Artillery catches up with GWAR for their sprawling retrospective at Beyond the Streets.
ARTILLERY: Some of GWAR’s songs are actually good—if you’re into thrash. Does it ever bother you that this sometimes gets lost in the focus on GWAR’s wild stage shows?
BLOTHAR: Don’t seem so surprised that we write good music! After forty years, we should have learned something. Honestly, it doesn’t bother us that the music exists in the shadow of the performance because GWAR is meant to be taken as a whole, or a hole: A black hole of creative effort. But seriously, it’s always going to be hard for the music to match the stage show. A famous journalist, Mike Gitter, once said, “GWAR have been quietly making great albums for years.” He’s right. People don’t pay attention to the music. But we do think of it as a whole, and it is a testament to our innovation that the sheer scope of spectacle overwhelms the music. But the music is not and has never been dismissible. If it were, we would have had to stop long ago. There is a lot of substance there.
ARTILLERY: So Gwar’s founder, Dave Brockie, was a big Buster Keaton fan. Do you feel like that kind of comedy influences GWAR’s theatrical aesthetic?
BLOTHAR: Dave was only one of GWAR’s founders, but YES. Without question, Buster Keaton is an influence on GWAR. His physical comedy, the attitude of very on-the-nose comedy with a contrasting demeanor. I think that survives in the band with the character of Balsac the Jaws of Death.
ARTILLERY: When you guys used to play Dungeons and Dragons on the tour bus, who played which character?
BLOTHAR: Brockie was most often the dungeon master. He often played in games as a sort of vampire ghoul— always chaotic and often chaotic evil. I tended to play a dwarf. My name was Whoopsditch Weenthrottle, and I was not a very good leader. But I was always pressed into a leadership role, kind of like now!
“LET THERE BE GWAR,” 2025, at Beyond the Streets. Photo: Roger Gastman. Courtesy of Beyond the Streets.
ARTILLERY: For the cow guy: Do you milk yourself?
BLOTHAR: I guess I am the cowboy. Yes, I milk myself. But I prefer to be milked by the loving hands of another.
ARTILLERY: Do you guys still do live abortions onstage? Why or why not?
BLOTHAR: We do. Because abortion should be legal up to the age of 18 years old. Actually, it should probably be mandatory.
ARTILLERY: Have you ever totaled the number of humans GWAR has slain? Just on Earth, not on any slave planets.
BLOTHAR: No. That’s like asking how many peas you have eaten in your lifetime. Who cares?
“LET THERE BE GWAR,” 2025, at Beyond the Streets. Photo: Roger Gastman. Courtesy of Beyond the Streets.
ARTILLERY: Is South Carolina still holding the original Cuttlefish of Cthulhu as evidence?
BLOTHAR: Yes, they are. Somewhere, in an evidence room in North Carolina, the Cuttlefish’s lifeless body sits in a 5-gallon bucket, stinking like the dead fish it is.
ARTILLERY: GWAR experienced a lot of the Tipper Gore era censorship, and it seems like that attitude is back in many ways. Is that why GWAR has returned?
BLOTHAR: No, GWAR has never gone away. Like herpes, we just come to the forefront in times of great stress. Like when you have a job interview or a wedding to attend. GWAR will be there, on your lip or festering in your pants, causing you pain and embarrassment.
