Flattus Maximus is the name of a character and former guitarist in the American heavy metal band Gwar. He is known for his red face, white dreadlocks, dinosaur-head shoulder pads and reptile feet. The name "Flattus" is indicative of the character's signature flatulence. His speaking mannerisms suggest a childlike intelligence and naivety.
The role of Flattus Maximus was played by six different people before it was retired. Dewey Rowell was the first to take the role. A sculptor, Jeffrey Rumaner, nicknamed "Stretch" played Flattus in the scenes to the video "Gor-Gor". Pete Lee portrayed the character beginning with the 1992 tour in support of the America Must Be Destroyed album and continuing to perform with the band through their next four albums.
Tim Harriss portrayed him during the 1998 Halloween Tour and for the recording of We Kill Everything. Zach Blair took over the role in 1999 for the recording of Violence Has Arrived. Cory Smoot took over the role in 2002 and continued to portray the character until his death on November 3, 2011. After Smoot's death, the band made the decision to officially retire the character in his honor.
Gwar lore
Very little about Flattus Maximus is explained in Gwar lore. Even his home planet is an uncertainty. In an interview conducted during a 1997 tour, Flattus, at the time portrayed by Pete Lee, explained his hazy memory was due to his notorious pot smoking. He recalled a planet named Pot (made entirely of cannabis) he once called home. He ended up destroying it by smoking the entire planet out of existence.
Although his explanation was never officially set in stone, it's one of many theories as to where Flattus really originates from. What is apparent, though, is that he is illiterate, has a slight Southern accent, and that he attributes his "explosive guitar style" to a strict diet of vegetarians, which also causes his infamous atomic flatulence.
Following Smoot's death in 2011, the band explained the character's absence by claiming that Flattus stole Gwar's spaceship in order to return to his home planet, Planet Home.
Flattus' history
Dewey Rowell was the first man to portray the "armored clown", taken from the pre-2005 web bio, who played on Hell-O and Scumdogs of the Universe. He left the band shortly after the "Tour De Scum" tape, and before America Must Be Destroyed, Gwar's third album, was recorded. Until mid-1992, after Gwar's Phallus In Wonderland was released, the Flattus Maximus character was absent. America Must Be Destroyed had all of its guitar parts (save two solos) played by Balsac the Jaws of Death. When playing those songs live, in particular "The Road Behind", it was typically Balsac, not Flattus, who played the lead.
For the filming of Phallus in Wonderland Jeffrey Rumaner, a sculptor friend of the band, who goes by the name of "Stretch," played Flattus in the few scenes in which he was featured (the video for "Gor-Gor" features Stretch falling off of a building, and he plays piano in "Have You Seen Me?").
After a mini-tour in early 1992, Peter Lee was hired, at the recommendation of Ministry guitarist Mike Scaccia, as the new guitarist (Scaccia had turned them down to continue working with Ministry - Scaccia and Lee were both in a band together, along with future Gwar bassist Casey Orr; it was Lee who enlisted Orr in 1994). He first played on This Toilet Earth. In 1993, Lee was shot in an attempted carjacking, and was unable to film much of "Skulhedface" due to injuries to his stomach.
He managed to film a commercial segment with Dave Brockie, where Lee first suggested the idea of police officers (both were dressed as policemen) playing rock music. This turned into Gwar's first true spin-off band, X-Cops. One music video from that period, "Jack The World," features Lee as Flattus, and he is seen wearing a colostomy bag, which he also wore during a brief tour in October 1993. Lee played on the next two albums, RagNaRok and Carnival of Chaos, and was in the films from that time frame (1995-late 1997), "Rendezvous With RagNaRok" and "Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguins."
In the interview segments of "Rendezvous...," Flattus is seen more than any other character (the others were a paranormal investigator played by Bob Gorman, Beefcake the Mighty, Balsac the Jaws of Death and Techno Destructo), and it is here where the childlike mannerisms truly surface. Lee left in December 1997, due to his recurring stomach problems stemming from the carjacking. His leaving of Gwar also forced the dissolution of the X-Cops.