Beefcake the Mighty


Beefcake the Mighty is the bassist in the heavy metal band Gwar. He appears as a stout humanoid girded in Roman-style armor. He is usually portrayed wielding either an oversized Gladius sword or a large battle-axe.

Background

According to Gwar mythos, Beefcake originates from the planet Cholesterol. He weighs approximately 299 tons and "invented music by stretching dinosaur guts across the Grand Canyon".
In the early days of Gwar, Balsac the Jaws of Death played bass and Beefcake played guitar. However by the time Gwar's first album Hell-O had been released, the roles had switched, and Beefcake became the permanent bass player.
Before their first album, the character of Beefcake was known as Cornelius Carnage and was played by Greg Ottiger. Soon, however, Cornelius Carnage's character was developed into Beefcake the Mighty. When Hell-O was released in 1988, Beefcake was played by Michael Bishop. Bishop played the role until after the 1993 Halloween mini-tour. Casey Orr was enlisted to play the bass in February 1994. Bishop, however, temporarily replaced Orr for a stint around the recording of We Kill Everything. After the release of Violence Has Arrived in 2001, Orr and his wife had a baby. He left the band shortly thereafter, and was replaced by Todd Evans. Evans suited the role well, as he is credited as being much larger than any of the previous Beefcakes. Evans continued to portray Beefcake for several years; however, Orr briefly returned to fill in for the 2007 European tour when Evans could not participate. In Spring 2008, Evans left Gwar to focus on his band, Mobile Deathcamp. On April 15, 2008, Casey Orr officially announced his return to the band, donning the armor of Beefcake the Mighty once more.
Beefcake's personality has changed considerably since Hell-O. Oderus Urungus and Beefcake originally had an almost brotherly relationship, and the dialog between the two reflected such. When Michael Bishop was replaced by Casey Orr, that relationship changed as well - instead, Beefcake became extremely arrogant and vile, and was crude even to Oderus. While Bishop returned for We Kill Everything, his personality remained the same. Little is known about Todd Evans' take on Beefcake, though his entries in the Gwar.net blog again reflect extreme arrogance.
On August 2, 2011, Casey Orr, once again, officially announced his amicable departure from Gwar and expressed his desire to pursue other projects. Orr joined the reformed Ministry. Jamison Land, a guitarist from The Burial, took on the role after Orr's departure In 2013, he joined the 11th Annual Independent Music Awards judging panel to assist independent musicians' careers.
Land announced his departure from the band in February 2019. As a result, Orr returned soon after to portray Beefcake during live shows.

Armor

Beefcake the Mighty has had relatively few fundamental design changes in his armor from his inception: he has always worn a perversion of the Roman legionnaire armor, though his helmet somewhat resembles the corinthian style helmets of Greece. However, as Gwar became more successful, they had more resources to upgrade their costumes. Most of the changes have been subtle, and were/are largely based on available materials and the bassist's size.

Contributions as vocalist

He is the most frequent vocalist in Gwar, after Oderus, having sung lead on "Cool Place to Park", "The Road Behind", "Pussy Planet", "Jack the World", "Eat Steel", "Bad Bad Men" "Fight", "Crush, Kill, Destroy", "Hate Love Songs", "The Bonus Plan", "Metal Metal Land", "The Price of Peace" and "Beat You to Death". Beefcake has always had a relatively high voice, in sharp contrast to his large size.