GWAR has been hypnotizing their fans around the world with their costumes, story lines and most importantly their music for decades. The band has been able to successfully sustain their popularity, a fantastic feat for any musicians out there. Earlier this year they took a major hit when their fearless leader Oderus Urungus (David Murray Brockie) passed away, leaving a huge vacant spot in the lead singer department. It hit GWAR fans really hard, but rather than fade into obscurity, the band continued on. They quickly filled the void with not just one, but two new Scumdog singers – Blothar (Mike Bishop) and Vulvatron (Kim Dylla).

In the blink of an eye GWAR formed The Eternal Tour, a series of concerts around the nation not only to introduce their new singers but to honor the incredible singer Oderus. While in the middle of their tour, ShockYa was able to sit down and speak with Blothar the Beserker in person. The GWAR member spoke up about Oderus, the band’s plans for the future and the wonderful reaction they’ve been getting from their fans/human slaves.

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Blothar begins by talking about how the Eternal Tour has been going for GWAR, and how their performances each night remind him of a particular movie:

“The Eternal Tour is going freaking great. Every single night, this whole tour is set up to honor the greatest rock-n-roll sensation to ever live, Oderus Urungus, and give the fans an opportunity to reflect upon and pay tribute to him. Every night is kind of like the film ‘Groundhog Day’ where we find ourselves reliving the same day over and over in a different town each night. Basically what happens is I – Blothar the beserker – get sucked through a time portal onto the stage in front of a bunch of screaming metal heads. A little bit later Vulvatron is sucked through this time portal from the future and she comes to warn us of what might happen. Together she and I try to help GWAR find Oderus Urungus. So far we haven’t found him, but people can come to the concert to see what happens.

It’s traumatic. He owes me a lot of money. He owes me so much money that he owes me yams, because that’s how we calculated money when he first started owing me money is through yams. I’m expecting payment in yams but I haven’t gotten anything yet. I think probably that he’s hold up with a prostitute somewhere smoking crack, because that’s exactly his speed. Either way, he’s being an asshole and we want him back. And so far people who come to the concert, there’s a general census of fans. They don’t understand why is it that Blothar knows the songs of GWAR. Well, all Scumdog Warriors know the songs of GWAR. Blothar had a hand in writing many of these songs, so in a lot of ways this is a return to the spirit of GWAR. The same sort of narratives, the same sort of costumes and pageantry that marked GWAR during the late 80s and early 90s.”

The GWAR fans have been giving their reactions towards Blothar and Vulvatron throughout the tour, and so far it’s been pretty positive:

“The fans are reacting in the way that they always react to GWAR, which is they’re dying in droves. They’re showing up, they’re crying because they’re so sad about Oderus, and they’re f–king getting their heads chopped off and thrown into the meat grinder and turned into f–king dog food. But in earnest, it does seem that fans are breathing a sigh of relief when they come see GWAR. I don’t know what they expect to see onstage, but what they find onstage is GWAR. There’s a palpable sense of relief that GWAR does not suck. Of course it doesn’t suck. GWAR is eternal. Things change. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same ever. Staying the same means being dead, and GWAR lives. So I think there’s a great deal of gratitude on the part of fans, and hopefully there’s more than a little humility. Certainly for the people who make GWAR possible, the slaves who make GWAR possible. We’ve come to understand that life is a fragile thing and that GWAR is eternal, but the slaves of GWAR are not. So you never know. GWAR is made possible by its slaves, so things can go away and you should still value them while they’re still here.”

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One of GWAR’s new singers is Vulvatron, a lady whom Blothar doesn’t entirely trust just yet due to her involvement with technology:

“Well, an interesting question. We don’t know exactly what Vulvatron herself… Let’s put it like this; Blothar’s power comes from magic and from the Earth. Vulvatron’s suspiciously embued with technology, which has always been the hallmark with the enemies of GWAR, like the Destructo clan like with Techno, Bozo, Sawborg, they’re all Cardinal Sin. A Giant robot. They’re all robotic, cybernetic creatures. Generally that marks an enemy of GWAR. So Vulvatron’s interest in helping the band is suspicious, to say the least. For now she’s a sort of chaotic good figure, I suppose.”

Blothar hopes one day the Destructo clan will be joining together onstage, but the chances of that happening anytime soon are slim:

“Techno-Destructo I don’t think will make an appearance with GWAR. It would be great if he would, but he seems to be lost in space somewhere. We don’t know what’s happening with him. I think it’s an excellent idea to have all three Destructo’s at one time. I would love to see that, Bozo, Techno and Sawborg. Right now there aren’t any plans. Right now the main Destructo that’s causing us problems is Sawborg. He’s shown up to every night of the tour so far. He wants to be lead singer of GWAR. Of course, it makes sense right? In our moment of weakness Sawborg attacks, wanting to take over the band.”

Blothar goes on to talk about the GWAR bar that’s currently being put together in Richmond, Virginia:

“There’s a GWAR bar that the slaves of GWAR are opening. It is a very near this place where the slaves of GWAR first came together to summon GWAR and create a home for GWAR. This was called The Dairy, which is an old Richmond dairy building in Richmond, Virginia. GWAR bar is within sight of the old milk bottle buildings. Balsac is the chef and he calls the meals Intergalactic Junk Food. He’s an excellent epicurean. He cooks on the helicopter all the time and he’s constantly got his skillet out making things, makes everything smell good. So it’s going to be great food and humans will be invited there and we will shove the food down their throat. Sleazy P. Martini of course is trying to monetize GWAR in any way possible. There’ll be t-shirts and alcohol and all the things any person could want.”

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Oderus Urungus may no longer be with us, but that’s not stopping the members of GWAR and fans alike from honoring his name:

“From what I understand, the slaves of GWAR have dedicated themselves and created a foundation. The principle goal of that foundation is to build a monument to GWAR, the personal slave of GWAR’s Earth-wile leader Oderus Urungus, named David Murray Brockie. There’s a famous cemetery in Richmond called Hollywood Cemetery. There’s 4 presidents, numerous dead Confederate and Union soldiers buried there, many in mass, unmarked graves. It’s a very historic location. Richmond is also famous for it’s monuments to the dead, the dead leaders of the Confederacy. Of course we wouldn’t want to ruin Oderus’s reputation by associating him with those f–king assholes, so rather than trying to put him on Monument Avenue, or downtown in Richmond’s s–tty business district – which is perfect because the whole town makes it’s money from death with their tobacco products. But Hollywood Cemetery is a fitting place. A place where the slaves of GWAR as teenagers would run and drink and have a good time. It seems appropriate that there would be a statue of him in there.”

It’s a little known fact that GWAR paved the way for musicians to be affiliated in video games, kicking it off with their appearance Beavis and Butthead game. Blothar talks about the silliness of it and what GWAR game is planned for the future:

“The GWAR part in the Beavis and Butthead video game is very stupid. I’ve tried to play it. Actually most humans don’t know that there is a real Beavis and a real Butthead, and they live with us in the Antartican fortress as slaves for GWAR. We’ve been talking about the possibility of a GWAR video game. It makes perfect sense. We’re trying to, as a matter of fact the theme of that video game is likely to be “The Search for Oderus.” So yes, that kind of stuff is already in the works. There’s new comics in the works. There’s new music that’s in the works. Recently they released a version of us performing a Pet Shop Boys cover. That’s just the beginning, so there’s going to be more stuff like that.”

GWAR is finishing up the second half of their Eternal Tour right now. Check out their website here for more ticket information.

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