Gwar frontman Michael Bishop – aka Blöthar The Berserker – has given more details on his thoughts about the right wing reaction to their onstage 'disembowelling' of someone dressed as Donald Trump.
The stunt went down at Riot Fest in Chicago last year, and conservatives on social media were less than impressed. Some called for Gwar to be blocked from performing live, despite the fact that the theatrical metal band have been murdering political figures from both sides of the divide for years.
In a new interview with Rocking With Jam Man, Bishop says the band were doing nothing new with that stunt. And any suggestion that the band were taking sides in America's divided political landscape is simply untrue.
He says: "People acted as if Gwar had changed, but Gwar didn't change. The world fricking changed. The way people felt about politics changed. The way people felt about comedy and humour changed.
"For years Gwar would do whatever the f*** we wanted. We would kill politicians from both sides of the aisle. We would kill famous people. We never had any backlash.
"I mean, granted, when we killed Princess Diana, people got a little upset. When we pulled a fish out of Laci Peterson's pussy, people got a little upset.
"But until Donald Trump got in office, that's when people started getting extremely upset about politics and music and politics in art."
He points out that Gwar have previously "killed" liberal figures too, adding: "We killed President Obama. We didn't hear from the Secret Service. But you kill Trump, and you better believe that there's gonna be some shit going on.
"And the truth of the matter is that people think that you live in America, and you look around the world and you're, like, 'Oh, well, we're free. They're not.' That's bullshit."
Whether Gwar have any genuine concerns about being hounded by Trump's administration over the stunt is unclear. But there are no legal grounds for any legal action, at least according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
FIRE editor Angel Eduardo says: "The obviously over-the-top theatrical context of Gwar’s mock execution, and the fact that the band has done the same thing to other politicians and public figures, make clear that they weren’t actually threatening the president’s life.
"There’s also no credible argument that the performance amounted to unprotected incitement, which applies only to speech intended and likely to result in imminent unlawful action."
The reaction to the stunt was so extreme from some quarters that the band even received death threats.
But the reaction does not appear to have halted Gwar's plans in any meaningful way. They have a string of tour dates lined up for this year.
