Punk Globe was lucky to score an interview with the fabulous Casey Orr. Casey is a special guest at the first ever Expo in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. We chatted with Casey prior to the expo about GWAR, Ministry, comic books, musical inspirations and more. Check it out:

On behalf of Punk Globe thank you for taking the time to chat with me!

No problem at all

This year is the first ever Edmonton Expo, how do you feel about being a featured special guest?

I think it's awesome! Very glad to have been invited. It's going to be a lot of fun. And actually, GWAR was on tour—I left GWAR last year, but we were going to try to get a couple of us out there, and they were on tour at the time. So, that wasn't possible. But, luckily Chuck Varga who played the Sexecutioner, came out of retirement. So, we will do a little GWAR discussion and stuff. To talk to the connection between horror movies, music and all that fun stuff. It should be a lot of fun, looking forward to it.

Since the expo is a pop culture based event, who is your favourite comic book hero?

Oh God…I was always into Conan because he didn't have any superpowers. He just kicked ass, got fucked up and always had the hot chicks. His situations were always fantastic; he was like "if it moves, kill it"

Since you chose Conan, this next question may be cancelled out! If you could have any superpowers what would they be?

Well, my kid is always asking me the same question. All of them are good. You can definitely take any superpower and use it your advantage. Hard question! A super strength maybe, or flying would be great, then you can easily get out of any situation you didn't want to be in.

GWAR is all about horror, and it's the season of spooks. So, with that being said, what is the worst horror movie you have ever seen?

Oh god, the worst? That's a really tough one! I have seen a lot of really bad horror movies. So yeah, that is a tough one! A lot of movies that people think are horrible, I actually like, and same street for the opposite. The movies that people are raving about are crap. Hmm…I'll have to research through all my movies to come up with the definitive worst horror movie. Like I said, my worst horror movie is going to be someone else's favourite. We used to watch four or five movies a night after practice, anything and everything we could get our hands on. Some would be utter crap, and some would be great. Even some of the bad ones, had a great character in it, or were so bad that they were hilarious. There could be a great kill scene that was completely over the top, and even though 99% of the movie was shit, the kill scene made it great.

What artists are you currently listening to?

Well, right now I haven't been listening to a lot of new stuff. Just got off the Ministry tour and I was listening to a lot of the old Ministry stuff. On the bus, we listened to a lot of different stuff. We were listening to a lot of Killing Joke, and Bucko, it was switched around a lot. Al's a big fan of country, and he has a country side project called, " Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters" So, we were listening to a lot of the old country stuff getting into that vibe. The old stuff like Buck Owens and Johnny Cash. Back in its day that stuff was Punk. It was edgy, and wasn't really geared for the masses; it was geared for the normal guy, "Wife left, dog died, truck broke down" and that sort of stuff. I have always thought the old country stuff had an affinity with punk rock. We listened to a lot of that. The keyboard player from Ministry has his own side project, we were listening to that. Sort of electronic, but not real "dancy" or anything, kind of a throwback to the eighties heavier electronic. I don't really like any of the new pop crap, There is just so much stuff out there now that is worthless crap. I can't believe enough people actually listen to it to keep it going. Same as the infomercials that run all night, someone out there must be buying that stuff otherwise they couldn't afford to have commercials running all night. I listen to all music. Everything across the board, pop, country, metal, classical—there is something good to be found in all forms of music.

Was there a specific artist, or era of music that inspired you to venture into the world of music?

When I was a kid, I had an older brother who was really into music. He would sit me down and force me to listen The Beatles, King Crimson, Yes, Lake & Palmer—a lot of the old Prog-Rock stuff, so I got schooled on that before anything else. My other brother turned me onto KISS, and I was at that age, where it just blew my mind. So, I was a total KISS-kateer from about '75 to '80. Then I got into things like Cheap Trick and The Cars, I went through a phase of that. Then I was turned onto British Metal by Judas Priest. After that I was just completely new wave of British heavy metal, anything I could find I would buy. In Arlington, Texas where I was from there weren't a whole lot of people interested in that stuff yet. So, I would buy anything I could get, Then me and my few friends who were into buying these records that we had never heard before, would swap. A year or two later I discovered the older punk stuff I had missed out on. The Sex Pistols, Devo and stuff like that. For most of junior high and high school I was switching back and forth between Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Devo, The Sex Pistols, Black Flag. I've always felt like punk and metal are two ends of the same spectrum. A lot of people that like metal don't like punk and vice versa, but I've always thought the two were really closely related. The pivotal point was the release of the new wave British heavy metal stuff, that really set me on the path, and I was at that age where I was ready to pick up a guitar and start taking it somewhere.

Can you tell us about your GWAR character Beefcake the Mighty?

I joined GWAR in 1994 and the character was already established. Mike Bishop was the original Beefcake. Beefcake was actually his nickname in high school, so they used that and developed the character. How he played the character was a bit different, it was a little bit questionably homosexual, perverted, and freaky. He was very odd and questionable in his preferences. When I joined, my personality is a lot more Texas, drunk and fightin' so I kind of brought that to the character, and made him a lot more mean and hateful. While I was the character, Beefcake was definitely more smash first and don't even bother asking questions later. If something is in your way just smash it, drink it, kill it or rape it, whatever. I envisioned him as a Roman Emperor guy who couldn't care less about anything else going on around him. He just did what he wanted to do. Threw his trash wherever he wanted, slaughter people left and right, not even think about it—just like brushing fleas off a dog. My view of the character was just a drunken debachaurous guy who everyone thought was awesome. If they didn't, he really didn't care. I brought more of an elitist, bastard quality to the character.

What are a few of the greatest things about having been a performer with GWAR?

First of all, I'd say just being involved with Slavepit, GWAR overload Slavepit. GWAR falls under the umbrella of Slavepit. To just be part of this thing, that started initially as a joke, there was no intention of going beyond one or two shows. Over the years it's evolved and turned into a force to be reckoned with. Just being a part of that, seeing what all went into it, participating and building props and costumes/monsters, and just throwing ideas around. The first five years or so I was in the band we were doing full colour comic books, and shooting around retarded ideas and just using GWAR as our creative outlet for our ideas. We got to travel all over, and meet really cool people. I've traveled more than I ever would have been able to on my own. Traveling is definitely a perk. I think GWAR is something totally unique, and has to be there. There is the Justin Beiber's and pop shit on one end of the spectrum, and the other is GWAR. GWAR is about as intense as you can get. The biggest show for twenty-bucks you could get. It's been a pleasure to be a part of. It's a lot of hard work being in GWAR; you work your ass off. You're the crew, you set up your own stuff, build the props, maintain the props, load-in an load-out, it's not like you pull in with a limo. The band does a lot of the work themselves. In GWAR, and being outside of GWAR I would say GWAR is the hardest working band in the world no questions, physically the whole band works there asses off.

Performing with GWAR you attracted a colourful following of fans. What was the strangest fan encounter?

One of the weirdest things we ever did was play a ICP, Juggalo, Meeting, Gathering whatever the crap it is. I didn't want to do it. I don't like the whole Juggalo thing. Those guys are brilliant and make a ton of money. But, I hate rap, number one, and the gathering was the most insane thing I've ever witnessed. Thirteen year old pregnant, sun burnt alcoholic girls, retard dudes walking around selling every drug imaginable just openly. I just felt it was so out of place for GWAR. It didn't seem like the rock vibe at all, the whole day was just bizzaro. Walking around all day with your jaw open, just looking at the people, the audience, just crazy, sun burnt, drugged out, inbred, crazy motherfuckers. It was the most surreal and bizzaro day. Not saying any other bands are shit or anything. It was just weird. GWAR fans are crazy, but none of its taken seriously. This whole thing, everything was taken seriously. We've played other shows where the set doesn't even completely sit on the stage, and somehow we pulled it off. Shows turned into brawls. Playing in Germany, GWAR and NOFX performed and the promoter tried to not pay us. We were ready to dismantle the PA and take it with us. The tour manager found all the money in the guy's car under the seat. This place was in the middle of nowhere, and we were ready to tear the place apart. It was crazy. Everyday with GWAR is insanity. We talked to people about doing a reality show; they came out and filmed a teaser reel. But, nothing ever came out of it. Every day we would look at each other and say, why aren't they filming this? Every single day with GWAR is just retarded and insanity; surreal and hilarious. The normal things the people in GWAR do on a day-to-day basis, just being themselves is funnier than things you can script. If I pinpointed moments I'd be here all day.

How different is it performing with Ministry as opposed to GWAR?

A totally different thing. Actually my ties to Ministry go back to mid eighties. My first band Rigor Mortis were recording our first record and the producer Dave Ogilvie sent out a cassette of our work in progress to Al Jourgensen. According to Al he flipped out on what we were doing, and scrapped what he was doing in the studio at the time. Eventually he had our guitar player come out, and asked him to join Ministry, so that sort of split up Rigor Mortis around 1990. In 1992 I happened to be in the right place at the right time. They just got word they were doing Lollapalooza. I begged Al to take me on the road; I was bored shitless doing nothing. I ended up playing 700 hundred shows as bass tech. Cut to twenty years later, they were going out on tour and so I got involved. It's a totally different thing. I'm used to being in GWAR, doing everything yourself, your own roadie, doing your own work, own gear. With Ministry it was a total different experience. Total pro, great crew, great management. Basically you just showed up walked onstage and performed. Played a show in Poland in front of 500,000 people! It was great; I could do that all the time—total rock star tour. But, I also love punk bands. We do everything ourselves, we don't care if we get paid or not. I still do Rigor Mortis, which is still kinda low-level. So, it's definitely fun to do something on a bigger level. To do something pro, and at that level. I don't expect to do that all the time, but it was fun to do. The music is great and the band and the crew on the Ministry tour were just flawless. Everyone got along, everyone did a great job…it was really cool. It's not like there was a lot of bickering with GWAR, but there was bickering because everyone is an artist. Everybody is working their ass off, things get tense, feelings get rubbed the wrong way. But, GWAR is also a family; it's been together so long. So, bickering doesn't last long, you pull back together. There is definitely something to be said for both sides of the coin. The only reason I left GWAR is because I was doing it for so long, and it sort of put me on hold to set up any other long-term projects. I was at the point where I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do other forms of music. It was time to step away. I wasn't 100% happy at the time, so I had to step away. I had to make an adult decision for a change. But, I am still part of the family.

What can fans expect to see in the future?

Well, I am still playing in bands. Rigor Mortis is finishing up a new record, it will be out hopefully early next year, we have been saying that for years, but it's actually recorded now so it's closer to actually happening. I have been writing a lot of stuff I am not sure I am going to do with yet. It doesn't fall into the categories of any of my other bands, so I may start a new project next year. Also, I've been doing a lot of painting. Trying to get more into artwork, illustrations and such. I'm excited about coming up there! I get to walk around and look at everyone's work, and study other works and get tips and pointers. A lot of artists wish they were musicians, musicians wish they were artists. I find these things really cool; you can share stories and ideas. That's how really cool things happen. You talk to someone you've never met before, and next thing you know you're doing a project together.

Any closing thoughts?

I am excited to come to Edmonton and be part of the convention. See a lot of cool artists, peruse the merch tables and contribute to the overall festivities. Stoked to be invited. Looking forward to some cold weather! Stoked!

Thank you for the interview!

Was it good for you baby?

It was wonderful.