Dave Schulthise

Who was Dave Schulthise?

David Schulthise, otherwise known as Dave Blood, was the bass guitarist for the punk band Dead Milkmen. He helped form the band in 1983 along with fellow pseudonymous musicians Joe Jack Talcum, Dean Clean, and Rodney Anonymous. Prior to this he was a Ph.D. candidate in economics at Purdue University.

Allegedly, he tuned the strings of his bass guitar, in order from lowest to highest, D E A D, to match the name of the band.

He stopped playing music in 1995 after the band broke up as the result of developing tendinitis in both hands.

Schulthise visited Yugoslavia while on tour with the Milkmen and became fascinated with Serbia, its culture and people. After the band disbanded, he enrolled at Indiana University to study Serbo-Croatian language, literature, and history. He moved to Serbia for work and study in 1998, but in the wake of the NATO bombing campaign there he was forced to return to the US.

In late 2003, he told an interviewer that his favorite bassists were Mike Mills, Johnny Gayden and Charles Mingus.

Schulthise committed suicide by a drug overdose on March 10, 2004, at age 47.