Zach Blair

I started my tenure with Gwar maybe a month or so after they’d finished recording the “We Kill Everything“ record. They were holding auditions and I knew Casey Orr because I lived in Dallas and he’d played in one of my favorite bands, Rigor Mortis. He’d also just rejoined Gwar.

Let me back up, Rigor Mortis was THE North Texas thrash band and my brother and I were from a small town in North Texas called Sherman. Dallas was the “big city” and we’d have our dad take us there to watch Rigor Mortis play. One notable time was when they opened for Slayer and we got to meet Casey outside before the show.

We ended up forming our own band called Hagfish which was decidedly not a thrash band even though that’s where our roots were. Casey, lo and behold, started coming to our shows and we struck up a close friendship. Pete Lee from another seminal north Texas thrash band called Sedition (that we also loved) had been playing in Gwar and had subsequently left prior to them recording We Kill Everything and the plan for the band was to record and then find a guitar player to tour. Casey thought of me because he knew my metal background (and possibly to keep with the Texas theme?). My band had broken up and I was looking for a new one.

I knew the other guys in Gwar though Casey and Pete and had been to their shows but had never thought of one day joining. My audition (I believe) was toward the end of 1998. I got the gig and would be Flattus Maximus, touring started in early 1999. We toured “We Kill Everything” for the next two years until it was time to start writing and recording a new record.

We started working on what would become “Violence Has Arrived” in 2000. Casey and I brought in the bulk of what would be the music for that record and the whole idea was to make a metal record with no extraneous story line or extra characters. Just a focused record and I believe we accomplished that. It’s still one of the records I’m most proud of. Touring started for “Violence Has Arrived” in late 2001 being delayed by the events of 9/11.

I departed the band around the summer of 2002 because I felt certain issues were making staying untenable and also for the prospect of starting a new creative endeavor and playing different styles of music. That happened immediately with my tenure in Only Crime and then, eventually, Rise Against.

That’s me as Flattus in the “Gwarnage Campaign” live concert , the “Blood Drive 2002” live concert and the “It’s Sleazy” movie. (also all of the videos shot for We Kill Everything) But it didn’t end there…

In the fall of 2011 Corey Smoot, that had replaced me in 2002, tragically passed away. The band continued on that tour and I visited them at the Austin Tx show. They were still in shock and the idea was pitched for me to come to Richmond Va when the tour was over to start writing with them again for what would become the “Battle Maximus” record. They didn’t want to take time off, they felt that Corey would want them to continue. I said yes immediately and I’m so glad I did. They were also auditioning guitar players while the writing and recording was happening and they found Brent Purgason.

I ended up writing and playing on about half of the “Battle Maximus” record (Intro, Torture, Raped at Birth, Bloodbath, Battle Maximus and Falling) and I was honored to do it. As fate would have it this ended up being the Swan Song of Dave Brockie.

I’m so proud of that record and the fact that I got to work with Dave one last time. I might not still “be” in Gwar but I’ll always be a member of Gwar if that makes sense. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love them and I love that I’m a part of their amazing legacy.
- Zach