GWAR pulled into Atlanta on October 10th bringing their “Bloody Pit of Horror” tour to the Masquerade. I had the opportunity to have some one on one time with GWAR singer Dave Brockie (aka. Oderus Urungus) and we had a great time bonding over a few Yuenglings backstage. We discussed such serious topics as the future of GWAR, being intimate with Nancy Grace and why he refuses to give Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen a spare arm. This was one hell of an interview and I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did. Warning: Do not eat or drink while reading as at some point it will end up on your keyboard!
Today is 10/10/10 and after doing some research, it seems that nothing of any significance is going to happen in the world. No rapture, no 2nd coming of Christ, nothing. Will GWAR finally make 10/10/10 a date of historical significance?
Just by our mere presence I suppose. Gwar never pays attention to dates knowing that time goes backwards, forwards, sideways all at once we’ve stopped trying to understand calendars. Matter of fact Oderus used to wear a fucking sundial but he was always indoors so he could never quite figure it out.
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Back when I started listening to you guys, there weren’t many bands doing the kind of show you guys were doing. It was Alice Cooper, KISS and GWAR. Now you have all these others doing it.
It’s even got its little thing now. They call them “masked bands” or whatever. I’m surprised it’s taken as long as it has to get this many bands interested in doing our type of show. I think that one day every band will be like. I think that every band will be like GWAR, Gorilliaz or Lordi. Iron Maiden isn’t a masked band but they’ve got a giant monster walking around on stage doing all kinds of crazy shit. It’s really not that unique of a concept. It’s just been taken to an extreme. I’m glad that it seems that nobody has done it better than GWAR because I don’t think that anyone has.
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Do you ever look at these bands and feel that you paved the road for these bands?
Yeah sure we’re part of the revolution of all these bands over the years. Just like we were inspired by KISS and Alice Cooper these guys were inspired by those artists and by GWAR as well. A lot of these artists today won’t admit that they’re inspired by GWAR and that’s what got me going after Lordi a little bit. Monsters fight and anytime and anytime anyone is going to go out there pretending to be a monster Oderus is going to want to kill them and that’s all there is to it. They were asking Lordi if he’d ever heard of GWAR because his stuff looks exactly like GWAR and he said, “I’ve never heard of GWAR before.” Yeah right. Either you’re a complete ignorant idiot or you’re a liar and you’re probably both. It doesn’t really bother me Mr. Lordi and all those other bands. I see them as no competition for us because they are completely different. Those bands are designed to make money. We’re designed to obliterate society. It’s a whole different set of goals. Commercial success was never one of those goals.
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So I called my dad I told him I was seeing GWAR tonight and he couldn’t believe you guys are still around!
[laughs] It’s not this shambled monstrosity that’s a shadow of what it used to be. It’s different as there’s not as many people involved but I think GWAR’s more kick ass than ever. I get the proof of that every single night when we play these shows.
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GWAR is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. I guess I can tell my dad to suck it since he told me back in ‘92 you guys would be lucky to be around in a year.
[laughs] Yeah. Tell him to tune into the Jimmy Fallon show on October 28th. GWAR is like the band that took 25 years to break but we still haven’t really broken yet. I mean, we’ve broken a lot of stuff but we haven’t broken out on the international music scene the way we really need to. We’re still an underground threat. We’ve been playing The Masquerade (Atlanta venue) for what, 20 years straight or something?
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My first GWAR show was here in 1992 and I was a senior in High School.
[laughs] Wow! Holy fucking shit! That’s almost 20 years ago. It’s rare that there’s a single venue that we’ve played in that much.
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Every time I’ve seen GWAR here in Atlanta was at the Masquerade except for Dragon Con.
Yeah! Dragon Con was always a complete debacle. We’d end up playing at 5am or something like that after having to sit around in one of those convention center rooms for fucking hours and hours getting someone to smuggle in beer while fucking Boba Fett or some idiotically, poorly crafted costumed idiot saunters by. I don’t know how many fat fucking Xenas I had to tolerate but you would get laid occasionally. Atlanta and GWAR have a torrid history with each other and the Masquerade is one of the last true American dives left. I mean look, have they ever done anything to this dressing room other than paint it every now and then? You know what they did with the upstairs? It got so disgusting that they just boarded it up [laughs]. They’ve probably got a body up in there.
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I heard they have Ugly Kid Joe up there.
Yeah, they’re probably going to start practicing as soon as they burn through all of this meth we keep throwing them.
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GWAR is about to unleash it’s 13th album “Gwar’s Bloody Pit of Horror.” Give me one good reason why I should go buy it?
Oh! Because you get a free pork chop with every purchase! First of all, it’s a GWAR album! What kind of stupid question is that? GWAR never lets you down. Second of all, it’s the latest salvo of musical artillery in the never ending war to eradicate the naysayers who to this day will insist that GWAR is a “costume band” when everyone knows that GWAR is the only one of these monster bands that doesn’t wear costumes despite all the bullshit that people say about them. It’s a great fucking album because GWAR has gotten heavier and heavier over the last four or five albums and this one is the heaviest yet. We actually tuned down for this one so it’s really vicious and heavy sounding. The track that we released already “Zombies March” is tuned down. It’s got this real beastial sound. I really love that sound. I think GWAR fans are going to be really happy.
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I heard the new album and I thought to myself goddamn this is the worst fucking shit I’ve ever!
Oh c’mon now!
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But then I realized it was a Lordi album. Ever think of suing them just because they suck?
[laughs] Oh there ya go! Unfortunately we looked into that but you can’t sue people just for sucking. If you could the courts would be packed. If you could sue people for sucking you could sue the court for sucking. Unfortunately, it’s not Idiocracy yet. Everyone thinks that movie is hilarious but it’s like a horror movie to me because I think it’s really going to happen.
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X-Cops (GWAR side project) was one of my favorite bands but they came in, delivered an awesome album and tour and then disappeared. Are there any plans to bring them out of retirement?
We wanted to do it for a while but a couple of the original X-Cops don’t play music any more. For a while we didn’t want to do it without them because we didn’t think it would sound like the original band. Now we really don’t give a shit and we’d rather just do it for the hell of it. We have been talking about it doing it. If this fucking behemoth that is GWAR ever slows down for more than five fucking minutes maybe we’ll have the chance to do some side projects. If that’s the case then X-Cops will be near the top of that list. I tend to like to do side projects that are little more simple that don’t’ have so many people involved. That’s why I did DBX (Dave Brockie Experience). That was fun but I can’t see having any more time for it. Maybe some solo stuff at some point. I have some crazy ideas for some other stuff but right now GWAR has just taken over. I’ve thought about stuff like doing a duets album or a spoken word album. Well, it would be a spoken turd actually.
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I was lucky enough to see X-Cops here in Atlanta and this tiny shit hole called Midtown Music Hall and next to nobody was there. I couldn’t believe it because that album and tour kicked ass.
That was a great album. We spent all our money on a tour bus. We were sure everybody who wanted to see GWAR would automatically come see X-Cops even though we made no attempt whatsoever to inform people that that’s what was really going on. We had this huge fucking tour bus and we’d pull up in front of these tiny clubs with nobody in them.
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You seem to be popping up in the unlikeliest of places. You have been the interplanetary correspondent on Fox News’ “The Red Eye” with Greg Gutfeld. There are a lot of hot female specimens on that show. Have you over motor-boated any of them?
[laughs] Never! I’ve been on that show with so many hot chicks and they always are like “Get me the fuck out of here.” as soon as the show’s over. I’ve had them saying shit like “Call me” but I never get anywhere with them. I do hang out with Greg (Gutfeld, Redeye Host) and he’s awesome. Unfortunately he’s trying to quit drinking and he knows if he hangs out with me he’s going to end up face down in a puddle of my vomit in some kind of hellhole.
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Random question for you: Kill fuck or marry? Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Nancy Grace
Oh god! I don’t want to marry any of them, just want to kill them. I would fuck Ann Coulter I guess. I’d painfully mouth fuck Nancy Grace. She’d be like “I’m sorry I ever stood up against that stuff oh I love it Oderus.” She and Rosie O’ Donnell should get together because when they kiss it would look like the fucking Death Star. [laughs] It would be like two fucking grapefruit halves butting up against each other.
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It seems to be a big thing lately for bands to play full albums live. Megadeth has been doing “Rust In Peace” and Slayer has been doing “Seasons In The Abyss” on their recent tours. With this being the 20th anniversary of “Scumdogs of the Universe,” did GWAR consider doing this album in its entirety live?
No, we never did until people started telling us that we should but by then it was too late so we didn’t. When we do a tour we’re promoting new music so it’s hard to go back and do a whole album like that. The closest we ever came to that was on the “Beyond Hell” tour where we actually played the whole fucking album. We like to have a fun set list to play so we tend to want to grab from all over the place. We just really try to make GWAR happy because if GWAR’s happy everybody’s happy. I’d love to dwell on one record for a full tour but it hasn’t got to that point yet.
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“Sick of You” is GWAR’s “Rock & Roll All Nite” or “Freebird.” Do you ever get tired of playing it?
It’s a classic song. Honestly, it’s hard to really care about playing it in practice. We never practice it because we’ve played it so many times. I get a kick out of it every time we play it live because people freak out over it. They love that fucking song and we always feed off the energy of the crowd. When I get sick of it I’ll change the lyrics or I’ll be the Ignition rap by R. Kelly in there. Maybe I’ll try and bust that out tonight but remember that shit is tough. He’s one talented motherfucker.
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Many fans consider “Scumdogs of The Universe” to be GWAR’s pinnacle album. What album do you feel is the best representation of what GWAR is capable of?
They’re all so different but my personal favorite is “Violence Has Arrived.” It was the recasting of GWAR in a way that it will probably roll on until the end of time. As much as I love all those old characters and all the crazy shit we did back then, GWAR was either going to be remade into a successful mold or GWAR was going to stop happening. That album was a successful mold so it will always be near and dear to me. All the songs are like bad acid D&D adventures and I love that shit. Our influence is just so understated. People have such a hard time giving us credit for things that are serious like being able to write good music.
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With all the spare body parts GWAR accumulates along the way, why have you guys never offered an arm to the drummer from Def Leppard?
[laughs] That would be nice but I’m sure they’ve got at least 8 or 9 cybernetic replacement pieces that he never used anyway. Talk about self indulgent crap. I’d honestly like to see if he could get in another accident and get the other arm ripped off. I guarantee you he would still find a way to play. [yells in a British accent] “I can do it with no arms I tell ya!”
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So I personally think Ozzy Osbourne has totally outlasted his welcome. Are there any bands that you feel like should’ just call it a fucking day and pack it in?
I think people should go as long as they can. Now that I’m becoming a geezer I fully support geezerdom. Back when I was a kid I thought everyone should be dead by 30 and then when I was 30 I was like “uhhhhh” and then I hit 40 and I was like, “This is actually pretty cool!” I’ve managed to stay a young man a lot longer than I thought I would. As long as you’re putting out good shit then I think you should be able to kick ass as long as you can. The problem is a lot of these guys don’t put out good shit. I’d almost rather have an artist not put out nothing than put out a shitty album just for the hell of it. Ozzy is Ozzy and he can do whatever the fuck he wants. He’s a metal god and he will be Ozzy until the day he dies. It’s not like there’s some kind of metal retirement home where you send these people off. Christ, Lemmy is 60-something now and he still lives in the same weird apartment in Hollywood surrounded by viles of crystal meth and all his Nazi memorabilia. We don’t need to tell people to fuck off. Life takes care of that all by itself. You know when it’s time. You drop dead.
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The metal world lost Ronnie James Dio earlier this year. Did the mold covered hearts of GWAR ache a bit at this loss?
It surprised us of course. We had heard that he was sick so I was ready for him to go but I didn’t think he would go that fast. Then I found out he was in his 60’s already and that’s amazing. He had a hell of a run and he was a great guy. I never had a chance to meet him myself but I’m sure he wouldn’t have us crying big tears for him.
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The new album “Bloody Pit of Horror” comes out on November 9th! What can the world expect from GWAR in the near future?
We will be doing some mammoth touring until the end of the year and then we go to Australia and New Zealand. The big news is that we’ll be on the Jimmy Fallon show on October 28th. Sirius’ Liquid Metal is doing Oderus’ Halloween Show where I’ll do three hour long radio show. We’ll tour the hell out of the “Bloody Pit of Horror” album for the next year and who knows what’s going on after that. We’re going to be moving into our new studio and we’re already planning on a new record!
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As a fan, it’s just nice to know that GWAR will always be there.
It’s still fun, the fans are getting more and more all the time and somehow we make a living at this. The biggest thing that keeps us going is the fact that the biggest things for GWAR are still ahead of us. Getting on national television, getting to do stuff like the Fox Red Eye thing, and going to New Zealand are a lot of positive things happening for us. It makes me think that maybe we are going to get that video game, that movie, that Japanese tour, that whatever it is that is going to take GWAR over the top. We certainly deserve it because we’ve been working our fucking asses off for 25 years. The desire to maybe one day have a health plan keeps us going [laughs].
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Thanks for taking the time out with me. This was a blast!
No problemo! Thank you!
Dave Brockie, The Brainfart & The Cuttlefish of Ktulu
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