Since emerging from the Richmond, Virginia, music scene in the mid-1980s – or, in their telling of it, becoming our alien overlords – GWAR have been on the vanguard of shock rock, pairing intense thrash metal with outlandish, humor-filled lyrics. Their latest album is no exception: The Return of Gor Gor (which also includes an accompanying comic book that delves even deeper into this latest tale of mayhem) was just released on July 25 (via Pit Records). It reveals the story of Gor Gor, who was taken under the band’s wing (sort of) and who also happens to be a T. Rex, and who has gone on to become a truck stop prostitute. This is the band’s sixteenth studio album – and the third one featuring Blöthar the Berserker on lead vocals (the original frontman, Oderus Urungus, passed away in 2014). The band will tour extensively across North America this fall – but first, they’ll celebrate the album release with a special one-night-only show on the streaming service VEEPS on August 22. During a recent call with The Big Takeover, Blöthar explains this latest chapter in the unhinged, unpredictable GWAR saga.
Without giving away too much, can you give people a brief overview of what the story on this new album?
BLÖTHAR: Well, this is the story of Gor Gor. Gor Gor has been a part of GWAR from the very beginning. So we were on board a circus train, and we were on there looking for sex with bearded ladies, midget strongmen and things like that. We got some seriously weird tail. Then all of a sudden, we hit something and the whole circus train just went to shit. It was a nightmare. It seems that the clowns had summoned a demon that manifested itself on the tracks. What we hit was Gor Gor’s mother. She was pregnant. Well, I don’t know – there was a dinosaur egg, and it cracked. She was killed, and it was like Dumbo. You remember Dumbo, right? Heart fucking rending. And so now there’s this little baby dinosaur and we’ve got to raise this little fucker. But we don’t because that’s not what we do. We don’t do the things we’re supposed to do. We just leave and go buy some cigarettes and let the mother handle it. That’s what we do. But in this case, there wasn’t a mother. The child’s only mother was a train full of fucking clowns and circus people. Carnival folk. And you know, those are the least reliable human beings in the world. And they raised this dinosaur and of course, it rebelled against the strict rules under which it was being raised, and it became a truck stop prostitute. It was a lot lizard. You’re not going to have a lot of repeat customers when you’re trying to blow dudes and you’re a T. Rex – arms are way too short for any hand action. So he’s just biting people from the waist down, over and over again. So it really it doesn’t work out. It’s a poor career choice. Despite the wig and the makeup, Gor Gor is not a good prostitute. So then he becomes rageful. He remembers that it’s GWAR who did all of this to him. And so he resumes his role as the Tyrant King, the great lizard that was GWAR’s pet but has now become their greatest enemy. That’s the story.
These songs seem especially hard edged and thrashy this time…
BLÖTHAR: One thing is that we had [lead guitarist] Grodius Maximus [who joined the band in 2024], and [bassist] Beefcake the Mighty is writing tunes with us again. We wanted it to be energetic and exciting, and that’s what it is. It took us a long time to find our feet – not least because we’re morbidly obese and we can’t see our feet. But it took a while to get on track and to be ready. There’s a lot of loss in this band. A lot of pain and tragedy. And everybody’s like, “It’s just not funny like it used to be. Why isn’t it funny?” I don’t know, your grandmother just died, you piece of shit, why don’t you make a joke? So now I think the band has healed enough that we can be funny again. Grodius Maximus has definitely brought some youthful energy into the band. It’s interesting to frame his ideas with our ideas.
You’ve obviously done something right because this is your 40th anniversary this year, so congratulations.
BLÖTHAR: Lordy, Lordy, look who’s forty!
What do you think it is that’s made GWAR able to survive this long?
BLÖTHAR: Well, you know, we’re the Willie Nelson of rock and roll. We just keep rolling J’s and gettin’ paid! I mean, we haven’t stopped. I don’t know why we haven’t stopped. Mental illness has a lot to do with it. We won’t stop doing GWAR. I want to stop. We all want to stop. We’ve tried, but we can’t. It haunts us. It haunts our every step, like a goddamn caribou stalked by a lion on the plains. Are there caribou out there? Probably not. Caribou. That sounds very wintery, doesn’t it? I don’t know. Gazelle. That’s what GWAR is: a lovely gazelle. A forty year old gazelle traipsing across the African plain, stalked by death at every turn.
What do you think it is about your music that’s made it resonate with people the way it has?
BLÖTHAR: GWAR captures something that humans need done to them. It makes people laugh. GWAR is fun. GWAR is the real deal, man. GWAR is a hilarious band.
Coming up, you have this VEEPS show, so tell us what we can expect from that.
BLÖTHAR: It’s “GWAR: Live from the Hellmouth,” live at the Caverns [in Pelham, Tennessee].
Why there?
BLÖTHAR: Because it’s the mouth of hell, for Christ’s sake! It’s exactly where GWAR belongs! It’s us in a cave.
You also have a lot of tour dates coming up. How are you getting ready for those?
BLÖTHAR: Christ, I’ve got to get my pussy waxed later, and my butthole bleached. My whole undercarriage is getting the treatment. I’m trying to get gussied up. I’m telling you, the things we go through so people will call us pretty.
What do you think of the legacy you’ve created with this band so far?
BLÖTHAR: I think that GWAR is an important shock rock band. I think that humor that we were talking about before, it doesn’t have the rewards that you would expect. Although punk rock is steeped in comedy, although it’s based in novelty songs. People seem to have forgotten that. And GWAR started to take punk rock and show that you could make fun of yourselves. We turned the medium against ourselves, and turned against the medium. Using the very thing that gave us birth, we drove it into the ground.
