All language subtitles for This.is.Gwar.2021.720p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG

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 got to find
out where the hose hookup is.

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

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

It's, uh, kind of a mess.

We've had a few mishaps.

We've had these connections
blow off midshow

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, bawdy, violent,
sexual, theatrical rock show.

Basically, they're 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 scumdogs
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 band 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,

so you got to 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, you know?

It's a joke with no punch line.

The most amazing, cataclysmic
rock-'n"-roll event

of the century,
ladies and gentlemen.

This is GWAR.

So, Richmond in the '80s
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 '20s,

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, mazelike building
out to local artists

and musicians who wanted
practice spaces and stuff.

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 Scumdogs
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 not want 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 highbrow.

We liked horror movies.
We liked science-fiction novels.

We liked stuff
that is considered schlock.

So, guys like me,
Hunter Jackson, Chuck,

when we got accepted to VCU,
we had highfalutin ideas

of being, you know,
fantasy comic book artists.

And once we got into school,

we realized that that shit
just doesn't fly.

If you brought a Frazetta
wannabe 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 "Scumdogs 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 liked 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 them 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 the stage.

Like, he would put mayonnaise
down his pants,

and he had a pinata
that he filled with candy

and quarters and cat shit.

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

They all dive 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 influences
throughout all high school

was Monty Python.

I thought it 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.

Dave Brockie was a funny,

really talented performer
who was always on.

I mean, he lived like he was
onstage all the time.

And just to know him,
he was hilarious.

Yeah.
He was my first big love.

Hey, Dave.

He was so creative and smart,

and he had such a big
fan base 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.

You're on film. Face it.

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 eschewing
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 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 onstage

and see what happens."

"We'll call it...
GWA-A-A-A-RGGH."

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 onstage

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
"Scumdogs of the Universe"...

The barbarians from outer space
get 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 got to
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, you know?

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 was 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 onstage
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.

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 Karo 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 a 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.

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 lowbrow,
and it's nasty,

and it's fun.

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 come 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 want to consider
myself some sort of dandy,

but I might be the guy

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

I'm like, "Oh, yeah. Yeah.
For sure."

They're like,
"Do you want to 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 hours

'cause we're still cleaning up
the blood

from the GWAR show last night."

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 The Guilty?"

It's like, "Beefcake, man.

This kid Beefcake.
He's crazy.

He's like... He plays bass
like I've never seen.

He uses his fingers,
and he's all over the place."

Everybody respected him 'cause

he was the best bass player
in Richmond.

And so he stole Beefcake
out of The Guilty

and out of high school and said,
"You're gonna be in my band."

Hate me?

There's a lot to hate there.

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.

Everybody knew him, you know?

He's a kid that would walk in,

and they'd go,
"Oh, it's Beefcake. Hey!"

The local pizza place,
he would walk in.

"It's Beefcake! Hey!
Slices! Slices! Beefcake!"

It's very tacky.

Are you ready
to wander across the street?

- I would never wear it.
- So he was the only one

who didn't have to come up with
a stage name,

because they 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 were really proud of it.

I remember first hearing it.
I thought it sounded pretty bad.

BROCKIE:
♪ 'Cause we are GWAR ♪

♪ We've got guitars ♪

♪ We'll eat your car ♪

♪ GWAR, GWAR, GWAR, GWAR ♪

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.
I mean, 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...

You know,
the people that are out there

doing really good music
right now.

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 that stuff,

which is funny,
because I put on a mask,

and nobody could ever see what
I look 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 setup, but I was.

And I just listened
to what he played,

and then I just went in
and did it better.

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.

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

like in the middle of the night,

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

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?

Before I had joined the band,

the character had been called
GWAR Woman.

And I really wanted to give her
a name.

I always liked 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."

Now 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 into his office,
and I was like,

"I want to join the band.
I'm quitting art school."

And he was like,
"Well, you know,

I don't want to
fuck your life up or anything."

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

You know, it'll still be there.

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

So he was like, "All right.
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 freakin' amazing."

I was in high school
or 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,

like, 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
want to do?

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

I was doing the mail order
at that point,

sitting there, licking stamps.

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

That's how you made yourself
useful to 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.

He's ready.

Hey, Dave. All right.
Hey. You ready to go?

- Yeah!
- Ready to rock 'n' 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" on it.

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.

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're 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, like,
punk rockers' house

like, 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 a Rand McNally atlas

and, you know,
a bunch of quarters

to use the pay phone
when we got lost.

We made it across the country

probably about six or seven
times in these school buses.

Broke several axles on them

and got stranded a couple times
in the Rockies,

but it was fun.

Those were fun days.

I wouldn't trade
those memories for anything,

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, 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, it 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

and us all listening,

like we were 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 him.
- 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 onstage.

And then look at all this stuff.

This is all soda!
Look at this!

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 said, "Have you
heard of this band GWAR?"

I go, "No."
They said, "Oh, my God.

You got to see them.
They're amazing.

They run into the audience.

They throw meat at people
and blood.

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,
"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 I A,

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 are you eating?
What are you eating?

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 hadn't become the metal band
we are now.

We were still, like,
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.

We're making fun of it.

We didn't want to 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
"Scumdogs of the Universe,"

I was like, "Whoa.

These dudes have 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 a 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.

You know, I think the two
can coexist 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.

"Scumdogs" is definitely
a huge step up.

When I got the full record,
I'm like, "Oh, my God.

This is amazing."

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

Sick!

"Hell-0" would get
some traction,

but "Scumdogs" had broke GWAR.

During that tour, of course,
all the stuff happens

where life imitates art,
you know?

The story is about censorship,

which was a big hot-button issue
at the time.

Does the title "Purple Rain"

give you an indication

that the material
is about masturbation?

You 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 onstage

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 know,
"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, "All right.
You're under arrest.

Where's the guy
in the priest outfit?"

And, like, 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 shvantz
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.

You know, 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 an evidence room

in Charlotte, North Carolina,
somewhere.

When I heard he got arrested,
I was like, "What did he do?"

And they told 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 Helms
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 were 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, uh,
there goes the Constitution

and everything else
it stands for.

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 got to be the raunchiest,

most rotten band.

They are the worst.

- Oderus, um...
- Yes?

Your act has been described
as obscene and disgusting.

What'd you say to that?

Mm.
Very accurate.

This is one of the best ones.
I'm gonna read you this.

"To Grawl!"...

G-R-A-W-L...

"I am a highly concerned
Catholic Christian

who watched your videocassette,
"Tour de Scum.'

I've seen many horror shows
in my lifetime,

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

I...
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 preproduction... months.

And we hired a production team
from Canada.

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

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

Even though you have
a college degree in filmmaking,

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 got to
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.
Blair lost his mind.

He quit.
He flew home.

So...

You don't want to tell Dave
what to do,

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

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

We're just like, "Dude, you
got to 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 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 want to be in our movie?"

While I was, like,
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 fuckin' manager.

I-I'd really like to meet 'em.

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.

Enh.
Just a Grammy."

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

And he's like, "Yeah.
Whatever," you know?

Like, the dude was angry.

We were invited out to L. A.

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 Lita Ford,

and then we got kicked out.

We went back
and put our tuxes back on

and 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 Chili Peppers that night.

And I got to hold a banana
up to my crotch

and George Clinton ate it
at the party.

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 gussy 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, snot-nosed kid

that is, you know...

Like, that's what GWAR is, man.

It's just...
It's just geeky.

And it's wonderful in that way.

But, like, we didn't fit in
at the Grammys.

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, "All right!

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,
"I need a mask or something,

"cause my face
is not intimidating at all."

They made me a new costume
with Riddell shoulder pads.

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

Pete is an assassin.

He is such a good guitar player.

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...

Look! Look! Butt-Head!
It's GWAR! It's GWAR!

And expose them to places
in the country

where there weren't even
that many radio stations.

It's like, 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 got to go check 'em out!"

Everybody was like,
"What is that shit?"

I got to 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!

The Beavis and Butt-Head thing

turned into
the Sega 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...

"Hey, that's bad-ass!
Why did I come here?"

- That was cool.
- Yeah.

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 please welcome...

We can blow on our thumbs
and grow to 300 feet in the air.

And hang on the Empire
State Building.

You probably have already done
that on "Sally Jessy," but...

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

where you sacrifice
your daughter to GWAR,

and they come to your house
and take your daughter

and she ends up on the show

and gets fed through
a giant meat grinder.

The whole thing
is super violent.

There would be people
in the audience

who were kind of freaked out.

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, like...

- 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 said,
"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.

Fire!

When we did it, the audience had
no idea what was going on.

Like... 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 to,
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,

you know, it was awesome.

The movie's 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'd he say?
- "Weird.

Weird."

That was GWAR.
That was GWAR.

And, uh, they were, uh,

they were a little too strong
for our airwaves 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 want to make movies.

We want to make full-on movies."

Don came, and we were riding
bikes through Richmond,

and he's like, "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 a cart, and the horse
was somewhere back here.

Skulhedface!

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 levels
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.

Like, 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.

There'll be GWAR action figures,
stuffed dolls, pajamas,

videotapes, 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,
you know?

It's so insane.

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

because it's so weird
and hard to digest, you know?

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, you know?

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, enh.
Forgotten, cut-out bin.

I know I saw it physically
with Chuck and Don,

you know, how the 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.

The 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,
semiautomatic handgun.

It was like, "Tak, tak, tak,
tak, tak."

One, two, three, four, five,

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

Everything went slow motion.

I'm like, "Wow. I've been shot.
Never thought I'd be shot.

Wow!
I've been shot!"

Pete goes, "I'm shot.
I'm shot."

Straz 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 guys
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...
Right?

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

I jump into the back with Pete,
and, like, the tailgate'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 point them at me
and Pete.

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 fuckin' face.

They were just, like, these
plainclothes gangster, like...

I guess they infiltrated gangs
and stuff.

But they looked, you know,
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.

Like, you know, he just...
He just stayed there.

That's the kind of guy he is.

Yeah.
He's not very smart, is he?

No.
I love Derks to death, man.

We have a bond, man.

"Cause I would've been running
like a motherfucker.

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...
blank 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"...

You know, 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.

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,

is still having health issues
related to it.

What you gonna do?

You know, welcome to America,
right?

But, um...

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

But as soon as he could,
he was back onstage,

rocking out
with a colostomy bag.

Did you have a cesarean?

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-I guess 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, you know?

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
marketingwise

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, you know, 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...

Brockie made a speech that would
have made Marc Antony blush,

saying we'll never fall back
on our art.

And so Warner Bros. Dropped us.

So we found out the hard way

that you 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 want to 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.

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.

One day I was talking to Dave,
and he's like, "Yeah.

You know, 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.

As long as it's a decent-size
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 emanated, 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 know...
"You fucked up.

You ruined everything,"

like, "You took this away
from me."

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

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

So it was always like...

real but also at the distance
that art allowed.

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-blah.

We were the guys
that were sort of,

"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.
Do that over again.

Don't get so close
to the camera.

I was looking
to a lot of these older guys

for tutelage
in what was happening.

You know, 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.

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

immediately what they think
of it.

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

We're gonna write whatever kind
of music we want,"

and we did it.

Come on, ladies.
Sing it with me.

We thought the band should be

much larger than they were.

They had Grammy nominations.

They were doing huge
headline tours.

They were 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.

...and suggest
that the three of you

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

You know, 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.

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 the 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.

You said that we kill
everything.

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

available on
Metal Blade Records!

I've 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.

That's the one, jackass.

We got to an H R. Pufnstuf
stage,

where our bodyguard
has a big penis

with A big ball sac,
Popeye chin.

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 wrap-around,
like, Oakley sunglasses.

And he's the Terminator.

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

And I'm like, "Kick-ass."

'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 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.

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 superfan

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 "Fff!" you know?

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.

He's just like...

"I was tripping my balls off
for three days.

I don't remember
really what happened.”

He was, like,
on 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 try and 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 the 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?"

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 hyperartistic 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."

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.

We don't...

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.

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.
I loved my baby, you know?

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 upstaging 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
onstage with GWAR,

then I'm out of here."

We had a lot
of cool shit planned,

but Dave and I were working
against each other

just too much.

It was fucked up.

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

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,
right?

But the catch is,
Dave is the producer.

So 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 gonna want to 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,"
you know?

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...

You know,
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 fucking 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 want to 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," you know?

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,
you know?

And mostly, they're... A lot
of times, they're motivated

by, you know, just wanting to
thwart my efforts

and bring Hunter down a peg,
you know?

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 unfortunateness
of this, you know?

Yeah.
Sorry.

I don't know, man.

I sort of like being 3,000 miles
away from them, you know?

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...

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 L. A.

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 it into
a used-car place.

That was kind of the last straw,

where 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.

You did well, everybody.

One, two, three.

Okay.

Ow.

Everybody relax.

We're gonna do a color one
of this.

When it came time to do
the next record,

there was all these, like,
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's like, "Dude,
let's just make a metal record

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

We didn't, like, set out...

"Okay.
Every song has to be heavy."

We just...
The mind-set 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 just got to 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."

Like, "Yeah.
Play some metal."

In that time frame,
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,

"We're getting the band
back together."

You know, so...

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 it.

In some other band,
they would just be 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 them?

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 do 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 we sort of realized
our mind-set 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's classic,
like, back.

Jumping around and singing

with those costumes
on your back.

I remember hearing about people
just stealing or getting Oxys

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

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 showtime,
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, you know,
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 want to be present
for this.

You know, 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 Zach 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 want to 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 he 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.

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.

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 was like... 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.
All right."

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

Um, Eddie, our tour manager...

Eddie 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 Eddie was knocking
on Cory's bunk,

and he wouldn't wake up.

And he opened it
and tried to wake him.

And...

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 canceled one show
and played...

The night after he died,
we were up onstage 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,
you know?

So, like, being together
and grieving together on tour

was, like, the most helpful
thing for me, personally.

Like, it really...
It helped me process it.

When Cory died,
we kind of 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,
like, 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, you know?

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.

- Pustulus, come here.
- Make way!

You bear a striking resemblance
to your family member Flattus.

Aunt Jeanette 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.

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

Yeah. That's true.

"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.

Hey... Hey, what is that?

What are you doing in here?!

It's scary upstairs!

Aren't your friends up there
with you?

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.

Thank you so much!

Let's have a round of applause

for all the bands so far.

You guys ready...

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

And he's sobbing.

And he... And he just says it.

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 want to see him.

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

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 got to tell
the important people

before they find out,
before it hits the news.

So it was like,
I'm gonna have 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?

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.

It 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, you know?

Like, 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 front man 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 I,
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 want to 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, like, 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 go,
"You just fucked up.

You didn't do anything.

You, uh, you just... blew it,"
right?

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.

Oderus! Oderus! Oderus!

Oderus! Oderus! Oderus!

Oderus! Oderus! Oderus!

When I get to three,

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

so that Dave can hear you,
all right?

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

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

One.

Two.

Three.

When we lost Dave,

I mean, 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
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,

'cause 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 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 Dave.

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

We still get a lot of,

you know, "Without Brockie,
there is no GWAR,"

and blah-blah-blah,
and Derks said it best...

"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.

They wouldn't want us to stop
because they weren't here.

GWAR's never stopped.

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

and GWAR always goes on.

We're on the Warped Tour
in 2017.

I mean, like, Derks was resting
a lot, and he was tired.

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

I kind of collapsed onstage,

and it sent me
to the emergency room.

And the band had to go on
without me.

And it took months,

and 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, go,
you know, 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 a pretty intelligent,
really sensitive human being.

And it's, uh...

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, uh...
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'd be some beauty in that.

Hello, little boys.

We're a team.

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.

And that's my family,
you know, still.

It's amazing.

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?

And it's nice
to have my friend back.

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.

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 we've done,
even the crappy stuff.

So, like,
try and find another GWAR.

There's not one.

That's something to be said
for that.

GWAR lives, 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?"

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