GWAR drummer on petition to replace Robert E. Lee statue with the late Oderus Urungus: 'He would probably be right there on the frontlines'
Last week, a mystery fan named “GWAR Scumdog” started a grassroots petition calling for a statue of GWAR’s late leader, Oderus Urungus, to replace a controversial statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee in the Grammy-nominated shock-rock band’s home base of Richmond, Va. “Robert E. Lee is a failed war general that supported a racist cause,” the petition reads. “For too long, the city of Richmond has been displaying statues of him and other loser Civil War veterans. We the scumdogs of the universe call on the city of Richmond to erect a statue of great local leader Oderus Urungus in its place. While Oderus comes from the planet Scumdogia, he called Richmond his home, working with the local art community and employing local artists and ladies of the night.”
As of this writing, the petition, which was inspired by a Facebook post from former GWAR member Slymenstra Hymen, has accrued about 53,000 signatures by GWAR’s minions. And the group’s drummer, JizMak Da Gusha, is totally down with the cause. He even left his bunker recently to check out the graffiti-covered problematic statue and let the good people of Earth know that if all goes according to plan, an Oderus tribute will hopefully soon be erected in its place.
“Some human had the idea to start this petition on our behalf, and, you know, I have to agree with this guy,” JizMak tells Yahoo Entertainment, speaking from his tiki-bar lair in an undisclosed location. “It’s a great idea to put Oderus on top of that monument instead of Robert E. Lee, because he is missed right now and he’s probably something that the world could use right now, to clear off all the confusion and all the chaos that’s going on. He was the captain of chaos, and he can bring some sort of order through chaos and art and music. And, of course, killing.”
As for what the murderous Oderus, who died in 2014, would think about this petition, JizMak says with a shrug of his armor-plated shoulders, “I don’t know. I know he’s peed on that monument before. That, he’s absolutely done that before. I think all of us might have peed on that monument at some point in time. I don’t know what he would think about it. You know, I think he would probably be right there on the frontlines. He would lead the battle cry. As much as he loved to kill humans, he had a really great sense of justice. He knew how to balance the scales, if you will, when he saw unfairness or some sort of discrimination.”
Reflecting on his recent visit to the site of the defaced Lee statue, JizMak says, “It’s very peaceful there. People are obviously creating the art project that is now the Robert E. Lee monument. They have some nice signs up that are put around that area commemorating some of the deaths that have occurred at the hands of American police. So it was kind of interesting to see an inanimate object, like a statue or a monument, as time moves on, its purpose changes. It’s become now the battle cry and ground zero for the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s also become art, a living art installation. It obviously has a different meaning today than it did years ago. And I think that’s pretty cool.” (Video below contains profanity.)
But JizMak warns that protests might not remain peaceful if he and his bloodthirsty GWAR bandmates get involved. “We’re all for peaceable assembly within the humans, but you know, our assembly is going to be quite violent. So, you know, it might not be a great thing to have GWAR there, but you know, you guys always like to talk about ‘optics,’ so maybe the optics will be great, but the death would be happening,” he intones.
While Oderus hailed from Scumdogia, for more than 35 years GWAR have called Earth home, despite it being what JizMak calls a “terrible planet.” There was a time in the ’80s and ’90s when GWAR regularly made headlines and got hassled by the police for their stomach-churning, boundary-crossing live shows, but it seems the world has unfortunately caught up with GWAR, and now it’s the band members’ turn to be shocked — particularly by what they see happening in the United States.
“America has just gone down such a chaotic, miserable path, a rabbit hole of violence. … Humans are so terrible that you knocked us off of our throne of being the worst thing that could happen on the planet,” says JizMak. “And now we have to take that back from you. We have to just think of sicker ways to kill you and to destroy your societies.” But he says GWAR’s signature song, “Sick of You,” still rings as true as ever, because “GWAR is so sick. I mean, you human beings fighting amongst each other, killing each other, selling each other, the narcissism. It’s just terrible.”
JizMak has his doubts that an Oderus statue will ever really replace the Lee monument, since another petition that also accumulated 53,000 signatures, to have GWAR play the Super Bowl halftime show, was unsurprisingly ignored by the NFL. But he thinks if this latest petition were successful, “That would be a good step forward for you humans. It would at least buy you some time, so we wouldn’t kill you. You know, we’d like it to be like, you gave us a trophy and then we can ogle that for a while and that would distract us from actually slaughtering you. If you wanted to save yourself, you would make statues of us everywhere.”
However, on a more serious note, when asked how this country and planet can truly be saved from the brink (the threat of a GWAR massacre is obviously the least of the human species’ worries), JizMak has an interesting viewpoint, as an outer-space outsider who claims to be thousands of years old.
“America is like the teenager of the world. It’s like the youngest of societies. So you guys are just acting like pimply-faced teenagers right now,” he says. “And you should know once you grow up, you might have a f***ing clue about what to do with your society and how to behave out of love and all that crap that you humans need. You know, we don’t understand the concept of ‘love,’ so for us it’s not important for us to get along and have a society and do that stuff. But apparently it’s very important for you. So, once you quit crying like a teenager, America, and grow up a little bit, you might get your s*** together.”
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