Teresa Taylor, Butthole Surfers Drummer Dies at 60

Teresa Taylor, a former drummer for Texas psychedelic noise merchants Butthole Surfers died of complications from lung disease on Monday at age 60. The group announced the news in a post in which they wrote, “Teresa Taylor passed away peacefully this weekend after a long battle with lung disease. She will live in our hearts forever. RIP, dear friend.”

The news was also confirmed by Taylor’s partner, Cheryl Curtice, who wrote, “Teresa passed away clean and sober, peacefully in her sleep, this weekend. She was so brave, even in the face of her horrible disease. We were all fortunate to have her beautiful, strong spirit in our lives. She will be forever missed. We will have a memorial service sometime in the future. I love you, beloved Teresa.”

Taylor was also well known for appearing on the poster for director Richard Linklater’s breakthrough 1990 film Slacker, in which she was famously depicted standing with her hands in her front pockets, staring into the distance while wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses. She also appeared in the film, playing a character named “Pap Smear Pusher” who enthusiastically tries to sell a jar she claims contains Madonna’s pap smear.

The percussionist — who also went by the stage name Teresa Nervosa — was born in Arlington, TX in 1962 and met future bandmate and fellow Surfers drummer King Coffey when they both played in a high school marching band. She later joined the San Antonio-bred punk band fronted by Gibby Haynes with the name not safe for mainstream TV and radio whose sonic attack blasted fans with waves of chaotic noise, disturbing surgery videos and strobe lights.

Taylor played drums alongside Coffey from 1983-1985 and then again from 1986-1989, taking a leave after suffering from seizures she said were caused by a brain aneurysm; she underwent brain surgery in 1993 and came back for a brief period to play live with the Surfers in 2009. For a band known for confounding audiences with their pummeling, sometimes disorienting visual and audio assault, the sight of the two percussionists playing their respective stand-up kits next to each other became a vital part of their stagecraft, as did their long-running fib that they were actually siblings and not just bandmates.

She joined the band in the studio for a run of their beloved early albums, including 1984 full-length debut, Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac, as well as 1986’s Rembrandt Pussyhorse, 1987’s Locust Abortion Technician and 1988’s Hairway to Steven, among others.

In Nov. 2021, Taylor revealed that she had been diagnosed with end-stage lung disease in a Facebook post.

See the Surfers’ and Curtice’s posts, and Taylor’s Slacker scene, below.

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