Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images Dave Brockie, aka GWAR band member Oderus Urungus, was found dead Sunday at his home in Richmond, Va. He was 50.
There may not have been a more entertaining personality to hit the music business in the past 43 million years than Dave Brockie.
The body of the 50-year-old GWAR frontman — better known with his fearsome prosthetic makeup as “Oderus Urungus” — was found in his Richmond, Va., home Sunday night. It was a sad and abrupt end for a larger-than-life personality that the band’s legion of fans assumed would eventually leave this planet on a spaceship, not on a gurney.
That’s because GWAR — with its legendary stage shows in which members dumped fale blood on the audience, as well as its epic backstory — carved a niche in heavy metal history over the last 30 years.
"Basically my job is screaming into a microphone and bashing a huge dinosaur with a long sword,” Brockie told the Daily News in 2009. “I am one of the blessed people that gets to do what I love to do for a living."
Almost immediately after the band first played in a cramped Richmond bar called P.B. Kelly's during the mid-‘80s, critics took one gaze at the band’s look — a bunch of art school students clad in outlandish rubber costumes — and dismissed the group as a gimmick. Until Sunday, Brockie had outlasted most of his critics.
GWAR — with its legendary stage shows and epic alien backstory — carved a niche in heavy metal history over the last 30 years.
Brockie would be the first to admit GWAR wasn’t exactly The Beatles — their musical catalogue includes songs like “Meat Sandwich,” “Saddam a Go-Go” and “Slaughterama” — but their lore captivated concertgoers for three decades.
Their legend has it that Ungus and his fellow alien raiders, including Flattus Maximus and Balasac the Jaws of Death, crashed on this planet 43 million years ago in the midst of unleashing a swath of destruction across the universe. After inadvertently creating the human race by having intercourse with apes, GWAR members then got themselves frozen in ice, only to be dethawed in 1984 to become a rock band.
Jeff Bottari/AP Brockie, pictured in 2012 at San Diego ComicCon, was far removed from his world-destroyer image.
Though the band continued after the death of guitarist Cory Smoot from a heart attack in 2011, it’s hard to envision their saga going further.
“When someone dies, a lot of the time people will say 'Oh, he was a unique person, really one of a kind, a true original' — most of these people no idea of what they are talking about — they obviously had never met Dave,” Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe wrote on his Instagram page.
Gary Miller/FilmMagic Brockie’s band leaves a 30-year legacy as one of the most original concepts in rock history.
“I can't think of ANYONE even remotely like him.”
Brockie as Oderus Urungus onstage in 2010. 
 of rubber-costumed  act   was found dead in his , Virginia home late on Sunday. Better known by stage name Oderus Urungus, Brockie was 50.

Founder, singer, leader, and occasional bassist of GWAR, Brockie's career stretches back to 1984. He and fellow  art students formed what they dubbed "Earth's only openly extra-terrestrial rock band", growing famous for satirical and obscene lyrical themes, and live shows featuring the defilement of effigies and plenty of fake blood.

Fellow founding member Don Drakulich, who still makes props and costumes for the rockers, said he was "very sad" and "shocked". He said Brockie's roommate found the corpse. GWAR members changed frequently and the band recovered from the sudden death of guitarist  during a 2011 tour, but the '''' notes "it's hard to envision their saga going further" after Brockie's death.

The band ran with the backstory of crashing to "the most insignificant planet in the universe" 43 million years ago before creating humans by having sex with apes. Becoming encased with ice, the legend ran that upon thawing out in 1984 the members decided to form a band.

Manager Jack Flanagan announced the death via GWAR's website, adding a post-mortem will be conducted. "My main focus right now is to look after my band mates and his family" he said. Flanagan said another GWAR member found the body.

Brockie said in 2009 "I am one of the blessed people that gets to do what I love to do for a living." GWAR received a  nomination in 1993, with '''' up for Best Longform Music Video.

Fellow Virginia rocker , vocalist for , paid tribute online, writing on  "When someone dies, a lot of the time people will say 'Oh, he was a unique person, really one of a kind, a true original' ... I can't think of ANYONE even remotely like him." 

Blythe also took to Facebook. "Right now, if I were to truly honor Dave in the way HE would do it if it were ME that had died, I would make a completely tasteless joke about his death. But I do not have the stomach for that — Dave would, but not me. He never put much stock in 'limits'."

Ex-GWAR guitarist Steve Douglas said on Facebook "I have had a few bad days in my life but this one truly ranks right up there. ... you are gone and it is hurting very badly!" "I wish it was a joke" said another ex-member, Chris Bopst. "Everyone is in shock."

Former bassist  paid tribute in an interview with ''''. "Dave was one of the funniest, smartest, most creative and energetic persons I've known," he said. "He was brash sometimes, always crass, irreverent, he was hilarious in every way. But he was also deeply intelligent and interested in life, history, politics and art."


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