The esophageal cancer diagnosis in late May forced Corbitt to announce his retirement and the end of Warbeast in Facebook live video.

I want to see who wins the Super Bowl in 10 years.” “I don’t know, I want to be around and watch my daughter grow up and get married. “I would rather not be the tough, cool guy saying I’m going to go out doing what I love to do,” he added. “But I don’t want to die singing onstage even though it will kill me - not in that way but hurt me really bad and be a devastating moment if I have to retire. “When we lost Mike Scaccia' - who died onstage at the Rail Club during Corbitt’s 50th birthday party - 'the bright side of it is that we can say that he went out doing what he loved to do,” Corbitt told the Observer in early March before he learned of the cancer diagnosis. The news came at a time when he’d been battling heart disease with a better diet, a change to his onstage routine and surgery. He’s been battling esophageal cancer, which is linked to smoking and much more prevalent in men than women. Standing next to the band’s white van, Corbitt looks like he’s been hit with a ton of bricks. The first album I ever bought was the soundtrack from the TV show.” “It hit me like a ton of bricks,” says Corbitt, a known fan of the Dark Knight, his namesake. Corbitt found out about his childhood hero’s death shortly before meeting the rest of his band at the jam room in Arlington. On this Saturday afternoon, filming on the side of a county road in Venus, Corbitt has ditched the Texas Chain Saw Massacre T-shirt for a black 1960s Batman and Robin T-shirt in honor of Batman actor Adam West, who died earlier in the morning at the age of 88. I want to see who wins the Super Bowl in 10 years.' – Bruce Corbitt tweet this It was a type of scary that led him to pay homage to some of Neal’s most memorable lines in Rigor Mortis’ song “Slow Death” and later to pen the song “Hitchhiker,” based on Neal’s character from the cult classic. I don't know, I want to be around and watch my daughter grow up and get married. 'I would rather not be the tough, cool guy saying I'm going to go out doing what I love to do. “That was a different type of scary,” he says. At least we will have this video to capture this moment in time.”Ĭorbitt was 12 years old when he first saw Texas Chain Saw Massacre and found himself walking home in the middle of the street after he left the theater. “It’s so cool to finally see the dream happening, but this will also be the last time Warbeast does anything together as a full band with all five members. “It will be fun, but also bittersweet,” Corbitt posted to Facebook shortly before they headed out to film.

He points out that Neal has never appeared again as the hitchhiker in the dozens of reiterations of Texas Chain Saw Massacre over the years. It’s a part he’s decided to resurrect more than 40 years later as part of Warbeast’s music video for the song “Hitchhiker,” from the band’s magnum opus and final album, Enter the Arena.Ĭorbitt, who’s been a fan of Neal’s since long before the singer's Rigor Mortis days in the mid '80s, compares Neal’s decision to star in a Warbeast music video to when Bela Lugosi returned to his famous Dracula role for the 1948 horror comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Neal, a Dallas-based actor and screenwriter, found success as the voice of Killer Croc, Two-Face and Harvey Bullock in the Batman DC Universe online game, but he got his start playing Nubbins Sawyer, the hitchhiker in the 1974 cult horror movie classic Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The hitchhiker goes by the name of Edwin Neal when he’s out of character. It’s a secluded area, overgrown in some parts but mostly a wide-open range in the middle of nowhere - and the perfect place for an infamous hitchhiker to persuade some saps, like a thrash metal band in need of weed, to pick him up on a ride that quickly descends into nightmare less than a quarter of a mile down the road. The band is traveling down a two-lane blacktop road outside a town that looks like a prop from Kevin Bacon’s Footloose movie on a Saturday afternoon in early June. It’s a moment that has taken him eight years to make happen and one he’s not going to forget as he prepares to undertake radiation treatments to combat stage 3 esophageal cancer in the coming weeks. Hannah Ridings Riding in the back of a white van as the infamous hitchhiker from Texas Chain Saw Massacre attacks Warbeast bassist Lyric Ferchaud is another dream come true for lead singer Bruce Corbitt.

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