Since I first discovered GWAR through the wholesome family fun that was portrayed by Mike Judge in Beavis and Butthead, I was hooked. Here were five grown men dicking off and having fun as a career choice. They weren’t taking themselves too seriously, but they were serious about what they were doing.
When I was given my first of four interviews with Oderus Urungus, I thought I was going to piss myself. While I expected the threats of bodily harm to an assortment of political and pop culture figures, I did not expect to hear the level of intelligence and quickness of with that Dave Brockie possessed. Between his in-depth knowledge of WWII military campaigns or his use of the word “erudite,” my respect for Urungus’ human form grew from “these dudes are cool” to “this guy knows exactly what he’s doing and is phenomenal.”
Now, I have had the humbling opportunity to interview Dave four times, once being able to show him that I had his name tattooed on my shoulder (to which he replied, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” and laughed) and have seen them perform live six times, five of which were with my best friend, Mike, who had created the crude, child-like drawing that included the “Dave Brockie” sign that now resides on my left shoulder. It wasn’t just Mike and I that would meet up annually for the blood-fest that was a GWAR show, we’d see people year after year that were dedicated to the band that loved their fans so much that they would feed them to the World Maggot.
As Dave Brockie has been found dead, I found myself being bombarded with friends offering their sympathies from Facebook, texts, and even a co-worker popping into my office asking me if I was OK. Brockie was the fucking best and now the world is a little bit worse than it was last week. My only consolation is knowing that Flattus was there to greet Oderus, offering him his broadsword so that they could decapitate Saint Peter and lay waste to all the shitty pop stars fucking up the afterlife. I’ll spend all day with a GWAR marathon, blasting everything from Sick Of You to Battle Maximus.
This fucking sucks.