Dave Brockie, lead vocalist of the metal band Gwar who performed with the Oderus Urungus persona, was found dead in his Richmond, VA, home on Sunday, according to Style Weekly, who reported that the cause of death is not known at this time, but police do not suspect foul play. He was 50.
The musician’s shocking death is the second recent tragedy to strike Gwar. In 2011, the band members found their guitarist Cory Smoot aka Flattus Maximus dead on their tour bus.
In 1984, Brockie founded Gwar, a theatrical thrash metal outfit where its members took on personas – think KISS, but more extreme. The back-story is that the self-proclaimed “Scumdogs of the Universe,” an intergalactic band of chaos warriors, were banished to Earth millions of years ago, now hellbent on destroying the human race and eradicating existence itself. Brockie performed on stage as Oderus Urungus, wearing a humanoid barbarian costume with devil horns and a huge codpiece, and wielding a long sword named “Unt Lick.”
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