobby, you know,
we were slaves.

That's how we were identified
for the longest time.

It was like, "Oh, isn't it nice
that they let you

come out on tour with them,
and blah, blah, blah, blah."

We were the guys
that were sort of,

"Look, oh, don't listen to
that punk kid.

He doesn't know what
he's talking about."

And at a certain point,
I didn't.

But you're giving up
so much of your life,

and you're struggling
so hard

to be part of this thing
that's so great,

and you're just slaves.

-Don't get so close
to the camera.

Do that over again.

Don't get so close
to the camera.

-I was looking at a lot of these
older guys for tutelage

in what was happening.

Come to find later on,
they didn't know

what the hell they were doing,
either.

♪♪

-GWAR was at this stage

where we just did
whatever we wanted.

So, if we wanted to play stuff
that wasn't thrash or punk,

or stuff that wasn't metal,
we did it.

-♪ Now they know that
they can't control us ♪

♪ I'm Sleazy, and I think
you outta know this ♪

♪ Everybody rip
everybody else off ♪

♪ Everybody rip,
rip everybody off ♪

-It's not like today,
where the fans could tell you

immediately what they think
of it.

We were just sort of like,
"Well, we're GWAR.

We're gonna write
whatever kind of music we want.

And we did it.

- Come on, ladies,
sing it with me.

♪ Don't need a lover

♪ Don't need a man

-We thought the band should be
much larger than they were.

-Grammy nominations, they're
doing huge headline tours,

they're doing all this
amazing art,

but we didn't have
the sales

that we all felt that
the band should have.

-Long-form video had been
a big form of income for us,

because we would get, like,
$100,000 budgets,

and that would pay
people's salaries,

and pay for us to come up with
a new plan, and new idea.

And all that money
was sort of drying up.

And we were touring a lot,
and touring, and touring,

and touring, and touring
and it was just relentless.

-[Indistinct]

Mr. Nicholson is suggesting
the three of you

could be joined by a friend
of yours for an additional $100.

-I fucking did a lot of partying
on the road.

I toured a long time
with being shot, you know?

I mean,
I toured with a colostomy bag.

That's not
the healthiest lifestyle

if you're not good friends
with will power.

And I wasn't.

-As I remember it, a point came
where we just all felt like,

if he doesn't go home,
and take care of himself,

he's going to die.

He's going to die.

-He was in a bad place,
anyway,

so, I think,
when GWAR approached him

to sit out the tour cycle,
and get healthy,

and come back, he heard,
"Get out, and fuck off."

-I definitely
needed a break.

And they gave me one
by firing me.

[Laughs]

♪♪

-I called my brother,
and he's like,

"Dude, Dave Brockie
left a message?"

He was like,
"It's Oderus Urungus from GWAR."

He goes, "It sounds like
fucking Oderus

is yelling at me
on my answering machine."

-I want my fucking
cuttlefish back!

-And so, then, I'm getting
an audition with GWAR.

Cut to just
a few weeks later,

and I'm walking out,
in this Flattus Maximus costume,

with shoulder pads
and the dumb flipper feet.

Yeah.

And looking in the mirror
at myself, like,

"What the fuck
am I doing?"

♪♪

And so, it felt like
a superhero.

It felt awesome.

♪♪

-Who said that we kill
everything?

-Which just happens to be
the name of GWAR's new album.

[Indistinct talking]

♪♪

-I was always,
as a fan of music,

gotten kind of critical of bands
that I like

when they get
kind of silly.

And then, I'm the one singing
as a giant talking toilet

on that one album.

[Indistinct]

We got to an HR Pufnstuf stage,
where our bodyguard

has a big penis with big
ball sack, Popeye chin,

And it got
really silly,

and not metal,
and I understand

why albums
weren't selling as well,

and "Metal Blade"
wasn't as interested in us.

-The show wasn't working.
It was confusing.

People were like,
"What in the fuck is happening?"

The thing about it is,

Brockie is also
the most gregarious,

hysterical human being
I ever met in my life.

I remember, we played Europe,
and I walked into the airport,

and Dave has a leather jacket,
leather pants, motorcycle boots,

and wraparound,
like, Oakley sunglasses,

and he's the Terminator.

And I just go up to him,
and I'm like, "Terminator."

And he's just standing
in the middle of the airport.

I go, "Dave, what
are you doing?"

He goes,
"There is no Dave."

And so, he's actually
impersonating the Terminator.

Ad I'm like, "Kickass."

'Cause with Dave,
you never knew

how long you were in
on this ride.

Turns out, a few months.

He didn't break
character.

He was the Terminator
for the entire tour.

And at one point,
we were walking in the streets

in New Orleans, broad daylight,
and we could hear him --

somebody running behind us,
and it was Brockie,

totally Donald Ducking,
but Terminator-style,

so, he had a leather jacket with
no pants and combat boots --

or his, like,
motorcycle boots.

And he was just
jacking off,

running down the street,
with sunglasses on.

Yeah.

-[Laughs]

I mean,
You don't forget that.

-My vision of him as a friend
was this guy

who always had
a great story to tell

in the most ridiculous way
possible.

He always had a way
of making you feel special,

and making you
feel involved,

but he was also, like,
hard to handle.

Like, you had to be in a wild
mood to even keep up with Dave.

-We had this super fan who would
send us bottles of liquid acid.

And they'd be in the freezer
at the Slave Pit.

I'm up there working on
something with Don,

and Dave comes in with a bunch
of people he's collected.

They're gonna go on
an adventure.

And Dave pulls the bottle of
liquid acid out of the freezer,

and he squirts so much
into his eyeball.

I couldn't believe it.

Just like...

And then, he was gone
for three days.

And I heard stuff like all
over town, like, "Oh, we were --

I think we were running up
the center of 64 median naked."

And then, like, you know,
he comes in to work Monday,

and it's like
nothing happened.

And he's just like [hums]

"I was tripping my balls off
for three days.

I don't remember,
really, what happened."

It's like,
all these epic journeys

to the center
of the mind.

So, yeah, I mean, that's where
he drew his creative well,

but sometimes, it's really
rough to work with someone,

or trying to rein
that kind of personality in.

-Once he got on
one of these binges,

the lack of sleep would make him
get a little unhinged,

a little unbalanced,

and he was trying to convince
people to join his movement.

-Sometimes, he'd just get
pretty divorced from reality,

and it would be
a little scary.

Like, the Hale-Bopp thing
was happening,

and Heaven's Gate
was all happening.

-Your only chance to evacuate
is to leave with us.

-The rest of us,
we're just making some art.

This is a lot of, like, input to
come up with these weird ideas.

Dave sort of started
getting into believing it,

and talking about
how Slave Pit

was going to become
their own renegade compound,

and go up against the
government, and stuff.

And it would be like,

"Oh, okay, like,
where -- where --

are you in character, now,
talking about this?"

-♪ Summoning the master

♪ Call forth his form
most vile ♪

-Dave never thought
he was taking it far enough,

or being true enough,

so he would, like,
really push the boundaries.

And it would be sometimes
where he was just out there.

-There were plenty of times
when I saw Dave perform,

and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, Dave is gone.

Whatever demon or monster
drives him

is fully in control now,

and Dave Brockie
is only a passenger

watching from
the back seat."

-There's not many people
that come along in your life

that are as big
as Dave Brockie --

this, just,
hyper- artistic guy

with a bazillion ideas
in his head,

going at all times, very well
read, very intelligent,

but at the same time,
he had that sense of danger.

Like, you know
he's gonna break that thing.

He's not gonna be able
to help himself,

By the end of
this interview,

he's gonna break
that fucking vase.

-When you do an interview,
say, with Dave Brockie,

you are getting
bowled over.

You could be sitting there
in a monster costume,

you're not gonna say a fucking
word, because why would you?

Whatever you say
is gonna pale in comparison

to the amazing things that
are coming out of his mouth,

like dictation
from a higher being.

-It worries me
that somebody, somewhere,

is gonna watch you guys,
and say,

"Okay, that's what we do."

-Well, let them join the army,
or something.

There's plenty
of outlets for that.

He was one of
the all-time greats --

the all-time greats,
there's no doubt about it.

There's never gonna be anyone
like that guy.

-Dave was really talented, but
he was not a generous performer.

It wasn't about making room for
other people to do what they do.

Like, they gave us the questions
for that show.

So, we get them from
Joan's producers.

Before we go, we're sitting
there talking about

what we're gonna do,

and thinking of the ways
we're gonna answer,

and who's gonna
say what, right?

But then, we get there,
and Dave starts saying it all --

like, all the stuff
we had planned to say.

-I don't watch --
I don't watch much television.

-Of course we do.
-Except for your show.

We watch your show
24 hours a day.

-All the time.
All the time.

-And Dave, like, it never
crossed his mind that

that was something that
he wouldn't do.

-Same thing
with Sexecutioner.

Chuck would make these
cool things

for the Sexecutioner
to do,

and then,
by the end of the show,

Oderus would be
doing them.

There wasn't room enough
for the Sexecutioner

and Dave Brockie's ego
on the stage at the same time.

-I loved it.
[Indistinct] my baby.

It's the one thing that I did
that people liked.

But it just wasn't
fun anymore.

I think everybody was shocked
when I just said,

"No. I've had enough.
I'm gonna go."

-I think Dave was at the point
where he didn't want

all these extra characters
stealing stage time from him,

or up-staging him with
their girly butt, or whatever.

In my artistic journey,
I had to keep going.

And I was doing
the Miss Electra thing.

And it was a little, maybe,
too dangerous

or the band was
afraid of it.

And then, at that point,
I was like,

"If I can't shoot lightning
on stage with GWAR,

then, I'm outta here."

[Laughs]

-We had a lot of
cool shit planned,

but Dave and I were just
working against each other

just too much.

It was fucked up.

-We'd just finished filming
"It's Sleazy."

We were gonna
do it all ourselves,

and Hunter was the director
this time.

-I was finally given the
directorship of the project,

but the catch is,
Dave is the producer.

What happens is, Dave hires all
of his half-ass junkie friends

to be the crew,
and half of them don't show up.

And the ones that do show up
make outrageous,

crazy mistakes
that fucked us.

-We'd just got
all the footage filmed,

and next thing I heard is like,
"Yeah, Hunter left."

"Wait, he's gonna do
the movie, though, right?"

And they're like,
"No. He's just gone."

-Here I am, supposedly one
of his best friends,

and he gives me a week's
notice that he's leaving.

He doesn't tell anybody
in the band.

He just says,
"Hey, by the way, I'm moving.

I'm taking off."

-I was just like, "You know,
Dave is just so out there.

I don't want to be a part
of it."

As much as I
loved GWAR --

I did GWAR
until I was 40 years old,

and I poured everything
I had into it --

I just didn't see the story
having a happy ending.

-So, it ended up being
me and Dave,

sitting there,
editing this movie.

And I'd never edited film,
or anything like that.

So, I had to learn
how to edit film,

and do an entire feature length
thing in a couple weeks.

-So, I had this separate
bank account

that I was being really
super guarded of,

because I knew that,
in the future,

I was going to wanna print comic
books, which cost, what, $5,000?

what would happen if I went to
the musicians, and go,

"Hey, dude, I need $5,000
so I can print this comic book."

What do you think
they're gonna do?

They're gonna
fucking laugh.

-He had moved away.

You know, he'd moved
away to Philly, and had...

There was this
discrepancy of,

"What are you doing
with that money?

There's that money
sitting there.

What do we want to do
with this money?"

-I'm on the tour bus,
and, all of a sudden,

all this screaming
and conflagration breaks out.

And Dave has
grabbed Hunter.

He's trying to drag him,
pull him out onto the bunk.

I had to get in between the two,
and separate them.

Dave was holding a flyer
that was advertising,

"Slave Pit merchandise."

And on it, the address was
Hunter's Philadelphia address.

Hunter was running his own
GWAR merchandise department,

and not informing us,
or sharing any of the profits.

Dave basically considered that
the ultimate backstab.

-And they go,
"Hey, all that money

that you've made
selling comic books

in the parking lot
while we were partying,

we decided that it all
belongs to us."

And that was how I got
kicked out of GWAR.

-That's when he thinks that
he was kicked out of the band.

And as far as
I'm concerned --

and this is how I viewed
that meeting --

he was never
kicked out of the band, ever.

But I don't think he was
interested, at that point.

I think he thought,
with Dave around,

there was too much
opposition,

and he didn't want to
deal with Dave anymore.

I know that was one of
the major sticking points.

He didn't wanna
deal with Dave.

Years after that, he would just
show up at my house.

And I'd let him come,
and take whatever he wanted.

He took off with tons of
our artwork,

and things that we've never
gotten back, you know?

But I was like
open-door policy --

"Come on in.
Take what you need.

you're one of the main
creators of this.

I'm your friend.
Take what you need."

But still, to this day, I don't
think he sees it that way.

-Toward the end, I was just
so tired of fighting everybody

to try to get
anything done.

People that I don't
even respect

voting on what projects I do
and don't get to work on.

And mostly, they're -- a lot
of times, they're motivated by

just wanting to thwart
my efforts,

and bring Hunter
down a peg.

There was just too much of that
kind of stupid stuff going on.

It was counterproductive.

And I feel totally free,

and have no desire to go back to
struggling with those assholes.

-Yeah, it's a...

it's a tough one,
with Hunter.

I mean, for a long time, man,
like, when I first got there,

he was my teacher,
he was my friend.

And I know that, like,
the master and apprentice

kind of relationship
goes into this thing

where everybody's cool

because you're learning
from the guy,

and then, you go on,

and the idea is to surpass
the master.

The apprentice
becomes the master.

And I don't think Hunter
ever understood that part of it.

He resented it
more than...

And he kind of let it
destroy our friendship.

And it was unfortunate,

because we had a pretty fucking
amazing friendship.

And I miss it.
You know, I miss him.

And, you know, it's...

it's an unfortunate mess
of this, you know?

♪♪

Yeah. Sorry.

-I don't know, man.

I sort of like being 3,000 miles
away from them.

I'm glad to be 3,000 miles away
from Richmond,

Virginia,
right now.

-He was just gone.

And people just kind of
lost faith in it, I think.

And they just needed to live
their own lives.

People had to move on.

We'd been doing it
for well over a decade,

and people were growing up,
and getting older,

and everyone
kind of realized,

"Okay, GWAR is never
gonna be huge.

And I'm not ever gonna get rich
doing this band.

And how much of my life
am I gonna dedicate to it?

And am I gonna end up
50 years old..."

[Laughs]
"...and this is all I have?"

-Don was pretty much gone.

He was still around, but just
coming in when he needed to be,

and then,
just doing his own thing.

Danielle had moved to LA.

Chuck was in New York.

-Casey and I
went to Dallas.

Bobby and Matt
moved to New York.

We were just
on a hiatus.

-You know, It was really, like,
Dave, Derks, and Brad.

Like, that was it.

-Also, we lost our old Slave Pit
on Chamberlain.

This guy had bought
the building,

and was gonna turn into
a used-car place.

That was kind of
the last straw,

whenever we put everything
into storage.

-I loved GWAR.

It had been a good part
of my life up to that point.

But I figured,
you know, like...

it's not really
sustainable.

[Indistinct talking]

[Indistinct talking]

-When it came time to do
the next record,

there was all these just
wacky ideas rolling around.

And it was like,
"Aren't we metal?

Aren't we supposed to be
in that world?

'Cause that's who
we're playing with,

and that's who
we're touring with."

So, me and Zach were just kind
of not really into the idea,

and kind of decided,
"Well, man, maybe --

you know,
maybe we should step down."

-But I'm this young,
idealistic little shit.

And I sold them
on the idea.

I was like --
me and Casey did.

It was "Dude, let's just make
a metal record

that's about death, and war,
and blood, and guts."

-We didn't, like,
set out,

"Okay, every song
has to be heavy."

The mindset
sort of changed.

-I was talking to Dave
fairly often.

It wasn't like I was estranged,
or mad at him.

I was just like, "I've just
gotta do my own thing."

And so, when he played me some
of the stuff, I was like --

He's like, "Are you
gonna be involved,

if we do a tour,
and build stuff?"

And I was just like, "God, man.
Yeah. Like, this is awesome.

This is what
I want to hear.

Yeah. Play some metal."

♪♪

-♪ Centuries of carnage

♪ Centuries of chaos
yet unfolded ♪

-In that timeframe,
in that hiatus,

that was the most money
I've ever made in my adult life,

because I was doing movies,
and I was doing commercials.

I was actually doing
production stuff,

and getting paid
the right amount to do it.

I got a call from Dave,
and he was like,

"Well, we're getting the band
back together."

-When you had people like
Hunter, and Chuck, and Don

moving on,
we were so lucky

that we had Bobby and Matt
that had sort of come in

apprenticing,
and things like that.

They were so ready and willing
to take the baton,

and not miss a beat,

and still put on these dynamic,
amazing shows,

which is building Rome
in a day, you know, every day.

-And those guys were like,
"We got it."

And they fucking did.

-In some other band, they would
just be like, roadies.

But these guys,
they are GWAR.

They made all this stuff.
They make this art.

And, like,
what band do you know --

metal band that takes
an 18-wheeler

full of shit with 'em.

There's not a ton.
And they have to take that.

'Cause what other band
has a giant fucking dinosaur?

♪♪

-When we came back to go GWAR
again, we were in debt.

We were getting ready
to lose our space.

-We had said for years,

"This is too hard for us
to do festivals.

Our breakdown and setup time
is too long."

But when we sort of realized
our mindset is stuck in the way

we have always
done stuff,

but it doesn't have to be
that way.

Just nuts and bolts.

Like, "That's stupid.
Don't do that.

Do this instead."

♪♪

We were just like, "Shit,
we're getting a second wind.

Let's fucking grab it.

If we get the offers for shows,
let's just keep taking them."

But being older, and spending
a lot of time on tour

leads to some
bad habits.

And not just the drinking
every night

because you're so bored
or lonely,

but the physical toll.

Like, Dave classic, like, back,
jumping around and singing

with those costumes on
your back.

I remember hearing about people
just stealing, or getting oxies,

and just being like,
"Huh, that's weird."

[Crowd chanting "GWAR!"]

-I loved Dave Brockie.
I looked up to him.

I asked him questions
about life.

And one thing about Brockie is,
no matter how much partying,

how off the rails he was,
how crazy he was,

when it came show time,
he was fucking...

He loaded
that truck in.

He did the show.

He pulled the work
of all of us,

and then,
loaded that truck out.

And then,
all bets are off.

But his work ethic
started waning, you know?

He started missing
sound checks.

And it just wasn't him.

And I somehow had
the wherewithal to go,

"I don't wanna be present
for this.

So, please,
do something about this.

And if you don't,
I'm gonna have to go."

And he's,
"Dude, you're right,"

Whatever.
And he was supposedly --

and he didn't.

He didn't.
And I knew he didn't.

♪♪

-When Zack left,
Cory was right there

to jump in,
and take the reins,

and write even more
contemporary metal.

♪♪

-Cory was such an easy person
to get along with.

He was so...

I don't wanna say "simple,"
but he had this charm to him

that you just could not
dislike the guy.

-Now it's cool, 'cause I don't
have to get a real job.

I can do this,
and pay my bills.

-He had this whole new blood
kind of metal thing going on.

And he was younger,
and he was hungry.

and they would just make me have
to play harder, and play stuff

that I never even thought about
playing before.

♪♪

-The thing about Flattus is
there's been countless people

in the Flattus costume.

Somebody told me that,
for photo shoots,

and press stuff,
and all those different things,

there have been upwards of 30
people in the Flattus costume.

Cory was just such a little
caveman full of metal,

and I think he made
that character become

what it always sort of
seemed like it was trying to be.

And that's no slight
to anybody else

that ever played
the character.

It's just -- It's like
the costume fit him better.

The Sounds from
the Underground,

it introduced us to sort of
a new generation of rock kids

who would not have thought GWAR
was cool, starting like this,

and by the end,
just being crushed,

'cause we would do a lot
in a half-hour.

These kids coming to the shows
were kids.

These bands were young kids,
and their fans were young kids.

Kids who weren't
even born

when some of the first
GWAR stuff came out.

So, we weren't sure
how they were gonna go over,

but of course,
they went down a storm.

Kids loved them,
freaked out about it,

and they became a staple
of that tour.

♪♪

-We toured three and a half
months straight one time.

I mean,
it was insane.

And I remember going, like,
"Wow, I got through that."

I had money.

But I just remember,
like,

the toll that it took
on people, personally.

It's rough.

I could see that,
even though things were good,

we pushed it too hard.

We toured too much.

We kept saying, like, "Hey, we
can get another tour this year,

make a lot more money."

And we were just like,
"Fuck it, alright."

♪♪

♪♪

-I was lying in my bunk,
and I heard...

Eddy, our tour manager.

Eddy was banging on
everybody's bunks,

to get their passports,

'cause we were going --
crossing into Canada.

And so, I pulled
my curtain back,

and Eddy was knocking on
Cory's bunk,

and he wouldn't
wake up.

And he opened it,
and tried to wake him.

-When we sat down after the
police took us to the hotel,

we kind of talked about, like,
"What should we do?"

As we talked about it,
it was like,

"The only way we can help
his widow,

the only way we can
help ourselves,

is to do what
we're doing."

'Cause we go home,
we're all gonna go home,

and go to
our individual houses,

and probably have, like,
a nervous breakdown, you know?

-We continued on
with the tour.

We cancelled one show,
and played...

the night after he died,
we were up on stage again.

Finished out that tour.

-We're a bunch of dudes
that don't really

talk to each other
in that way.

It's amazing that
we've been together for so long,

and we don't really relate

on any sort of deep,
emotional level.

We're all such weirdos.

So, like, being together, and
grieving together on tour was,

like, the most helpful thing
for me, personally.

It helped me
process it.

-When Cory died,
we kinda realized that

you're more than just
putting the suit on.

You become
that character.

And if you die as that
character, that character dies.

♪♪

♪♪

-My wife was really good friends
with Cory.

So, when we got the news
that Cory had passed,

she was -- I had to stop my wife
from running out of the door.

She wanted to go
see Jamie,

which is Cory's wife
at the time.

She was just devastated.

I mean,
that was like a member --

That was somebody
very close to us.

Eventually, I get a call
from Mike Derks,

asking to go try out.

And I didn't know who else
tried out,

but I just remember
telling myself

that nobody else
can have this

because they're not in
that circle.

I didn't want a stranger
to take this job,

you know,
to take this burden.

-Here he is right now,
ladies and gentlemen.

-Oh, my God. Look.

-Posthumous, come here.
-Victory.

-You bear a striking resemblance
to your family member, Flattus.

-Antoinette and Aunt Cindy
are doing very well.

Thank you very much.
-I told you he was deaf.

-He's just a fucking
straight-up rocker, man.

I mean, he's of that old-school
rock n' roll heavy metal.

He stepped up a lot, man.

He did all these little promos
for the tour.

They're amazing, man.

-Time for you to get
a little Christmas spear...it.

-To be a fan, to cross over into
a member of the band,

you have these thoughts
and these impressions

of these people
that you don't know,

that you're looking,
reading about.

Meeting them is one thing,
and then actually becoming,

like, really close to people
is another.

That's kind of where it,
I guess,

changes the most,
is when you're not --

sometimes, you're not a fan
anymore, you're just family.

♪♪

-Please welcome GWAR's
delightful singer,

Oderus Urungus.

-Hello. Hello.

-Now, you hate Earth,
don't you?

-Oh, I despise it.
But I love it at the same time.

-Yeah, you do.

-See, Earth is the only place
in the galaxy that has crack.

-Yeah, that's true.

[Laughter]

-"Viva La Bam," basically,
I got $300,000 per episode

to do whatever the hell
that I wanted.

And it was usually
messing with my parents,

turning the house into
a skate park,

alligator in the kitchen,
things like that.

-[Screams]

What are you doing here?!

-It's scary upstairs.

-Aren't your friends up there
with you?

-[Crying]
They're not my friends.

They're not my friends.

-Oderus Urungus.

It was the story of how Oderus
couldn't be outrageous anymore,

so he wanted to do
children's birthday parties.

So, of course, he steals my
face, and uses it as a mask

to play children's
birthday parties.

♪♪

[Cheering]

[Applause]

-Let's have a round of applause
for all the bands so far.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

-Yeah, I got a call
in the middle of the night.

And he's sobbing.

And he --
And he just says its

He's like, "Dave's dead."

-He had a sheet hanging,

separating his living room
from the kitchen,

I could see through the sheet,
but I didn't go in.

Yeah, I didn't wanna
see him.

-Dave passed,
and he's in his chair.

And I didn't go in the other
room to look at Dave either,

man, 'cause that's not the way
I remember those guys.

I remember those guys as fierce
players and great friends.

-We learned this with Cory,
like, the thing you got to do

is you've gotta tell
the important people

before they find out,
before it hits the news.

So, I was like, "I got to call
a bunch of my old friends,

and give them bad news.

But I'd rather them
hear it from me."

-Brad called me.

And the minute I saw
his phone number on my phone,

I knew it was real,
and I broke down pretty hard.

I still can't talk
about it.

I break down every time
I even start thinking about it.

-Derks called me.

and I'm glad it was Derks
that called me.

I don't know why.

But it was...

Man, you know, try to wrap
your head around that.

Dave fucking Brockie?
The guy's a fucking bull.

-I couldn't process it.

I still have
his fucking phone number,

and I go back through our texts
all the time --

just random shit.

He would text me constantly --
"Love you, buddy. Miss ya."

-I got a call while
I was working that day.

And...

It sucked.
I mean, I cried out.

I remember that.

And just was crushing me

to think about them
losing everything --

like, losing Dave, and,
at the same time,

losing their...

everything they'd worked for,
you know?

Like, staring that
in the face.

-I assumed that it was over,
you know?

And I was fine
with that,

because losing someone
like Dave Brockie

is a lot more important to me
than losing a job.

I was like, "I can go get
another job.

There's no more Dave Brockie.
You can't replace that."

-He was the most energetic,
enthusiastic,

prolific frontman any band
could ever have asked for.

And we were damn lucky
to have him.

-We all freak out
on this planet.

We all get confused.

We all do
the lower things sometimes.

But when you really
lose someone,

all that noise of confusion
between you goes away,

and you realize the only thing
that really matters is love.

So, that's what
I remembered.

Totally.

-And I called Hunter.

And, you know,
I had a number that,

I wasn't sure if it was his
or not.

And he told me never to call it,
you know, but I was like,

"Well, you know,
Dave Brockie just died,

so I'm calling
this number."

-Bob Gorman called me,
and told me that he had died,

and all like that.

But I didn't wanna go to
his funeral because...

you know, I hated the guy,
and I didn't want to --

who knows what
I might say, you know?

I was like,
"Man, you know, like...

I know you hate us all,
and everything,"

but I was like, "This guy was
a big part of your life,

and part of something that
you guys gave the world."

-I said everything
I wanted say to him.

He knows how I felt
about him.

I just feel like his story
came to its logical conclusion.

It's too bad,
but...yeah.

That's how it is.

-When I was a kid,
I used to think

the worst thing
that could possibly happen

is if, like, I would be
at the end of my life,

and look back,. and I'd go,
"You just fucked up.

You didn't do anything.
You just...blew it."

And I don't feel
that way.

It's like, when I met these guys
that we created GWAR together,

it really gave my life
meaning,

I mean, if you're an artist
or a musician,

it's very fucking
difficult...

-Yes, it is.
-...to make a living.

So, somehow,
we've been able to do it.

And there's not a second
that I'm not just absolutely,

count my lucky stars,
my blessings,

and all the fans that have
supported us for so many years.

That is the greatest thing,
as an artist, that you can get.

♪♪

[Bagpipes play]

[Crowd chanting "Oderus!]

-When I get to three,

I just want you to scream
at the top of your lungs,

so that Dave can hear you,
alright?

And you'll be amazed
at how good this feels.

And it's something that he did
all the fucking time.

[Laughter]

One...two...three.

[All screaming]

♪♪

-When we lost Dave,
we pretty much assumed that

that would be it
for GWAR.

But, you know,
it's just such a huge thing

that we had all been
working on,

and dedicating
our lives to.

And...

there's so much more
to this band

than any one person could
put into it,

even though he did put more in
than anyone.

♪♪

-You have so many people
that have been

in and out of this band
since day one.

I mean, hundreds,
at least 100 people

probably, have been,
one way or another,

considered to be
an active member of GWAR.

And when you lose somebody
in a band

that's such a big group
of people, you can't just say,

"Well, that's it,"
and it's over.

-You know, I fell in love
with GWAR when I was a fan,

and then, to be part of it,
it's just been amazing.

You know, it's hard to let
that die on the vine,

because you're just like,
"This thing is so cool."

And you want that magic that
you saw as a fan to perpetuate.

You want to share that
with other people.

-After Dave passed,
I'm like,

"What the hell
are we gonna do?"

We know that Dave would have
wanted us, and GWAR, to go on.

You know, he'd even talked
about it in interviews.

And the only person --
the only person that, you know,

most of us thought could even
have a chance of doing it,

let alone us was getting excited
about, was Mike Bishop.

In the early years,
he was part of the spirit.

He was like the heart
of the band.

And to bring him back,
you know,

was the only thing
that made sense.

We thought, "Well,
that's gonna be the thing

that could actually work."

Not only that,
but I remember him

saying to me that
he came back...

He's like -- He's like,
"I can help heal you guys

as well as be
the singer."

-I mean, they were hurting,
without doubt.

And...I tried hard to...

to do what I could to make
that pain less for them.

I did.

And singing was part
of it.

Like, making it so that
they could keep going.

felt like service to them,
and to today.

You know, so, I mean, it wasn't
hard for me to figure out.

♪♪

-♪ The world has never
looked so dark ♪

♪ The pain never felt
so bad ♪

♪ Is it wrong
to try to go on? ♪

♪ To try to [indistinct]?

♪ Will you let us
scream again? ♪

♪ [Indistinct]

♪ I can feel you
like a phantom limb ♪

-We still get a lot of,
you know,

"without Brockie,
there is no GWAR,"

and blah blah blah.

And Derks
said it best --

like, "Yeah,
ever since your grandma died,

your family sucks."

You know?

It's just such a shitty thing
to say to guys

who knew Dave
better than anyone,

and loved him more
than anybody else.

It's his legacy.
He devoted his entire life GWAR.

-It's just the way
I knew those guys would want it.

Like, they wouldn't
want us to stop

because they weren't here.

GWAR has never stopped.

We've had a million people
in the band come and go,

an GWAR always goes on.

We're on the Warped Tour
in 2017,

and, like,
Derks was resting a lot,

and he was tired.

And one day he was, like,
school-bus yellow.

-I kind of collapsed
on stage.

And sent me to
the emergency room.

And the band had to go on
without me.

And it took months.

Finally, I was diagnosed
with myelofibrosis.

-I told Mike once,
a long time ago,

and especially when he was sick,
I was like,

"Look, I don't know
what you're gonna do,

if you're gonna stay,
or whatever,

but whatever you do,
take me with you.

-Having to sit at home
in the summer

when they were out
on Warped Tour

was probably the hardest thing
in my life,

to know that this band
that I helped to create,

and bring this far,
was out there playing...

...and to not be part
of it.

-I've known him for
a really long time.

He's not the most
outspoken guy.

He's pretty intelligent,
really sensitive human being.

And it's --
And I love him.

And I'm so glad that he made it
through that shit.

I really am.

And I like playing music
with him.

And I'm glad
I still get to do it.

It's just the best.

-The transfusion
was a total success,

and I'm getting ready
to go out again this fall.

The cancer's in
100% remission.

And I'm feeling great.

I know GWAR is kind of
stronger for it, in a way.

They -- Like,
we just pull it together.

The world needs a GWAR,
you know?

It needs GWAR.

It needs it
to smack it around,

and tell it what to do and
tell it why it looks like shit,

and tell it why it sucks,
you know?

And hopefully, there would be
some beauty in that.

-♪ Fuck this place

♪ Fuck this place

♪ Fuck this place

♪ Fuck this place

[ Feedback whines ]

♪♪

♪ Sexecutioner

♪♪

♪ Yeah

♪ One, two, three

♪ Whoo

♪♪

♪ Slymenstra Hymen

♪♪

-Hello, little boys!
[ Giggles ]

♪♪

♪ Sleazy P

♪♪

-We're a team.

♪♪

-♪ GWAR Woman

♪♪

♪♪

-Once you've been in that band,

you're always in that band.

I talk about GWAR,
even though my career,

I am in a band
called Rise Against.

But I'm forever in GWAR.

That's my family,
you know, still.

♪♪

♪♪

-It's amazing.
Like, I've gotten to hang out

with one of my best friends
that I haven't been able

to hang out with
in a really long time.

It's like we picked
right back up where we left off.

And even though
we've had our differences

and there's been some static
between us,

overall, man,
he's my friend, you know?

[ Laughs ] And it's nice
to have my friend back.

[ Laughs ] You know?

So...yeah.

♪♪

-Chaos has been what's made
this band move forward

for 30-some years.

And it's crazy
when you think about it.

There's nothing else like this.

♪♪

-We're doing more things
than ever --

the festival,
a lot of different endorsements.

Matt's got the comics going on.

I just put together
GWAR's first museum show.

The GWAR Bar.

-Yeah, when Dave died,
we were months away

from getting the bar open,

and now it's kind of
like a little GWAR museum

that you can get drunk in.

-You don't do GWAR
because you want to get rich.

You don't do GWAR
'cause you want to get famous.

You do GWAR because
you fucking love it.

I didn't get rich off this.

I've put a lot of my life
into it,

and I wouldn't trade it
for anything at this point.

-I can't believe it's been
the defining thing in my life

and I'm still doing it
30 years later,

but it's made meaning
out of my life,

and I've enjoyed every bit
of it, even the horrible shit.

So, like, I'm proud
of everybody I work with

and everything that we've done,
even the crappy stuff.

So, like, try and find
another GWAR. There's not one.

So that's something
to be said for that.

♪♪

-♪ Motherfucker

♪♪

-Yeah, man, I've had just
12 concussions in this band,

and the doctor was like --
The last one,

he was just like, "What line
of work are you in again?

[ Laughs ]

He's like, "You should probably
find some other line of work."

♪♪

♪♪

-♪ Your socks they smell,
your feet they stink ♪

♪ You never take a bath

♪ Your nose it runs,
you bust your buns ♪

♪ You always finish last

♪ Sick of
-♪ Sick of

-♪ You

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ Sick of
-♪ Sick of

-♪ You

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,
ooh, ooh ♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪ Sick of you

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ I'm sick of you

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ I'm sick of you,
I'm sick of you ♪

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ I'm sick of you,
I'm sick of you ♪

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ I'm sick of you

♪ I'm so sick, so sick of you

♪ I'm sick, sick, sick, sick,
sick, sick, sick, sick ♪

♪ I'm so sick

♪ So motherfuckin'
titty-suckin' ♪

♪ God damn, don't you know it,
I am fuckin' sick of you ♪

♪♪