Incredibly, it’s been 40 years since GWAR first exploded out of Antarctica to wreck stages and lives across their adopted home planet of Earth. In the intervening decades, the self-styled Scumdogs of the Universe have firmly established themselves as the best (and if we’re honest, only) outrageous, blood-spurting, gore-metal, stage rock collective on the planet.
Recently, they played the Inferno stage on the opening afternoon of Florida’s four-day Welcome to Rockville metal festival, where they decapitated and otherwise slaughtered characters that looked suspiciously like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Taylor Swift. You can see my coverage from that event HERE.
Celebrating 40 years in existence with a new single and video, “Lot Lizard”, and an upcoming EP, The Return of Gor Gor, due on July 25th, we caught up with two of their number – Blöthar the Berserker and Grodius Maximus – backstage, ahead of their Rockville slot.
My name is Dan, from The AU Review.
Blöthar the Berserker: You’re Australian? Dear God!
Yeah. Nice to meet you. Alright, you guys have been touring for 40 years. How do you manage to continue looking so youthful? Is it down to a robust skincare routine?
Blöthar: You said we look youthful. HA!
Grodius Maximus: The pomegranate juice, POM Wonderful, you know, it kind of helps me. I just rub it in. A little beef tallow too. I saw on Instagram, that kind of helps too with the bags under the eyes.
Blöthar: Beef tallow, pomegranates, and regular ball stretchings. I can fit my sack, like I can cover this entire table, just envelop it in nutsack.
Grodius: Down to the carpet. I’ve seen it.
Blöthar: And that’ll keep you young because it pulls everything away from you. That’s the theory behind the ball stretching.
Grodius: It keeps the rest taut.
I’ll have to try it. Are you aware of any world record for the same t-shirt remaining unwashed between two GWAR shows?
Blöthar: Wow, that would be a great record. You know, I’ve met people, fans, who look like they can’t even move when they come because their clothes are so stiff. And they’ve been wearing the same clothes since they saw us when they were teenagers. Now they’re elderly men, so…
Grodius: It’s like when you use a sock over and over and over to sop up your … you know, when you’re a teenager … your crust.
Blöthar: What are you gonna do with it? I mean you can’t just wipe it all over your sheets, that’s what I do.
Grodius: Your mom’s gonna find it. “What is this stuff?”
Blöthar: Mind your own business!
Grodius: We’re just kidding, we would never say that to our moms.
Well I was hoping to go for that record because I wore this in 1996 at a GWAR gig in Birmingham, England and haven’t washed it since.
Blöthar: That might be a record!, I mean, that’s a long time.
It’s 29 years. I’ll wear it again today and I’ll, you know, re-coat it for the next 29 years.
Blöthar: I can’t believe it stayed that color. It looks great.
Thanks, me neither. I don’t know if you recognise any of your own bodily fluids?
Blöthar: No, although I mean it does smell familiar.
Okay, as performers, can you describe how the experience of playing music festivals has changed between the 1990s and today? And that’s a serious question.
Blöthar: Well, in the 90s, music festivals were… It was like an ice cream social, where they pay you with hot dogs and little napkins full of butter cookies, and nobody comes. But now, you look out there and there’s like a lot of people out there. Like, a lot of people. 40,000 people. And they all look just so… miserable. Why anybody would go to a music festival is beyond me. But, you know, I mean, maybe they like having to poop in a microwave oven and then… I don’t know, just stand in a long line to pay $25 for a thimble full of… flat coke. Maybe they like that?
It’s obviously worth it to see you.
Blöthar: Yeah, it’s gotta be. I mean, they have great festivals. I can’t wait to go, as a matter of fact, to Australia. We love Australia. We’ve only been once and we need to go back.
Only once? In that case I was there. Was it the No Sleep ‘Til festival in Sydney in 2010? [GWAR also played Soundwave festival in 2014].
Blöthar: Yeah, we pissed them off over there because we threatened to smack around their prime minister, or something like that.
Yeah, probably whoever it was back then deserved it. So you prefer playing now or back then at festivals?
Blöthar: I mean, back then, nobody had seen us. So, like, that’s the greatest thing in the world, is to play a show in front of people who have never seen GWAR before. Because they’re so confused. GWAR breaks the frame of rock music. GWAR steps outside of the frame, even of all live music. When you see it, it literally doesn’t suit the environment. It’s like… like watching a play or a musical on a rock stage and everything’s so big that people, when they see it, they just are filled with a sense of possibility and wonder. And that’s why I do this, is a child’s wonder. That’s what we need – a child’s wonder. A child wondering where the hell they are. Wondering if anyone’s going to come help them. The answer is no!
No, indeed. How does the technology today, 2025 on earth, compare with the technology of your home planet 40 years ago?
Grodius: To think that kind of makes things possible that weren’t possible before. And we can work collaboratively across long distances. We don’t necessarily need to be on the same backstage helicopter.
Blöthar: Which is good because we do not like people…
Grodius: We don’t want to be in the same room for too long. Mostly because it gets really creepy.
Blöthar: Unfortunately like now… Let’s say I go out to do a show and I don’t remember the words because I don’t give a shit about the words. People watch it and they’re like “Uh, he doesn’t remember the words…” because you can’t do anything, ever, without anybody seeing. That’s the big difference and I kind of hate that. And also things were difficult … I don’t want to get into talking about how things used to be better, but suffice to say, everything used to be better. Of course, on our home planet we’re not … this is not hard rock on our home planet.
On our home planet, I guess the equivalent would be … I’m thinking Englebert Humberdink, you know, just sort of a loungy Vegas performer, maybe Serge Gainsbourg. That’s about as edgy as GWAR is on our home planet. So we couldn’t make it there. And they make fun of us when we go back there, they’re like, “oh yeah, you can’t make it here.”
I’m being told to wrap up, but … how many babies have you killed?
Grodius: Today?
Before breakfast.
Grodius: About 350, today.
Blöthar: Yeah, babies are… not very rewarding. They don’t put up enough resistance.
Oh, okay. Lastly, is there anybody you’d like to collaborate with?
Grodius: I know we were just talking about Garth Brooks a few minutes ago. So Garth if you’re out there listening, lend some of your charm to our band.
Blöthar: Taylor Swift. I think Taylor Swift would be good. I think, what’s his name, Jelly Roll. That’s the best looking woman in rock.
Grodius: Oh, you know who I’d like to have be a person that we collaborate with, although he’s actually more of a robot, is Bucket Head! I’m just gonna throw that out there into the universe.
Blöthar: I’d love to play with Bucket Head. Or at least play with his head.
Ha ha ha! That was a good one to finish. Thanks, thanks a lot. Can I tickle your ball sack?
Blöthar: Yes, please tickle it. Oooh, wonderful!
GWAR’s “Lot Lizard” is out now, with EP The Return of Gor Gor due on July 25th.
They do not currently have plans to tour Australia, and they don’t care what you think about that.
Photos of GWAR by Alex Ochoa, provided by Welcome to Rockville.
