GWAR guitarist found dead

[speedy64]

Richmond heavy metal guitar legend Cory Smoot of Midlothian was found dead on GWAR's tour bus before it crossed into Canada today (Thursday) after a concert in Minneapolis, according to a spokesman for the band’s label.
Smoot, whose stage name was Flattus Maximus, was the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters for Richmond-based GWAR, a theatrical heavy metal band known around the word for its homemade costumes, musicianship, mock executions and pro-wrestling like antics.
He had been a member of the twice Grammy-nominated, 25-year-old band since 2002.
Smoot was also the lead guitarist for Richmond-based Mensrea and Locus Factor.
It's unclear what caused Smoot's death. Dave Brockie, lead singer of GWAR, texted CBS-6’s Mark Holmberg, saying they don’t know anything and he'll say more on Friday.
Smoot was part of the 1995 class at Clover Hill in Midlothian and was approximately 34 years old.
One of his Clover Hill classmates recalled his love of music and people, and how he would attend GWAR shows as a young teenager, dreaming of joining the band.
According to GWAR’s online bio of Smoot, he “operates his own live sound and mastering company entitled Karma Productions and also known as Slave Pit Studios . . . Cory has done several different recording projects as a musician-for-hire as well as some studio work for various television networks and world-renowned recording artists.”
Along with writing some of GWAR's recent songs, he has also recorded them.
It's unclear what's going to happen to the current GWAR tour, which was headed for Canada.
One of the previous guitarists who played the Flattus Maximus role was Peter Lee, who was shot in the abdomen and nearly killed when some of the members of GWAR were victims of an attempted carjacking in Washington DC in 1993. Lee managed to return to the band for a time, at one point touring with a colostomy.
CBS-6 recently profiled the band when GWAR’s “Gwar-B-Q” summer-ending cook-out and music festival was denied a permit by Henrico County.

[Cobohall1975]

Very entertaining band to watch. Saw them in a rock club in Liverpool,waaaay back....Might have been the late '80's or very early '90's. Me mate who I went with, was wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt,as he knew about their stage show....I didn't,standing there with my faded jeans and white Skid Row t-shirt on......The blood was everywhere! At the end of the night it looked like I'd fallen into a bath of blood.I never ever fully got the blood out of the Skid Row shirt,and for at least until they did the club up (maybe 10 years later?) you could still see the blood on the ceiling!