Russ Bahorsky, Death Piggy, and the Origin of GWAR
The Austin hardcore band Millions of Dead Cops opened the campus concert series for Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall of 1982. Guitarist Russ Bahorsky, a high-school student from the south side of Richmond, drove into the city to see the show. It was there that he met Dave Brockie and drummer Sean Sumner.

Brockie, an art student and aspiring comic book artist, and Sean Sumner, also an art student, were new students at VCU, and Bahorsky, who had played briefly with the Richmond, VA, band Honor Role, was a regular in the growing Richmond hardcore scene. Brockie and Sumner, who had both been in bands in the Washington, DC, area, were looking for new opportunities, and Bahorsky convinced the two to join him.

The Birth of Death Piggy
Death Piggy formed that fall and quickly became a fixture in the lineup of Richmond hardcore bands, playing extensively in the Mid-Atlantic
region, especially after Bahorsky enrolled at VCU as an English major the
following year. Straddling the line between hardcore and post-punk, they
incorporated performance art, costumes, props and film into their live shows in a way that made them unique and difficult to categorize.

As Death Piggy, they recorded three seven-inch EPs, including Love/War, recorded at Inner Ear Studios and released on the DC-based DSI label, and Death Rules the Fairway on their own Slug Trail Records label. While Bahorsky took a brief hiatus from the band, Death Piggy released their third EP, “R”45, with future GWAR member Steve Douglas filling in on guitar. All three recordings were later re-issued on CD under the title Smile or Die and again on the vinyl LP Studio Sessions -1984/85 produced by Vomitopunkrock Records. They were released again on a Record Store Day vinyl LP called Welcome to the Record produced by Anti-Corp and remastered by Black Matter Mastering. Welcome to the Record included previously unreleased studio recordings from the band’s first studio session at Richmond’s Floodzone Studio. 

From 1982 until 1990, the band played extensively in the Mid-Atlantic area and at iconic DC hardcore venues, including the original 9:30 club and DC Space, sharing the stage with the Meat Puppets, the Butthole Surfers, Flipper, Wendy O. Williams, Minor Threat, Scream, Void, and many others.

Gwwwaaarrghhh!
In the spring of 1985, the band was invited by Washington, DC’s, legendary 9:30 club to open for a show headlined by Suicidal Tendencies. Prior to the show, Brockie had met aspiring filmmaker Hunter Jackson who had created costumes for a sci-fi/fantasy film he intended to make, tentatively called “Scumdogs of the Universe.” Brockie brought one of the costumes to a Death Piggy rehearsal with the idea that it could somehow be incorporated into the show, and it was Bahorsky who suggested the idea of creating an entirely new band, a heavy-metal parody that would “open for ourselves opening for Suicidal Tendencies.” After the rehearsal, Bahorsky asked what they should call the band, and it was their friend and neighbor Tim Hermann who shouted, “Gwwwaaarrghhh!” Bahorsky replied, “That’s perfect.”

A short set list of songs was developed, including unrecorded Death Piggy songs “U Ain’t Shit,” “Rock and Roll Party Town,” and “AEIOU,” and the band debuted as Gwwwaaarrghhh! in April of 1985 with Bahorsky and Brockie’s friend Ben Eubank, a VCU drama student, taking the lead role as frontman Johnny Slutman after Brockie refused the role.

Mr. Magico
The one problem the band faced as the 9:30 show approached was how to make the change from Death Piggy to Gwwwaaarrghhh! on stage. They
hadn’t mentioned the idea to the club and weren’t sure the promoter would be receptive to it. The solution, for better or for worse, was to keep an audience of hardcore fans distracted by a magic trick.

Suicidal Tendencies had surged in popularity as the first hardcore band with a video on MTV, and the sold-out room included a handful of 9:30 regulars and a majority of new people who had no interest in seeing Death Piggy, so members of the band felt that if they left the stage completely, they wouldn’t be able to return. So, after playing their set, several members of the band, including future GWAR member Chris Bobst, slipped off stage to change into their Gwwwaaarrghhh! costumes, while Bahorsky stayed behind, put on a cape and top hat, and attempted to perform a magic trick popular at children’s birthday parties. The performance was intended to keep the audience focused on the stage and to confuse the sound engineer long enough for the band to change before power was cut to the microphones. Just as the crowd began to grow hostile—which, according to Bahorsky, took a lot longer than he expected—the band returned and played its first set with Bahorsky still in his cape and top hat.

It was later that Bahorsky became known as Mr. Magico, a character
that he repeated only once. In fact, it wasn’t until Bahorsky and Sumner left the band and were replaced by members of the Richmond band the Alter-Natives that band members other than the lead singer created unique characters of their own.

The debut of Gwwwaaarrghhh! was not well received by the audience, so later that spring, Death Piggy brought the show back to Richmond to try it in front of a hometown audience. That show was only slightly more successful, but it was clear that with more work the idea could take on a life of its own.

Giving Brockie the Reins
For Brockie, the band remained a side project to Death Piggy, and he continued to refuse the idea of fronting Gwwwaaarrghhh!, but that summer Sumner was arrested on an assault charge and spent several months in
prison, which gave Brockie and Jackson time to explore the idea of building props for more elaborate stage shows for Gwwwaaarrghhh! And while Death Piggy waited for Sumner’s release, Bahorsky stepped aside. He felt that the Gwwwaaarrghhh! concept was a good one but that the performances needed stronger stage direction, while Brockie felt that the stage show should be more chaotic and unpredictable.

After reaching an impasse, and as Brockie’s interest in taking a more prominent role in the band continued to grow, Bahorsky felt the project would have a better chance to succeed without him. He offered Brockie the
opportunity to take the lead and stepped away, suggesting to Brockie that he downplay Bahorsky’s role in the creation of the band and clearing the way for Brockie to have full creative control.

Death Piggy continued to perform after Sumner’s release and until his untimely death in 1996. In the years following, Brockie offered Bahorsky several opportunities to return to GWAR, and he did agree to one additional cameo performance with the band as Mr. Magico many years later.

Today, Bahorsky is a science writer and jazz fusion guitarist. He continues to be a fan of the band, the cast, and the crew who have turned the concept begun by Gwwwaaarrghhh! into an international phenomenon.

Photos below in order:
-Flyer for the 1985 Richmond debut of GWAR (billed as "GWARGGH").
-Flyer for Meat Puppets/Death Piggy show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC.
-Flyer for Minor Threat show at Richmond nightclub Benny's.
-Russ Bahorsky performs with Death Piggy, circa 1985.
-Death Piggy performs at Richmond nightclub Benny's, circa 1983.