Gwar Just Kicked out Vulvatron, Their Coolest Member and Only Woman

Metal band Gwar has unceremoniously ejected Vulvatron, its only female member. Vulvtaron, whose real name is Kim Dylla, joined in September 2014 as a vocalist and was evidently informed of her firing yesterday through a public Facebook post from the band. Gwar — a stagey, jokey band known for over-the-top costumes and unbelievably messy shows — wrote that there was no “ill will” in the parting and they simply wanted to “go in a different direction” with the Vulvatron character. Dylla seems to disagree.

Gwar posted this on Facebook yesterday, which if you’re not familiar with the band’s particular schtick will sound like absolute gibberish:

GWAR, the world’s premier shock rock band, today announced that Kim Dylla was released from the band directly following the fall 2014 GWAR Eternal Tour, and will no longer perform with the group. Dylla played the character of Vulvatron, a buxom Scumdog from the distant future, on the band’s last national tour. The group garnered quite a bit of press when it was erroneously reported that Dylla, in the role of Vulvatron was the new lead singer for the band. Brent Purgason, slave of the recently defrosted intergalactic barbarian, Pustulus Maximus, had this to say; “Kim did a great job, but we wanted to go a different direction with the Vulvatron character. You will absolutely see more of Vulvatron in the future, just not portrayed by Kim. There is no ill will, no acrimony, and no drama. We respect Kim’s talent without question, it just isn’t what we needed in the character.”

Two hours later, Dylla fired back with a less conciliatory missive of her own:

It’s really nice when you find out important things from people you consider to be your friends from posts on the internet and messages from strangers. There is something called basic respect not existing in that modus of communication. That being said, I’m currently looking for a new vocal gig with a serious metal band that likes to tour their asses off. Doesn’t matter what style but no core b.s., no symphonic metal. Must be chill dudes and down with beer drinking hellraisers. Must not be threatened by strong women, no deep-seated drama. Location unimportant.

A nasty back-and-forth on Facebook ensued between Dylla and Brett Purgason, better known as Pustulus Maximus, the band’s lead guitar player. Purgason accused Dylla of drinking too much, implying that’s what led to her firing (which, judging from second- and third-hand stories I’ve heard about Gwar tours, is a bit like accusing your fellow fish of enjoying the water in the aquarium too much).

The exchange, which was quickly deleted, was captured by the Ultimate Guitar. This is the key part:

Brent Purgason: If you really want to keep dragging this out then I can tell them the truth. I wanted to keep the crew in Richmond so of course my first choice was to pick someone local and I figured it would be great to grab somebody that I had come up with. So I picked you above all others and it seemed like it was going to work out great so we hired you. Then you toured and you were drinking too much before you performed and we told you to stop.

Then it happened again, then again and the final straw was when you were so inebriated you broke a bone on stage during the show. Not cool. It wasn’t like we never said anything to you. We told you again and again from individual band members and tour manager and you didn’t listen. Did we say that to the world? No, but you want to paint this picture like you got sidelined out of no where. Dude, we told you JANUARY 5th 2015 and we told you WHY. You insulted fan art right from the get go in public for the world to see. I don’t like it when someone that is supposed to be working with me is disrespecting the people that make this possible.

Say whatever you want, your friends are going to have your back no matter what but don’t call me a f-cking a-shole for protecting my livelihood. You showed up drunk for work after given multiple chances to correct the mistake and you were the NEWEST person on the crew. If anyone here got a new job and showed up hammered they would get fired too. We gave you more than a few times to fix the problem and you would just deny you had one. I tried to help you out and you want to make us look like a-sholes? Tell the truth for once and accept responsibility for what happened. I didn’t want it to come to this but I’m not going to shy away while you try and turn our mutual friends against me. I even reached out to you today because I didn’t want it to go this far but this thread is still up and this is what you want. Not cool.

Kim Dylla: I broke my rib because i made a stupid f-cking mistake trying to put on a good show for the last date not because I was drunk. If others can drink i can,.there aren’t different rules for ppl based on how long they are in the band.. hazing is for frats not music. I asked ppl how they thought about how I was doing my job and every time they said I was doing a great job. Until someone told me I wasn’t doing a good job or did something wrong no one had a right to say shit about my lifestyle unless they said something about everyone’s lifestyle.

Brent Purgason: We lost two members to abuse problems and you don’t think we have a right to tell our employees to not put us at risk by performing under the influence?

The two members Purgason is referring to are Dave Brockie, Gwar’s much-loved vocalist, who went by Oderus Urungus and who died in the summer of 2014 from an accidental heroin overdose, and guitarist Cory Smoot (Flattus Maximus), who died in 2011 from what the coroner’s office determined was coronary artery disease.

The new person playing the “Vulvatron character” hasn’t been announced.

Update, 4:30 p.m.: Dylla has denied the allegations that she injured herself onstage due to intoxication in another Facebook post, concluding, “Never get famous, it sucks.”

Spending the beautiful day on the lake with my boyfriend. Not answering messages or texts or emails, though I thank you all for the kind words and support. It’s good to know the music industry never changes. For clarification I was told in January in a meeting that the band would be taking a year off and that they would not be using my character in the upcoming storyline, but that I would be invited back in the future if the gigs were right for the character. We both said that we would not say anything publicly about it which is why I never did. That is wholly different than finding out via metal news sites and random fan messages that they are indeed using your character and getting someone else to play it, and thus not inviting you back. Basic respect would have thought someone would have cared enough as a friend to let me know this personally before broadcasting it to the world. I’m strong but I’m still a girl with feelings. That’s just beyond disrespectful and I am very disappointed in you all, no matter what reason you had for being dissatisfied with me you still have a responsibility to handle things in a professional manner and with respect for other people’s legacy and feelings. I designed that character with Matt Maguire, came up with the name, worked on the costume, developed the entire character because GWAR told me just to make it up and try my best. I tried my best and people liked it. I think Brockie would have been proud. Yes, I drink beer. Almost every day. Find me a group of metal musicians who think that is weird. No, I don’t perform incapacitated and never have. Yes, I can handle my shit. No, I don’t do drugs. Yes, I broke my rib and kept singing through the rest of the set and the crowd never noticed. No, I didn’t break it because I was drunk, I broke it because I elbow dropped the wrong part of the Mr. Perfect costume trying to put on a good show. Anyone who has ever worked in the ring with me knows I constantly injure myself because I am clumsy as fuck. Yes, I called fan art “bad”- privately and to my friends on my private page, because it was technically bad, and amazingly so. Was that meant as an insult? No. Anyone who knows me knows I love bad art. It sucks that this had to turn into a media shitstorm but when people say things about you publicly that you honestly had no idea were going on, it’s going to be expected you want to say something back. Anyway, never get famous- it sucks. I only just wanted to play music. If you have a serious band and would like to play some music, hit me up.

Image via Facebook/Kim Dylla

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