Butthole Surfers’ Teresa Taylor Dead At 60

Teresa Taylor, one of the drummers for Texas rock legends Butthole Surfers, has died. In 2021, Taylor revealed that she had been diagnosed with “end stage lung disease,” and last fall she said that her death was “imminent.”

Taylor was born in Arlington, Texas, in 1962, and she began playing with the Butthole Surfers in 1983, just as they were releasing their first EP of the same name. Taylor, then known as Teresa Nervosa, had collaborated with King Coffey, the other drummer and founding member of the Butthole Surfers, in high school marching bands, though for a time they emphasized the lie that they were related. Taylor played on the albums Psychic… Powerless… through 1989 (apart from a brief hiatus). Hairway To Steven, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, Locust Abortion Technician, and Another Man’s Sac.

In 1989, she disbanded the group and relocated to Austin. As the “Pap Smear Pusher” in Richard Linklater’s 1990 film Slacker, Taylor made an impression by attempting to sell a pap smear that Madonna allegedly used. Taylor reunited with Butthole Surfers and joined them on tour in 2009.

“Teresa passed away clean and sober, peacefully in her sleep, this weekend. She was so brave, even in the face of her horrible disease,” her partner wrote in a Facebook post. “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.”