Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt (2025) Movie Script

1
[man reading on-screen text]
["Sweat Loaf"
by Butthole Surfers]
"Daddy?"
"Yes, son?"
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-what
does regret mean?"
"Well, son, a funny thing
about regret is..."
[feedback screeches]
[Flea] The Butthole Surfers are something
that can only happen in one time in space.
Wiener folk.
[beeps]
You know, Gibby just, like,
what the fuck, man?
He was, like, poetic and weird,
and created this vehicle for this thing,
and he got so lost in it.
- [crickets chirping]
- [indistinct, muffled words]
There's so much yearning in it
to, like, break through
to something that
hasn't been done before.
But it's also dangerous,
you know?
[Gibby Haynes chuckling]
Just bringing the fucking chaos.
["Hey" by Butthole Surfers]
There is kind of a before and after when
you wander into a Butthole Surfer show.
Hey, hey, hey
Like, the laws
of the universe change.
Hey-hey, hey
[man] It's psychedelic.
People were scared.
Even if you could
The greatest live band
of my lifetime.
Let's go to hell, hey
Butthole Surfers is what
happened when Paul Leary
collided with Gibby Haynes.
Now I'm in love
- Just blew my mind.
- [explosion]
I'm a surfer!
Why don't they see?
Get your hands off me
Hey, hey, hey
Hey-hey, hey-hey, hey-hey
I'm burning out
Like a falling dove
'Cause I'm not fit
To fall in love
[Paul Leary] Butthole Surfers,
you know, what mother wants their son
to grow up to be in
the Butthole Surfers?
Right now I'm about as close to normal as
I've ever been, and it feels pretty good.
I'm an old man that looks like I
should be working at the hardware store.
[director] It took you
a long time to get normal.
Yeah, a very long time.
[both laughing]
[rock music]
I went to Trinity University
in San Antonio, Texas.
My dad was a professor
at Trinity University,
so I got a full scholarship
just for that.
I don't know if I would've gotten
into any other school, really.
I wanted to be
a stockbroker or something.
It's such a normal thing.
I've never really quite felt normal,
and I always wanted to be normal.
I guess I figured
I'd study enough business
to get a good job
out of college.
But studying art
was the fun part.
I had been drawing since I was
old enough to hold a pencil.
My parents were sending me
to a psychiatrist.
He wanted to see my drawings,
so I was always drawing vomiting suns for him,
you know, in his great
psychological wisdom.
You know, he could
analyze what that meant.
[eerie music]
I felt weird from the get-go.
I struggle to fit in
with people, and sometimes
I'm uncomfortable
in situations, and...
I wanted to be something
that I couldn't be.
So none of it ever
made sense, really.
That's when I met Gibby.
Hello. I'm Gibson Haynes.
- [thunder crashing]
- [siren wailing]
[Scott Stevens] Everybody
knew who Gibby Haynes was.
He was the star
basketball player.
I wasn't that good of an
athlete, I just worked hard.
[Stevens] He was in a frat,
and he was also
a business major.
[Haynes] I obtained
my undergraduate degree
in accounting and economics.
By then, he was in the art
scene and the music scene too.
Very artistic. I mean, he was putting
stuff in the San Antonio Museum.
So he had a lot of different
social circles that he was a part of.
[Leary] He was always
the showman, though.
[Tubbs] It's because
his dad was famous,
and we all grew up
watching him on TV.
His dad was Mr. Peppermint.
[cheery music]
[announcer]
Welcome to Peppermint Place!
He was Mr. Rogers with a little
more flair than a boring sweater.
Help, Mr. Peppermint!
I fell off a cliff,
Mr. Peppermint, over here.
Where are you, Muffin?
As he strolled along
He sang a song of
The land of milk and honey
[director] Does any
of your flair for showmanship
- come from your dad?
- Yes. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jerry Haynes. Good guy.
My dad was just
the nicest guy in Dallas.
Well, here we go!
[cheery music]
[Clare Butler] Gibby was just that
kind of eccentric, wacky person like that,
that you really wanted
to be around him more.
[Leary] He stood out on campus
'cause he was, you know,
6'7" or whatever the hell
he is, and...
[punk music]
...punk haircut and
a black leather biker jacket.
I was just so fucking cool,
man. I was beautiful.
[Leary] I just remember going to his dorm
and he had a really nice Pioneer stereo,
and he had great records.
["Love Will Tear Us Apart"
by Joy Division playing]
He helped turn me on to a lot of
that cool music back in the day,
everything from the Ramones
to Joy Division.
[Andrew Mullin] Paul and Gibby,
between 'em, saw each other,
and there was an element
of recognition, maybe.
They clicked. They had it.
It's the chemistry.
You had this brilliant,
introverted Paul,
and then you had
the outgoing Gibby,
and they just really
went together so well.
They were in love.
Love, love
Will tear us apart again
That's how love hits.
It's a big one.
[both coughing]
[rock music]
[Leary] We kind of got into
abstract expressionism.
Dada and all that stuff.
[Haynes] Marcel Duchamp.
He's the original punk rocker.
I just liked his attitude.
[Duchamp] The Mona Lisa
with a mustache and a goatee.
Things that were
just stupid being art.
- [man] Sacrilegious.
- Sacrilegious, blasphemous, all you want.
I was all about stupid ideas.
So we started doing stuff.
Just weird stuff.
Gibby and I were gonna
start a t-shirt company.
We were selling Lee Harvey Oswald
t-shirts and pillowcases and bed sheets.
And then we did make a sort
of a zine, Strange VD magazine.
We took pictures
from a book called
Stitt's Diagnosis and
Treatment of Tropical Diseases.
[hard rock music]
Strange VD is a wonderful book.
You know, you should have it
next to your bed table
for those hours of quiet desperation
when you can't fall asleep.
[Haynes] It was so much fun,
man, those days,
late seventies at Trinity.
And I don't know
how the band came together.
It just somehow...
Uh...
You know, Gibby had a guitar,
like an old Silvertone guitar.
We would hang out listening
to music together and stuff.
He would start
playing his song ideas.
He started playing music in Scott
Matthews' house with Scott Stevens.
Scott played drums.
I played guitar.
We have a lot of people
named Scott in the band.
And we played a song--
the first song we ever played--
I was listening to The Ventures.
I really liked
The Ventures in Space,
and so when we started making a mess of noise,
I had this little thing.
[playing "Butthole Surfer"]
After the noise, there was
a period of silence...
[crickets chirping]
[distant dog barking]
...in which I said, "Wow,
that sounds like surf music."
And the drummer Scott said,
"Yeah, butthole surf music."
- [Stevens] That'll perk your ears up, right?
- Yeah!
Well,
we've got ourselves a song.
Butthole surfers
Butthole surfers
Fucking surfers
Butthole surfer
"Butthole Surfer."
It was two chords. It was real simple.
Butthole surf, wha-oh
Butthole surf, wha-oh
That was the first song we had.
But I was playing guitar,
and we realized that
a bass would be better.
Paul could play guitar
better than me, right?
- Oh.
- [guitar riff]
Paul was like a psychedelic
master on the fucking guitar.
Immediately recognizable.
Awesome guitar player.
I think Paul is one of the
greatest guitar players ever.
I started playing guitar
at, like, age five.
By age eight, I played in
front of the school that I went to.
And then I played in
some garage bands.
I learned how to play
the Grand Funk Railroad
double Live Album
from start to finish.
[rock music]
[chuckles] And, you know,
back then, you know, it was, like--
it was fun to listen to music that
you knew would irritate your mom.
[director] She was
a Black Sabbath fan?
[Leary laughs]
I don't think so.
My mom raised me
to be a gentleman.
Man, if I didn't open a door for a
woman when I was young growing up,
my mother wouldn't let me
have dinner. Seriously.
I had to sit in the car.
So after high school,
I kind of stopped playing.
I felt like I wasn't making
any contribution to anything.
You know,
it was kind of pointless,
and I wasn't gonna be
a rock star, so why bother?
So when Gibby invited me
to come play with him,
I was reluctant.
You ready?
[guitar riff]
[Haynes] Oh, man,
Paul was so cool.
I could express myself
with a guy that could
play the shit out of a guitar.
How the fuck did that happen?
[punk rock music]
[Leary] And then after putting
it down for four years,
it kind of allowed me to be
fresh when I picked it up again.
You know, I wasn't thinking
about what I'd been doing
for the previous
12 years or whatever.
And then I got a hold of
a single by the Meat Puppets
that had a song called
"Out In the Gardener,"
and it just sounded
like a train wreck.
I was like,
"That's what I wanna do."
That was, like,
March, April, May of '81,
and we were playing shows
around San Antonio.
[Leary] It was more
of an art performance
than a musical performance.
[Stevens] But then we graduated college,
and Gibby got his job.
Are you talking about
when I was an accountant?
[laughing]
Gibby graduated Accounting
Student of the Year.
Which is how he landed his job
at Peat Marwick & Mitchell,
which was at the time the
biggest accounting firm in the world.
All I knew was I would get,
like, 28 grand out of college.
Bam!
[Stevens]
He'd come to rehearsal,
and he'd have this
kind of accounting suit on.
And then he would start
stripping down to his boxer shorts,
and then, "The real Gibby is
here," you know what I mean?
Instead of having
to play this role.
Oh, my God
I didn't get hired out of college.
I didn't get a job.
So I was in graduate school
at the time at Trinity
just to get a student loan
to buy band equipment.
[Stevens]
I wasn't finding work either,
and I thought if I moved
to Dallas, I can get a job.
So I was done.
And then Andrew Mullin came
along and started playing with them.
But then he flipped out
on a bunch of acid,
took all the band's money.
I, um...
made a lot of, um...
[beep]
...sort of, uh,
difficult choices.
- And just disappeared.
- Oh, that's it. Out of here.
So they still had gigs booked, and they're like,
"Screw it, we'll do it as a three-piece."
I was living with my brother,
and I was standing there watching, and it was like,
"Man, they're horrible as a three-piece.
I'm gonna be their next bass player."
So I sat and taught myself how to
play bass guitar with a cassette player.
I was like, "I'm your new bass player."
Paul and Gibby were like...
- Yeah, yeah, sure.
- Sure.
[Matthews] And all of a sudden,
I was in the band.
[director] And what were you
calling yourself at this point?
Um...
[Leary] When we first
started playing shows,
we changed our name
at every show.
Just the stupidest, dumbest
names we could come up with.
We became
the Ashtray Baby Heads.
9ft Worm Makes Own Food.
- Ed Asner Is Gay.
- Abe Lincoln's Bush.
The Right to Eat
Fred Astaire's Asshole--
The Inalienable Right to
Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole.
My favorite was
Playtex Butt Agamemnons.
[laughing]
And then there was
The Dick Clark Five.
We had a T-shirt.
We probably had more names
then there were bands
in San Antonio.
And then we played a show
up in Austin at Duke's,
where we got to open up
for The Big Boys,
and Chris Gates introduced us.
You know, and he said,
"This is..."
He couldn't remember what our
band name was for that night,
but he knew we had a song
called "Butthole Surfers,"
- so he called us the Butthole Surfers.
- [applause]
So I'm like,
"Man, it's Butthole Surfers."
Ha-ha, that's a funny joke.
We were looking around like,
"Who? Oh, us? Okay."
And then we got, like,
50 bucks at the end of the show,
and so it was like,
"We got our name."
Sorry, guys.
I'm talking to my mom
Now I'm talking to my dad
Now I listen
To the stereo
I'm walking down the hall
[Gates] Butthole showed up.
They were that combination that made sense to me.
Creatively, musically, it was
very weird and experimental.
At the punk rock show
But they weren't arty people.
They were right down there,
dirty, rolling on the floor, whatever.
They were my kind of guys.
And word spread quick.
I was over at a friend's house,
so I'm really excited to see
The Dicks and The Big Boys.
And they said, "Well, what about the Butthole Surfers?"
And I said, "Who?"
And they smiled and said, "Butthole Surfers.
You'll see."
[rock music]
The first thing I really remember
is kind of a maelstrom of sound.
Just that chaotic energy.
It wasn't just riff rock,
and it wasn't punk rock.
It was freak rock.
I was jaw agape that night,
and was an instant fan.
Suck my dick!
[Leary] The band really
started taking off around Austin,
and it was kind of fun
watching the momentum build,
but it started to dawn on me that
I'm not gonna be a normal person.
Suck my dick, little sir
Suck my dick
Fuck you, little sir
So I failed to get through
a master's degree,
and I gave up on being
a stockbroker. [chuckling]
As for Gibby,
his days were numbered.
I quit my job at
Peat Marwick & Mitchell
'cause it was miserable
being an auditor.
[Leary] Gibby was gung-ho to go
to California and make it as a band,
and so, shoot,
I was ready to go there too.
[rock music]
We first went to
California in 1982.
We drove out to Los Angeles,
and we had one show
opening up with Minutemen.
[rock music]
Before we went out there,
I was telling my mom
how the Minutemen
wrote 17 songs a day,
and she said, "That's because
they can't stand any of 'em." [laughs]
[laughing] Good point.
[Mike Watt]
The gig was on Melrose
in a Mexican chop pad
called Grandia Room.
I, Calypso
The idea was to blow minds.
And, man, the Buttholes,
they fucking brought it.
It was the greatest fuckin' gig.
I was like,
"Whoa, kindred spirit.
Wow, kindred soul. Whoa!"
[audience cheering]
[Matthews] So we played our set to
what I thought was very well-received,
but it was LA, and hardcore
was just starting to really take off.
Rise above
We're gonna rise above
Think they're smart
Can't think for themselves
Rise above
We're gonna rise above
And we weren't hardcore at all.
I think Texas definitely
had an effect on them.
[director] How much does Texas
matter to the Butthole Surfers?
Come and get your ice cream.
[Haynes] Man, Texas is
everything to our band,
to the attitude, to the history.
[Lee Ranaldo] It invoked everything
you knew about Texas, you know?
That guns were rampant, and it was the
state that wanted to secede from the Union,
and Texas Chainsaw.
[screaming]
[chainsaw whirring]
[screaming]
[screaming]
[dissonant music]
Anyway, so we decided
we'd take our last money
and buy gas to drive up to San Francisco,
where there was free food.
They had soup kitchens where
you could eat six days a week.
And so we drove up there, and
our van starts to break down.
And it just came rolling to a stop in
front of this place called Tool and Die.
We look over and we see a bunch of
punk rockers loading drum kits and amps
- into the Tool and Die, so we're like...
- [Haynes] "This is good."
And we started unloading our
stuff and going into the Tool and Die,
and this woman comes out
and goes, "Who are you guys?"
We're like,
"We're the Butthole Surfers,"
and she goes,
"You're not playing here."
When I want people to do shit,
they do it.
She broke down
and let us play three songs.
So here's the Buttholes
playing that show.
The place was freaky,
it was scary.
By all accounts a death trap,
a fire trap.
And everybody was like,
"Oh, Dead Kennedys are gonna show up."
[Leary] They ended up being
a surprise act on the bill,
and they saw us play
and Jello liked that,
so we ended up hanging out and
going over to his house, met his wife.
You guys are really good.
[Leary] And then Jello said
that we should put out
a record on his
Alternative Tentacles label.
I'd like to sign you
to my record label.
[Leary] That was it.
Got a record deal out of,
you know,
our engine breaking down.
Thanks a lot!
And we were like,
"We made it."
All I wanted was to get
into the studio and record.
So I was excited to get back
to Texas and get started.
But things just started
kind of falling apart...
at that point.
[tires screeching]
[crashing]
I don't think my brother and
Paul were getting along very well.
It got to the point where it's like,
"All right, that's it, we're breaking up,"
and then Gibby and Paul
disappeared with all the money.
And it was kind of like,
"Hey, what is this?"
Really? You want 35 bucks?
That's just not
part of the deal.
[Matthews] And that's when I went
with my brother and his girlfriend
to go confront Gibby and Paul
at Mr. Peppermint's house.
[chuckles]
Your son ripped us off!
Give us the money, asshole!
[Matthews] And then Gibby
just came out swinging.
Him and my brother
got into it real good.
Well, fuck you, fucker!
Uh-huh.
I think I might've swung
and maybe grazed him.
[grunting]
Mr. Peppermint is,
"Stop, stop, stop!"
But it-- it was no big deal.
Gibby's mother just gave us
a bunch of money and said,
"Here, just go away.
Just go away."
So now we didn't have a bass or a drummer,
but we had a record deal.
Whoo!
So we booked some time at
BOSS Studio in San Antonio,
and we got a guy from Austin,
Bill Jolly, on bass.
But we couldn't get a drummer
to save our lives.
They had a really fine drummer who would
do all kinds of fancy rolls and stuff.
And at one point,
somebody took a beer and threw it at Gibby...
- [thud]
- Okay.
...which hit the drummer,
and he said,
"I quit. I didn't come here
to get bottles thrown at me."
Yeah, they did throw things.
Whereas me, it's like, "Yeah,
throw a beer bottle at me.
Sure. Bring it, man."
I was born with
two brown front teeth
because the mineral level
is so high in West Texas.
It's a matter of pride.
It means that
you're from the soil.
I remember King Coffey being
quiet, but really personable.
- Just kind.
- Torpedo! Yes, good boy.
[Hawkes] At the time, he was in a band
called The Hugh Beaumont Experience.
[Coffey] I first saw
the Butthole Surfers in '83.
Oh, oh, ohh
They became my favorite Texas
band right then and there.
It was about music,
but it was also just about
letting your freak flag fly.
That was a dream come true.
I graduated from
high school early,
because, one,
I hated high school.
I couldn't wait
to get the F out of there
and go to Austin,
where the punk rock scene was.
But part of that is that I didn't wanna
deal with the whole pressure of the prom
and finding a girl at the prom.
So I found a way to opt out.
- [narrator] A nightmare.
- [screaming]
Most of my friends were
so turned on by the Dallas
Cowboys Cheerleaders.
I was really turned on
by the Dallas Cowboys.
[commentator] ...at both
sides, and back tightens up.
For somebody my age
in Texas back then,
it was like you had this
horrible, horrible dark secret
that you can't
tell anyone about,
because fags
get their asses kicked,
and your life sucks.
So to be in a punk rock band?
Yes! Hell yes.
[Leary]
We were still in the studio,
and King came along
towards the end of the record
and recorded on
two or three songs.
But at that time,
I only played on two drums.
We could tell
we needed a bit more.
We were like,
"Let's get two of 'em."
Sure.
[Coffey] So we knew Teresa,
and Teresa kicked ass.
[director] How you feeling?
You ready?
- No.
- [director] All right.
Drink a little coffee.
Take a hit of weed.
She was one
of the music scenesters.
I was a punk and I wanted
to be in a punk band.
And I think she might have been
playing in John Hawkes' band.
- [director] Oh, Meat Joy.
- [Leary] Yeah.
We played a show at
the flophouse where I lived,
and I remember Gibby and Paul
in the audience.
As the set finished,
Paul shouted something like,
"What a fucking
great drummer."
I had never thought before that I
could ever do anything with the drums,
because girls
aren't in rock bands.
And then when I saw Debbie Harry
and I saw pictures
of them touring,
going to other countries,
and I was like,
"That would be so cool."
So one day,
Gibby came to me and he said,
"Do you wanna join
the Butthole Surfers
and play drums
side-by-side with King?"
And I was like,
"Gibby, in my lifetime,
can you get me to Paris?"
And he said, "I think I can."
So I called my mom and I said,
"Mom, my ship's come in."
And she said,
"Well, you're on probation for that little bit of pot,
and you still have
four months to go."
And I was like,
"Fuck that shit."
So I called my probation
officer and I said...
Ma'am, I've joined a rock
band. I will not be back.
- [Nervosa] And she was like...
- Oh, hell, I'm so tired of dealing with you,
I'll just close
your case out."
[Coffey] I never locked in
with another musician
like I did with Teresa.
We just felt a connection,
just a heart and soul
between us two.
Like, yeah, okay. This is it.
Two drummers standing up,
and the way that they sort of looked alike.
It's like she's
my long-lost sister.
[Flea] All the rhythms that King
and Teresa were making together,
they had incredible groove.
Just in rhythm with each other.
Sort of marching band
meets tribal.
It's almost always
gonna create a flam.
That's two beats that are
sort of stuttered closely.
- It's gonna go, "boom."
- [drums flam]
It's never perfect.
I don't know,
there's something about it
that makes it sound like
you're smacking the shit
out of your drums.
["Smells Like Teen Spirit"
by Nirvana]
[punk music]
[Leary] The first time she
played with us, after the show,
I can remember giving her a hug
and begging her to stick around.
[Nervosa] Paul picked me up,
and the crowd was cheering.
[announcer] Let's give it up
for Butthole Surfers!
[crowd cheering]
And I was like, "This is it,
man. This is fucking it."
I was playing with
the best band in the world,
but not everybody knew it yet.
["Something"
by Butthole Surfers]
[Mackaye] In '83,
we got the first EP.
That is a great fuckin' record.
[Grohl] The first phone call
that I had with Kurt,
I was happy to find that the first
EP was one of his favorite records.
There's the melodies
and the lyrics,
but there's that chaos and
dissonance and noise as well.
I mean, it honestly sounds like
the weirdest fucking thing of all time.
[Coffey] It was time for us
to hit the road,
and we had a record out
to justify going on the road.
But it took us a while to find
a bass player, because Bill Jolly, well...
Bill had vanished,
been abducted by aliens or something.
But I'd known Gibby since the
mid-seventies from Trinity,
and they had a bass and a rig
and nobody was playing it.
Terrence had a Chevy Nova,
and this guy named Buzz, who
had done a stint in prison...
His name was Buzz Saw.
Shit, I'll take that back
seat out for you.
[Smart] He ripped out
the back seat...
Beat out the tire wells so that
he could put plywood in there.
And then underneath the plywood
is where we'd put luggage.
And we'll pull
a little U-Haul of equipment.
It's a bench front seat.
So three people would
sit in the front
and two would lay down
in back with the dog.
That was a great car, man.
Little did I know it would
launch us into stardom.
[Coffey] All of us wanted
to be on the road.
It was almost a cult mentality.
I felt like I was on
a mission from God.
[Coffey]
We're in this together.
[Nervosa] It was absolutely
where I belonged.
Oh, I don't know,
And you can't say
But even if you could
You wouldn't anyway
Let's go to hell
[Coffey] We got to be a better
band the more we played, you know.
We finally got into a groove.
We kind of had this cockiness
of like, we could blow away all
your motherfuckers on stage.
It was great music,
but then it was also
this kind of avant-garde
visual art project.
There's a time to fuck
And a time to crave
But the Shah sleeps
In Lee Harvey's grave
From the beginning,
the Buttholes used very
low tech but very
effective stagecraft.
Gibby would put clothespins
in his hair.
Like strobes and like
fake blood and dresses.
Cockroaches.
We had a roach problem
at Butthole Manor.
One night,
Gibby and I both grabbed
a can of Raid Stream
and we were playing a game of
whoever got to kill
the roach first won.
And we probably sat there
for two, three hours
because
we were tripping on acid.
There's one,
there's one, there's one.
The next day
they're all dried out.
Gibby took them to work
and xeroxed either side of it.
Cut those up and we'd fill up
grocery store bags of them.
And they threw them everywhere
like confetti.
So when we got on stage,
the stage was just
covered with these things
and it was just hilarious.
They went and bought these
big stuffed animals.
Second-hand stores,
they always have stuffed animals.
And we were like, mm, okay,
why would they want these
stupid children's toys, right?
Well, later at the show...
They pull this giant
ten-foot-tall stuffed bear.
This thing is like Son of Kong.
Whenever we could find one,
it was so great.
Gibby, he had to get up on
the ladder to pull the head off
and all of the stuffing
starts flying out.
And...
The really amazing part
was there were a couple
of industrial fans on
each side of the stage.
They ripped these animals
and the stuffing came down
like surreal snow.
The strobe lights.
There was all of this stuff
just floating in the air.
And I looked over and the
promoter was on the side of the stage
and he was almost in tears.
[Leary] We weren't really planning
our careers or anything going,
gosh, let's go out
and sell a gold record
and have a radio hit
and tour the world.
So it was a hard life.
There was no money.
If they had lots of money,
they probably would
have shared it with us.
We had to sleep on the floors
of any stranger's apartment.
It was even below
living hand to mouth.
[Leary] We never had really
enough money to--
to eat well or any
of that other stuff.
So it really is sheer survival.
And I need to find
some Kentucky Fried Chicken,
a Whataburger,
a McDonald's. Right now.
[Haynes] We would eat by
going into a restaurant
and order a pitcher of beer.
And then when people
left their table,
we would grab their plates
and eat what they didn't eat.
We would also crash out in
the parking lot of a motel.
And when people left
in the morning,
we'd run into
their deserted room
and take a shower
before the maid came.
Nyuck, nyuck.
So that was
an adjustment for me,
but we had so much fun playing.
Wasn't sure at the time if
Alternative Tentacles was the place for them.
Butthole Surfers make
a break for Touch and Go.
It's a Midwest label started
by Touch and Go magazine.
And then Corey Rusk
took over the label.
All the money that came in
was used to pay off
the recording expenses
and then--
and any other expenses
associated with the record.
And then any profit
was split 50/50.
So being able to move into
Touch and Go was a great thing.
And it gave the
Butthole Surfers a lot of support.
I think started off a really
fruitful relationship.
["Eye of the Chicken" playing]
[Nervosa] Gobby wanted to name
it Psychic... Powerless...
And I think Paul wanted
to name it Another Man's Sack.
And then they had written
it down, S-A-C-K.
And I said,
oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Another Man's Sac is S-A-C.
I felt like we were referring
to another man's testicles,
not to another man's
bag of groceries.
And they were like,
oh, whatever.
Another Man's Sac was one of the
records that I was listening to every day.
I went into the theater,
I decide to whirl
I'll take a man,
I'll see him again
Never seen-a said,
"Buddy boy"
Personally, that's my favorite album
because it has the really weird shit on it.
Like the really fucked up shit.
They're just hinting
at musical forms.
There's not one song like
the other song on that record.
After you listen
to something like...
"Lady Sniff,"
you know, leading off.
[imitating chords]
[imitating spitting]
"Lady Sniff." Yeah.
"Lady Sniff."
I fucking loved that song.
[sound of spitting]
Lady sniff
My twisted Lincoln
Lady walk alone
Lately when
I see you, baby
Lord I gotta go
[Leary] That one came from
Trinity University.
One day I was driving from my
apartment to class and it just hit me.
Lady Sniff.
Lady Sniff. Lady Sniff.
So I turned around and went
back to my apartment
and got on the phone
and called Gibby
and go, Gibby, you gotta
remember this. Lady Sniff.
He ended up coming up
with lyrics.
- [director] Do you remember that?
- No.
["Lady Sniff" playing]
Lady sniff
My broken teabag
Lady walk the road
Lately when I see that teabag
I can't take the load
It's like the closest, like,
a song can be to being like a cartoon.
I mean, the barfing sound effect
they chose is so perfect.
[mimics farting sound]
Just the most obnoxious fart.
You know, for people like us
who have the shared sensibility
that like that kind of thing,
it's just...
resonates in the best way.
[Jon mimics farting sound]
The one song that, like,
gutted me like a fish was "Cherub."
There was something so dark
and devious about that song.
Cherub
["Cherub" playing]
Cherub the angel
Roll back
The hands of time
Besides the fact that
it was an obvious dance hit.
[Smart] 45 shows in six months,
something like that.
I think I was just burned out.
I was definitely sick.
I mean, like diarrhea
and just worn out.
Well, we woke up in the
morning and Terence woke up
and he was upset 'cause
he didn't have any milk,
but we couldn't afford milk.
You know, we could
afford beer, but not milk.
And then started saying
he just couldn't understand
why we would do
what we were doing.
And he gathered his guitar
and got in a cab and left.
And then I went back to San Antonio,
moved to Japan. The rest is history.
[Leary] And Corey from Touch
and Go knew this kid from Canada...
Trevor?
[Leary] Will he play bass
for us? Yes.
But he also brought
a tuba with him.
Actually, he didn't play a tuba.
He played a sousaphone.
[rough guitar riffs]
And then we get to Canada and we're
at soundcheck and all of a sudden his old
high school band
teacher shows up.
He's like, I want
my sousaphone back.
I think it was kind of
downhill for Trevor after that.
Anywho. So we... So we were
desperately looking
for a bass player again.
And we knew that
Kramer played bass.
Just for the record,
everybody calls me Kramer.
[Leary] We'd gotten to know Kramer
through his playing for Shockabilly.
When Shockabilly would come to Austin,
you know, we became friends.
And they decided to go to Athens and move
in with R.E.M. or do something like that.
We were in Seattle.
We'd all been drinking, acid was floating around,
and I don't know
whose idea it was.
Like, let's go
to Athens, Georgia.
Let's meet R.E.M.
So we went there
to intentionally stalk R.E.M.
We had an unhealthy obsession.
Who doesn't like R.E.M.?
Michael Stipe showed up
at some kind of festival
the band was doing in Athens.
And he invited a bunch
of the bands after the show
back to his estate for a party.
But he conspicuously did not
invite the Butthole Surfers.
Gibby took an exception to this.
So they followed some of
the bands back to the estate.
And as I recall, Gibby
took a can of spray paint.
And on the side of our van,
he spray painted,
Michael Stipe, despite the hype,
we still want to suck
your big, long pipe.
No, we never wrote
that anywhere.
Maybe we talked
about doing that.
[chuckling] Oh, God.
I don't know, man.
We never obsessed over
Michael Stipe's...
penis at all, ever.
It's one of those things,
if you remember,
you weren't there,
you know, so I'm not sure.
Paul would know.
Paul would remember.
I don't remember.
[Kramer] After I joined
the band, I convinced Paul
that if people saw
the band in Europe,
this would be explosive.
So I got a couple of
promoters in Europe interested.
And the promoter
in the Netherlands
got us booked into
this massive festival.
[Coffey]
It was an incredible lineup,
- including Alex Chilton...
- Nick Cave...
- Sonic Youth...
- And the Butthole Surfers.
And I was excited to be playing
with all those bands.
And, uh...
[microphone feedback]
[distorted sounds]
Before the show, Gibby had
a big bottle of whiskey...
A couple tabs of acid,
and he said...
Showtime.
[see-sawing guitar instrumental]
[singing indistinctly]
It reminded me of
that old Bugs Bunny thing
where Daffy Duck is trying
to do the thing.
And he drinks all nitroglycerin,
blows himself up.
He just goes, it's a great show,
but I can only do it once.
But the Buttholes kept doing
it and doing it and doing it.
After we got off stage,
Gibby was covered in a fake blood,
as he usually was
after those performances.
And we lost track of him.
About a half hour later,
a security guy came right up to me and said,
"We have a member of your band.
He is running around
and breaking glass bottles."
[Leary] He was picking fights
with the big, giant bouncers.
And there was a scuffle and
he almost went over this rail.
And I looked over the rail
and it was 50 feet down.
You know,
it would have been bad.
Did I say he was stark naked?
He was also stark naked.
I was so irresponsibly naked.
You Dutch, with your angles
and your doors and your ovens.
Yeah.
Then I rushed a Nick Cave show.
- Gibby jumps up on stage.
- [Gibby cackling]
Then a security man
tackles him to the ground.
[Haynes] Whoa!
Blixa Bargeld from the Bad Seeds
with these pointy
metal-tipped boots
is kicking
the shit out of Gibby.
[laughing]
And they quickly...
scooted me away.
I run back to the dressing room.
Paul at this point has had it.
Grabs a beer bottle,
takes it out
and smashes it on
his Telecaster guitar.
"I hate this fucking band."
They were screaming
at each other backstage...
And he'd take another bottle
and each time, "I quit."
Fuck you. No, fuck you.
I fucking quit
this fucking band.
And Gibby, maybe three
feet away with the glass
shattering all over him,
stark naked from head to toe,
dripping in fake blood,
smile on his face,
very calmly, as though
this was the point
of his behavior for the evening,
to see Paul smashing the shit out
of his guitars and quitting the band.
Yeah, uh...
I don't know how
we survived that night.
Paul was very, very interested
in seeing the band do really well,
and Gibby was really committed
to avoiding sobriety
at all costs.
I love you.
[Leary] The next morning I picked
up the paper and was like, open it up.
And there's a big full page
picture of Gibby wearing a dress
with the whiskey bottle
hoisted up.
[Kramer] And although it left Paul
on the verge of quitting the band,
Gibby's behavior
is why we were offered
the opportunity to come back
to Europe as soon as possible.
So it was a huge hit.
[phone chiming]
- [director] Hey, Trevor.
- [Trevor] Yes?
[director] So can you just
talk about your time?
What you remember with
the Butthole Surfers?
You know,
it was the best of times,
it was the worst of times.
You know, be careful what
you wish for, I guess.
I ran away
and joined the circus.
Turns out the circus had a
couple of jerks in it, you know.
The Butthole Surfers are sort
of the Manson of punk rock.
You're in this weird club now.
These are the rules.
There's this morphogenic
field of, like,
Gibby's the leader or some shit.
I have no idea why
everybody put up with it.
And he was, like,
purposefully intimidating.
[speaking indistinctly]
And I realized that these people
were not sympathetic people.
So I just got the fuck out.
I was like, this is stupid.
I-- I didn't talk for a long time
after I was with the Buttholes.
I was so traumatized,
I actually didn't talk.
Yeah, it was weird.
[phone chimes]
After that European tour,
I couldn't justify in my head
23 hours a day of sheer hell
and near-death experiences
in exchange for
one hour on stage
that was like dying
and going to heaven.
I thought they were
the best band in the world,
and I thought I was playing bass
in the best band in the world.
But when it came time to leave,
there just didn't seem
to be any choice to me.
But one of
my greatest pieces of pride
as a Butthole Surfer was that
had I not left the band,
the world might not know
JD Pinkus.
When I joined, they informed me
that we sleep on
a lot of floors.
I was like, like every night?
They're like, pretty much.
I was like, you're gonna
guarantee me a floor every night?
I was down.
[screaming]
I was a little runt kid
running around Atlanta.
I was 17 years old,
and they needed somebody
probably that didn't need
money, could sleep on floors,
didn't mind saying goodbye
to his girlfriend.
So I kind of fit the bill on that.
I was pretty perfect.
I got a phone call from
Gibby at a payphone.
- Hello?
- Hey, is this Pinkus?
- Yeah.
- Why don't you come down tomorrow?
[Pinkus] We set up a time, and then
my two ex-girlfriends took me down there.
I've literally never
been more excited.
And I played Blue Cheer and Black
Sabbath songs with King and Paul.
And then afterwards they said,
you can stay in the band
as long as you want.
And I said, cool.
And so that's kind of
how it happened.
Jeff was such
a good bass player,
and the way he locked up
with King and Teresa
in this real rubbery, deep,
kind of bottomless pit of groove,
they were very fucking
good musicians.
[indistinct singing]
[director] So in '80s Atlanta,
the punk and drag subcultures
really collided.
Can you talk about that?
There were lots of drag clubs around
town that you could go see shows.
The Celebrity Club,
that was opened and Larry Tee
and Tom Zarrilli
were managing that.
We were a drag bar.
We had drag queens on the bar.
Celebrity Club was the shit.
It was where freaks of
Atlanta would do their thing.
You know, it was where
RuPaul got his start.
RuPaul did go-go dance for
the Buttholes one night.
The best shows there ever, by far the
most memorable were the Butthole Surfers,
which leads me to
my favorite story.
Lisette.
[static noise]
She was probably our sluttiest,
most provocative drag.
And she was hired to go-go
dance for the Butthole Surfers.
And she started fag baiting
some of the punks at the end
of the bar, like, you know,
like saying, you want this,
you know, kind of thing.
And they really got upset
and it was clear
they were going
to drag her off that bar
and kill her right there
on the spot.
So she leapt off the bar
and into the back to hide.
And so they come bursting
through the door
and there's Gibby
in nothing but clothespins
and sort of
a see-through black veil
with full-frontal nudity.
And he was like...
[groaning]
And they were
all like, oh, Gibby, sir.
And he said,
"This is my friend."
And they was like,
Gibby, sir, I won't-- [stammering]
And they kind of all backed
away and Lisette lived.
So that was the end of that.
It's hard to forget
a moment like that.
[director] Didn't you
pick up Kathleen there?
Wasn't she added to the band...
She was part of that scene, yeah.
Celebrity Club scene. Yeah.
[director] Is there any good
story there about,
you know, how she came
into the band on tour?
[cackling]
- [Tee] Kathleen...
- Hello.
...had a weird nickname that
I don't know if--
The shitting dyke.
I did engage in
some things that, uh...
Okay, so anyway--
And she was
absolutely brilliant.
Kathleen is the most amazing
person I've ever met.
She's a... really amazing
and talented artist.
I loved making it ugly.
I would wear a goatee a lot.
Like, I had extensions for here,
which is probably
a lot grosser for people.
And pubic extensions.
You'd do something to make
yourself more ugly
and it would evolve into
something more beautiful.
American woman,
Listen what I say, hey
[Gregory] Kathleen would hide
behind this little riser and pop up.
[chuckles] And you'd see
the kids in the front row going,
"Wow, boobs," and then all of
a sudden their faces would go,
"Why does she have a beard?
Wait a minute,
is she wearing a bratwurst
between her legs?"
And you think punk rock is hectic.
This is way more hectic.
Like, this is upsetting.
[Kathleen] It's something
that you can't design to do.
It's something that becomes
and it's this energy
and this effusion.
- Performance art.
- [interviewer] Performance art--
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[man]
A true artist...
[Tee]
And we loved her dearly
because she was just
up for anything.
But I ended up falling
in love with a woman who--
she and her boyfriend
encouraged me to move
to New York with them,
and that's what I did.
American woman,
American woman
And so Kathleen got this job
at the Show Palace in Times Square...
Some peep show sex place.
And they put the quarter in
and, you know,
the curtain comes up.
And this guy was, like,
repeatedly putting the coins in or whatever.
And I guess I had...
I had to go.
- [Felicia] She was obsessed with enemas.
- Shit art.
And so I guess she wasn't
keeping track of what was what.
And she thought she had to fart.
Curtains opens up,
and she bends over and just sprays diarrhea.
And she looked at
the guy and said...
Ta-dah!
- Ta-dah!
- Ta-dah!
Ta-dah! And ran offstage.
[Kathleen] And so the
Butthole Surfers were going to tour,
and they said, oh, yeah,
when you come to New York,
come up and play with us
or something.
- [director] Which venue?
- This was the Danceteria show.
[screaming]
That was the beginning of us going
from tiny little hole-in-the-wall clubs
to playing a club with
a sound system
with a big floor
in New York City.
You were playing late at night.
You were probably drunk.
We were just going to go for it.
There might have been
some psychedelics involved.
So the details kind of
get scatter-shot.
- [gunshot]
- [sirens]
When they would come to town,
everybody would go
because they knew it was
going to be something.
You just didn't know, like,
what state of consciousness
this man was going to be in.
So I got there, and I remember
Paul saying, just, you know,
go or something
just positive, like, do you.
And it just gave
a lot of freedom.
[Moore] They came out in
a complete and utter fury.
[raw guitar chords]
They just had every single
light flashing on the stage.
Everything was happening.
Kathleen dancing naked.
Paul was just, like,
out of his mind.
Gibby was pretty much
completely nude by,
like, 20 minutes into it.
[Haynes] I tore my dresses off and I
forgot I didn't have any underwear on.
Taking King's cymbal stands
and just pouring
lighter fluid over it
and constantly torching it.
And so there's fire.
There is everything, smoke...
I had friends who were there.
That one friend said...
She thought it was the end
of Western civilization.
[Nervosa] I think Gibby had
sex with Kathleen on stage.
And that was very intriguing.
Oh, yeah. Well...
We were recreating the bacchanal
in its most basic form.
Because bacchanalia was
about being a caveman dude
and going out in the woods
and eating fucking rabbits
and fucking other people.
People coming up to me is like,
can you believe this is happening?
Yelling in my ear like,
this is insane.
This is nuts.
No, no, it was not.
It was not.
There was no sex at all.
It was close.
Oh...
Who knows?
[screeching guitar]
To me, it was all
performance art.
It was very, like, theatrical.
You know, it looked real,
but I don't know if it was--
it was probably simulated.
Gibby had his thumb in her ass.
Oh, well, Kramer--
Kramer would say that, wouldn't he?
[screeching guitar]
It was very much like this
incredibly playful energy.
That was like gentle, quiet
energy amidst this cacophony.
And it was really
sort of healing.
It really was.
Because I had always
been afraid of men.
And the culture had always
taught me to be afraid of men.
But it was just so innocent.
Although it was
just kind of crazy.
[feedback squeal]
[screaming]
[audience murmurs]
Rembrandt Pussyhorse.
I really love that record.
"Creep in the Cellar."
Well, there's a creep
In the cellar
That I'm gonna let in
And he eats in the alley
And keeps track
Of my sins
And I remember the album,
when you open it up,
it's like a close-up of, like,
a female bodybuilder's pussy.
[laughing]
Yeah
[rumbling]
[laughter in song]
[Leary] The touring never ended.
And we started playing
shows where people
would come see us, and then
we could actually drive
from town to town,
and there would be a crowd
waiting for us everywhere.
To see it gradually
pick up some steam,
people began to respond to it.
We realized that you're not
just totally shouting into the wind.
That was cool.
There was definitely people
that traveled around
to go see them,
similar to The Grateful Dead,
and you'd see the same person,
like, all up the West Coast,
or all up the East Coast.
I would see the Butthole
Surfers from D.C.,
to, like, New England.
And I would catch all the shows.
And I'm pretty sure there were
a lot of the same party favors
that were being used
as Grateful Dead crowds,
but obviously,
a slightly different show.
[Ween] We would drive around,
and get high,
or do mushrooms or acid,
and listen
to the Butthole Surfers.
They were the most
psychedelic band ever.
But it's not peace,
and love, and like,
rainbows, and kaleidoscopes,
and shit.
It's a motherfucker!
It's a motherfucker!
There's a dark,
evil side of acid.
[person screaming]
Somehow, when I thought
I'd seen it all,
it would be more over the top,
and more of a bad trip
every time.
[screaming echoes distantly]
They were notorious for dosing
themselves before going on stage.
So you just didn't know.
But you did know that it was
gonna be spectacular.
Like, the thousands of the
people that came before me
that are descendants of me,
would show war movies
out of their penises.
And they just, like, kept
adding to their production.
[filmstrip whirring]
The first films
they started showing
were old science
education-type films.
[filmstrip whirring]
[director] And you were their first
projectionist, you've mentioned.
[chuckles] Well, if no one
else remembers that,
um, it's no big deal.
I got to know Teresa first.
It's a Madonna pap smear.
It's got Ciccone on the top.
That's like, you know, like,
a medical label, Ciccone.
She was in a friend of mine's
film class
at Austin Community College.
I'd taken a couple
film classes there.
I'd already started
the Austin Film Society.
And we would have screenings.
Teresa would come by,
and then I remember
getting to know Gibby
a little bit.
And he was like, hmm,
how am I gonna--
I want to incorporate
movies into my shows.
And I remember saying,
"Gibby, I've got a perfect film for you guys."
This is an experimental
film called,
Epileptic Seizure Comparison.
I thought, oh, that works
perfect with your aesthetics.
That was an early film
they started showing.
And I did project for them
early on, a little bit.
I remember going to Houston
with them, Bill Daniel, and I.
And Bill ended up
going on tour with them.
The band, more than any--
any other band in the history of bands,
challenged their audience.
[man over speaker]
It's Mechanized Death.
I didn't appreciate seeing
car crash films, you know.
[projector whirring]
I just remember it
being really colorful.
There were, like,
maybe fish going through,
like, a coral reef.
We were so high on acid.
[echoing] Acid.
And it's amazing.
Just, like, these
beautiful fish.
[echoing] Beautiful fish.
Fish.
And then it immediately went
to some sort of, like...
genital surgery.
[person screaming]
It's actually a penis
rebuilding surgery
of a farmer's
totally mangled penis.
I'm on two fucking hits of acid!
I was just like, "Oh my God,
I can't be in here!"
It's really fuckin' gruesome.
There were people
that would faint.
Every dude goes, "Ooh!"
And the combination of that,
and the strobe lights,
made me feel very nauseous.
I think it was the booze
you were drinking.
It might've been that, too.
It was actually a really--
a happy ending film.
I mean, the guy got injured,
and he got his dick
put back together.
[vocalizing]
What--what we loved
was just watching them
do the most insane shit,
so freaky and so ahead
of the curve and so original.
The innovation, the voice manipulation,
you know, all that was what we wanted to do.
Oh, John E. Smoke
John Smoke, Smoke, Smoke
They were frightening.
They were...
unpredictable.
They were pioneers
of a new way of expression.
And they seemed to be interested
in puncturing the bubble of reality
that made you not understand
where you were anymore.
You were touching the
existential cloth. [chuckles]
[band members] Woo-hoo!
Whee! Whoa!
[Coffey] We'd been on the road
for years.
I thought, you know, guys,
can we just go back to Austin?
And Gibby and Paul and Jeff,
- to their great credit, said...
- "Oh, okay."
[Coffey] So we moved back
to Austin and we set up shop,
recording what would become
Locust Abortion Technician.
Locust Abortion Technician?
The Locust,uh...
the Locust record.
["Human Cannonball"
by Butthole Surfers]
Pardon me,
I'm only bleeding
But you cut me
To the bone
"Graveyard" is one
of my favorites.
The foulest,
most psychedelic riff.
["Graveyard"
by Butthole Surfers]
You lie in the graveyard
Well, you're rotting away
[laughing]
It is as fucked-up a guitar part
as was ever recorded, I think.
And Gibby wrote it.
I can write the shit
out of a song,
but I'm not a great, uh, player.
I wanted to get Gibby
playing the guitar,
but I didn't want him
to, like, think about it
or come up with something
or anything like that,
so I plugged a microphone in,
leaned up the guitar
against the amp,
and then just left
the room, and waited.
[door creaking]
Eventually Gibby walked by
and saw it, and...
[Haynes belches]
...picked it up
and just started playing.
[playing buzzy guitar solo]
When I hit the record button,
and that beautiful sound
came out...
[distortion-heavy guitar solo]
It was just like, ah!
["Graveyard"
by Butthole Surfers]
That's what I've been
waiting for.
And then we-- we made
a song around that.
[laughing]
[Albini] But there was a really
great track on Locust Abortion.
Sort of a fake
Black Sabbath cover.
"Sweat Loaf."
[boy in "Sweat Loaf"] Daddy?
[man in "Sweat Loaf"] Yes, son?
[boy] What-- What-- What--
What does "regret" mean?
[man] Well, son, a funny
thing about regret
is that it's better to regret
something you have done
than to regret something
you haven't done.
And by the way, if you
see your mom this weekend,
would you be sure
and tell her...
Satan, Satan, Satan!
Satan, Satan, Satan!
["Sweat Loaf"
by Butthole Surfers]
Oh
It's a nod to "Sweet Leaf."
A classique.
"Sweat Loaf" was always
great live.
It was just that riff,
and with them just, like,
putting it through
the Butthole's prism.
It was fantastic, always.
Rape of desire
Of desire, of desire,
of desire
Rape of desire
Of desire, of desire,
of desire
[laughter in song]
Rape of desire
[maniacal laughter in song]
Of desire, of desire,
of desire, rape
In those golden days,
we were sort of, like,
on a magic carpet ride,
or something.
["Magic Carpet Ride"
by Steppenwolf]
You don't know
What we can find
[screaming]
[Lynch] We traveled
the U.K., Europe,
the world, my dream come true.
But, yeah, there were some--
some times where
it was more negative.
["Sea Ferring"
by Butthole Surfers]
Like a sea horse
Like a graveyard
Like a moron
Like a girlfriend
[Keith Morris] Those guys spent
so much time around each other.
It was just everybody
piling in a van,
and everybody's
breathing on each other.
Everybody's on top
of each other.
Like a brain stroke
Like a long drip
[Coffey] All the band
was cranky.
But Paul definitely felt
the pressure.
[Pinkus] Paul definitely qualifies
as someone that can flip a switch.
You don't want to see that
on the other side of you.
What, you want some shit?
- No, sit down.
- Well, fuckin' get the fuck away from me, then!
[Leary] There's other things to
performing besides being on stage.
Booking shows, and keeping
track of things,
and showing up places on time,
and that all gets
to be very stressful.
But Gibby...
Gibby is a pretty
friendly person.
He can lure you right in,
you know,
but so can mass murderers.
[Lynch] Gibby was a total
agent of chaos.
[Lyman] Crazy, but very warm
and loving,
and you just never know
what you're gonna get.
He could be bipolar.
[indistinct chatter]
[Bob Forrest]
Something clicks inside him,
and he'll just go clobber the--
you know, "Come on,
we're gonna kill him."
Like I could kill anybody, dude.
Flames were going up,
and you could see
that the insulation
was catching.
Then the security was trying
to put it out,
with, like, fire extinguishers.
I guess Gibby threw
lighter fluid on one of 'em,
and then just started walking
towards him
with his little trusty Bic.
[director] Can you be
moody, Gibby?
Might as well have asked,
can you be not perfect?
And then just go with,
oh, in what manner am I not perfect?
I think he truly
is suffering from trauma.
It's only 3.5... [indistinct]
[Bevers] Maybe some bad things
happened.
Don't try
And fuckin' follow
I'm too busy
When they're falling
[Bevers] But I've never heard
him talk about it.
We'll be living
Have you?
[blows gently]
[engine revving]
I'll handle this.
[clears throat]
Hello, there.
I'm Jerry Finster.
This is my wife, Mary Ellen,
and my son, Jerry Jr.
Y'all bye!
Hairway to Steven was
a different kind of album.
["Fast Song"
by Butthole Surfers]
It's probably me now
I'm burning up
With desire oh
[Pinkus] It would also end up
being our last album
on Touch and Go.
[upbeat music]
That was not a pretty
ending to that.
And the Buttholes sold
a lot of records,
and they had a really deep
and important relationship
with Touch and Go.
Corey Rusk is an honest person
who pays his bands.
No contracts needed, because
he was just an honest guy.
However, the Buttholes
had gotten a manager.
- [director] You're talking about--
- [record scratch]
I'm not mentioning any names.
They got a manager,
and he went to Corey,
and he says, "Hey, the band
wants more money."
We made more money
for that label
than any of their other bands,
and then we found out they
were giving another band
that was friends of ours
a better deal than us,
and we wanted that same deal.
They wanted to renegotiate
their deal with Touch and Go.
- The label refused.
- [car crash sound effect]
So we terminated the deal.
[sirens blaring]
Turned into him claiming
he owned our music for life.
The label refused to recognize
the termination,
and kept selling records.
So we decided to sue them
for copyright infringement.
I don't know,
as the judge put it...
"One would ordinarily think
that an agreement of the type
we just described
would be in writing.
For, as Yogi Berra observed,
'An oral contract isn't worth
the paper it's written on.'"
[crowd cheering]
[laughter]
That pretty much summed up what
the judge thought about the whole thing.
["Jimi" by Butthole Surfers]
Oh my God
[Leary] A lot of people took
Touch and Go's side on that,
which was disappointing.
The Butthole Surfers were
suing the one guy in music
who had ever been decent
to them. [chuckles]
The way that they just went
from being personal friends
to being litigants in this
really cold-hearted way,
really turned me off of them.
Screwing people over is just
not ever cool, period.
[Leary] Touch and Go
had plenty of money.
They were living nice.
And we were, you know,
living in a van.
The Butthole Surfers did
something to support artists' rights.
The right to control
your masters.
The right to control
your destiny, essentially,
and they deserve credit for it.
Oh, bully for them, then.
Great work.
Congratulations.
David Yow asked me
one time, he goes,
uh, he goes, "What would happen
if you walked into a restaurant,
and there was Corey Rusk?"
And I was like, dude,
I'd go up and hug him.
And he was like,
"I don't think Corey would."
[director] He won't talk to
us. I've asked him five times.
The guy who put out
the records won't talk to you?
["Look Back and Laugh"
by Minor Threat]
Their heads went
Different directions
And their friendship
Ceased to be
It ended in tears,
but so it goes.
What I know of them as people
makes me think
that they are among the worst
people I've ever known.
Different directions
And their friendship
Ceased to be
Nobody wants to see people
that have been doing it
for years and years
make a living.
They just want you to suffer,
like me now.
Are y'all happy?
[laughter]
Some day we'll look back
And laugh
[explosion booms]
[Leary] Hairway wasn't just our
last album with Touch and Go,
but also our last with Teresa.
[Nervosa] I had
a brain aneurysm,
and I was in full-blown
psychosis.
Ooh, that was horrible.
[Coffey]
Certainly when she left, um...
you know, it was kind of like
less fun for me,
because it's fun,
like, having like,
a gay/lesbian co-member
in the band,
but Teresa was
everybody's best friend.
She was always, always fun.
Just, you know,
so much bubbling.
And when she started
giggling, you know,
it was-- everybody
would be smiling in the room.
Things were just better
if Teresa was there.
And then a lot of other
things were changing too,
pretty quickly.
One of the most unexpected
things to happen
at the end of the '80s,
and the start of the '90s,
was the ascent
of the underground music scene.
College rock was changing into
what was called the alternative nation.
It was a sea change
in the culture and the music.
[director] Do you remember when
Nirvana opened up for you guys in Seattle?
[Haynes] Yeah, that was awesome.
That poster,
it's a killer poster,
because it's Butthole Surfers,
Nirvana.
And then, like,
a few years later,
it just would've been-- woo!
The order of the bands flipped.
All of this was
sort of building,
and people were becoming
a little bit more interested
in this sort of
crazy guitar music.
And then that was starting
to move into mainstream,
and the Buttholes were
on that crest of that.
[Leary] We were the top-grossing
independent band in the country,
and we were really starting
to build momentum.
[reporter] Are you finding
yourself getting more of a feedback
being out on the road
or is it just a downer
that you haven't managed
to get yourself a Top 30 hit?
[Leary] We just needed that one
thing to push us to the next level.
And that's part of why they
ended up on Lollapalooza.
[crowd cheering]
They had my crew's attention.
[playing fast-paced song]
[Flea] He just fucking owned it.
Like, he-- he just took over.
Motherfucker came out
with a shotgun.
[booming]
Jesus, fuck it, like,
they are from Texas.
[booming]
That's punk as fuck.
It was a real shotgun,
but he was shooting blanks,
I-- I think.
- [feedback squeals]
- [shotgun booms]
[Rollins] I've seen
a lot of shows in my life,
and that was the most
intense-- Aah--
thing I have ever seen done
by a band to an audience.
[Ice-T] I was like,
white boys with shotguns?
Like, what the fuck?
They just outdid us.
You watch and you go,
these guys are frickin' scary,
and they're the real deal,
and it's awesome.
[playing fast-paced song]
[laughter in song]
[playing guitar solo]
Lollapalooza
certainly wasn't the epitome
of Butthole Surfer shows.
A lot of that twisted darkness,
and a lot of the visual elements
were not able to be there.
And yet that show still communicated
to that sort of more general audience.
In case there's any chance of, like,
next year's Lollapalooza and stuff,
you know, the t-shirt
sales were great.
[band yelling wildly]
[Leary] Record labels were
clamoring to-- to have us,
especially after
Nirvana had their success.
Everybody was looking
for the next Nirvana.
I was in line in L.A., uh...
at a Starbucks, and a guy
behind me taps me on the shoulder.
He was like, "Gibby."
And I was like, "Yeah, man."
President of Capitol Records.
[Hale Milgrim] What I
saw was so mind boggling,
whether it was rock 'n roll
or psychedelic or... punk,
they did it all and they did it
pretty damn well.
I was sold. I wanted that band
on our label.
And suddenly,
the Butthole Surfers are a major label band.
[Leary] I love the Beatles,
I love Dean Martin,
and the Beach Boys, and just on and on,
that were on Capitol Records.
And the thought of the Butthole
Surfers being on Capitol Records...
...that was just
too much to pass up.
[Coffey] Capitol gave us
the money.
So the pressure was on.
Let's try to give them
their money's worth.
Let's make a rock record.
And we had a lot
of A-list producers
that were interested in the job.
The name John Paul Jones
came up.
At that point,
you know, it's like,
"Do we want to go to our graves
saying we could have worked
with John Paul Jones,
but didn't?"
I had to work
with John Paul Jones.
He was great in the studio.
He taught me a lot
about producing.
He came to the practice space,
and listened to us
playing, and jamming,
and made suggestions.
[Pinkus] I was playing banjo
in the studio,
with John Paul Jones
playing bass.
[plucking notes on banjo]
It was on my bass that he broke
his very first bass string, ever.
I've got the string,
and it's framed in there.
And then, he was fun
to hang out with.
Because, fuck,
he's John Paul Jones.
[Pinkus] We went $5,000
over budget on alcohol.
Uh, mainly scotch.
By the time that album
was finished,
he quit drinking entirely
after that.
We drove him to quit drinking.
[director] The whiskey thing,
that was the last time you drank, am I right?
- No.
- No?
- That's a myth.
- Yeah.
I mean, I don't drink,
but that was years later.
- Years later.
- Yeah.
Okay. Well, they claimed credit.
- [laughter]
- Oh, well...
[Jones] Paul Leary is one of
my all-time favorite guitarists.
[director]
He was worried that
maybe he pissed you off
because backstage in Austin
one time
he said he gave you
a Texas titty twister.
- [Jones] He did.
- [yelps]
[director]
What possessed him?
I don't know what possessed him,
but I got him back immediately.
I just went, whup, so that
we were even.
[director]
Was it a friendly titty twister?
Yeah. No, it was friendly.
Texas titty twister, you know,
one of those.
I pinched his titty.
[director] In New York,
we call it a purple nurple.
I don't know if there's
an English term for it.
We--we don't really
do that here.
[laughter]
It was an amazingly creative
and inspiring environment,
and it yielded the Independent
Worm Saloon record,
which up and to that point,
became the biggest record
of their career.
["Who Was in My Room Last
Night?" By Butthole Surfers]
[Leary] We had a minor radio
hit with "Who Was in My Room?"
All night long
My body burned
The sheets were
Wet and cold
The lights were on
My eyes were gone
And at any second
I'd lose control
[Coffey] That was our big
debut, in a way.
After all these years
of no-budget records,
it was fun to make a big,
dumb rock record.
Who the hell
Was in my bed
But joining Capitol added
a different dynamic to the band.
We ended up not being
in control anymore.
Before, Gibby was very much
in control of the business for us.
And when the decision-making
was no longer really in his control,
I think that helps you to get
a little bit more out of control,
to where he was
like, "Well, fuck it.
If y'all don't need me,
I'm gone."
["The Wooden Song"
by Butthole Surfers]
I felt him starting to go, you
know, a bit distant from us.
Take me, break me
Tell me a good one
And maybe I'll cry
[Leary] I think it was
a South by Southwest event,
and there was a party.
I looked across the room
and I see Gibby,
so I start wandering over there.
And I see him see me out
of the corner of his eye,
and he starts walking away.
At the time,
it wasn't making sense to me.
My feelings were
a little bit hurt.
[sighs]
- [applause]
- [Haynes] Yeah. Thank you.
The Butthole Surfers
were playing in Virginia,
down in Norfolk, at a place
called The Boathouse.
And we finally get
into their dressing room.
And there's all of the guys
in the band.
They're all just hanging out.
[belches]
And we're looking around
like, where's Gibby?
And the door opens.
Just enough for Gibby
to poke his head in.
I look up and I say,
"Gibby, what's happening?"
And he looks green.
He's a little bit shrunken.
I've seen Gibby fucked up,
and fucked up out of his mind,
but not like that.
[door creaks]
He looked like
he was ready to die.
And then they perform, and the
performance is amazing.
Gibby that you would
expect from him.
It was hard, to say the least,
when Gibby started using heroin.
He had an addictive
personality, I guess.
That wasn't really clear to me.
And maybe it wasn't clear
to him.
Next thing you know, you know,
he's living at Johnny Depp's house,
and we're somewhere else
without Gibby.
Johnny Depp had done
a movie in Texas,
and befriended Gibby,
because he loved Buttholes
just like everybody else, right?
And then I was friends
with Johnny,
and then somehow Gibby just
moved into Johnny's house,
and then we were all
living there.
Let's call it
the Hollywood years.
[grand music]
[person screaming wildly]
He must have been on drugs,
because
I don't know how else
you could stomach that.
That's just, that's horrendous.
"The Hollywood Hillbillies"
or whatever they were called,
you know, Johnny Depp,
Evan Dando, Leonardo DiCaprio,
Gibby is the ringleader.
That was in the same time that
Johnny was opening up
The Viper Room.
I think the whole idea
of Viper Room
was to get everybody
out of his house. [laughing]
He had some really rapscallions
living around that house.
Give me one, two, three, four,
Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Bottles of gin
[crowd cheering]
[Forrest] So the drug problem just
escalates around that Viper Room era.
And I remember one
of the strange people
that was in that circle
was Timothy Leary.
Here, in 1993,
we are creating a new language,
beamed around the world
at the speed of light.
[whirring]
Not the greatest
drug counselor in the world.
[chuckles]
Look within. Know thyself.
[Forrest] We would go to Timothy's
house sometimes after the Viper Room.
I remember Al Jourgensen
was in town making a record,
and Gibby and Timothy Leary
got, like,
this brain trust of acid.
[electronic music beeping]
Basically, Tim would test out
whatever the new psychotropic drug
was being sent by either
University of Berkeley,
or Sandoz Corporation
from Switzerland,
and we would inject it.
And-- aah!
And Tim would just take notes,
literally, like, in a lab coat.
Stick out your tongue.
[laughing]
[Jourgensen] And then,
after about week two,
Gibby lost it on one trip,
and went into Tim's office,
and peed all over his desk.
And so, he got thrown out of,
like, the Tim Leary experiment.
There's something weird
that goes on with people,
especially when you hang out
with enablers.
Al's quite an enabler.
We smoked so much crack,
Gibby was convinced he was covered in spiders.
So he went to my room to take a shower,
and get rid of the spiders.
And then I started
hearing gunshots.
[gunshots popping]
So I came running downstairs,
and there's Gibby naked,
with a fuckin' smoking gun,
and half my tiles blown out
in the shower,
because he was seeing spiders,
and he was shooting 'em.
And I had to replace
the whole fuckin' bathroom.
[Pinkus] The whole Ministry
scene was awful for him.
We would practice,
and when Gibby would show up,
he would be passed out
in the door jamb
in between our studio
and out in the hallway.
So it felt like we were
spinning our wheels a lot.
[sneezes]
Can you hold this for a second.
I would say it was probably
more mutual than I quit.
I think those guys
were getting sick of me
not liking what we were doing.
Gibby asked me, he goes, "What
would you like to see happen?"
And I said,
"Let's get back into a room
and write songs together."
Because at that time
we were all passing
floppy disks around or whatever.
And I didn't like the touring
options that we had.
I didn't like us
playing the big places.
Does that show
where indie rock is today?
Guys carrying around $100 bills?
This isn't indie rock.
What makes you think
this is indie rock?
- Well, independent worm...
- Corporate rock.
We're booked by William Morris.
We're on a major label.
We're as independent
as Frank Sinatra.
[Pinkus] Bands should evolve.
But I felt we were
devolving into something
that was not as effective
as when people
were right in front of us.
That kind of closeness.
They don't know
if they're gonna get hurt.
They don't know if they're
gonna catch on fire.
And it was really
a pleasure talking
to you here, Mr. Ski Cap.
[interviewer]
Doo doo-doo-loo-doo.
Doo-doo.
[Depp] Paul was right to have
been worried about Gibby.
I'd already felt that bite
of heroin.
So yeah, Gibby was--
Gibby was using.
I equate it always
with that Dr. Johnson quote.
"He who makes a beast of himself
gets rid of the pain of being a man."
John Frusciante,
Bob Forrest, River Phoenix...
It's not like none of us didn't
understand what we were getting into
in terms of
certain drugs and such.
It was a bit of a question mark
as to...
the future
of the Butthole Surfers and...
Gibby and I ended up
doing a record together.
And the band was called P.
I finally talked
to Michael Stipe
He touched me on my arm
[Devine] Johnny played guitar.
Gibby obviously did his thing.
And they were playing
a secret gig at the Viper Room.
[Haynes] River was hanging out
with us and everybody
was doing hard drugs.
And then we went
on stage and the song
that we were playing
had his name in it.
Him and River Phoenix
Were leaving
on the road tomorrow
And when we looked down,
he wasn't there. And then...
[reporter] 23-year-old
Phoenix collapsed early
this morning
and died a short time later.
It happened outside
a West Hollywood nightclub.
Phoenix's friends say he had
been acting strangely
shortly before he collapsed.
I don't know.
I finally met
old Michael Stipe
I met the girl
in his video too
[Forrest] So many people
looked up to Gibby.
He could have influence
that other people
couldn't have with these people.
And sometimes that influence
could be good,
but sometimes it could be bad.
Gibby had an influence
on Kurt Cobain too.
He could talk to Kurt
in certain ways.
And Kurt was
in rehab with Gibby.
Four days before he died.
There was an outdoor area
with a seven-foot-tall
cinder block wall
around the whole thing.
And I was alone out
there with Kurt.
I started telling him about how
Anthony had been to the rehab
and he escaped
by jumping over the wall.
Which was really ridiculous
because you could just
go to the front door
and go, "See you later."
And then Kurt left the rehab
by jumping over the wall.
He felt like
he failed Kurt, right?
That he couldn't convince
him to stay
or to just hold on or just not
listen to all the chatter.
And this gets really tragic,
these two deaths,
River and Kurt.
I think Gibby carries a lot
of that sadness, that tragedy,
because he did have a lot
of influence on people.
That's probably his lowest
point, that kind of era.
And ironically, it's
when he has the hit song too.
Hi, I'm Kurt Loder
with MTV News.
After 15 years
of semi-underground renown,
Austin's Butthole Surfers
have scored a commercial hit
with their single "Pepper"
off the group's new album
Electriclarryland.
["Pepper" by Butthole Surfers]
Really catapulted them
in the mainstream.
Like I don't think
anybody would have
ever imagined could happen.
Please welcome
Butthole Surfers, kids.
I don't mind
the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
[Leary] We were in this studio
and Gibby came up
with all those lyrics.
I remember him sitting
in the other room
coming up with lyrics.
[Haynes] The lyrics were about
my friends from high school
who died or were,
you know, injured horribly.
Tommy played piano like
a kid out in the rain
And then he lost
his leg in Dallas
He was dancing
with a train
This is the trestle
right next
to Lake Highlands High School.
"Tommy played piano
like a kid out in the rain,
"he lost his leg in Dallas,
he was dancing with a train,"
well, he was a friend of Gibby's
and he was
in a blackout one night.
Wandering around the trestle
here and was hit by a train.
They called me in to do a solo,
guitar solo on that record.
And so I went in there
and Gibby was still
singing lyrics,
so I waited and waited,
and I think I waited
like six freaking hours.
And finally it's done.
It's like, okay, it's time.
And we're out of time,
you get one take.
And then Gibby comes in
after it's all done.
And he hated it.
And I can remember, it was like,
okay, Gibby,
it's cracked the top ten.
Do you like the song now?
And he goes, "No."
Okay, Gibby, it's number one.
Now are you happy?
He's like, "No, it should
have been number one-half."
[laughs]
You all right?
Thank you very much.
Butthole Surfers, kids.
I kind of feel bad about that.
Yeah, that he thinks
I didn't like that song.
That's-- I don't know
how to respond to that.
It's like a marriage.
It takes a lot to keep
a marriage going.
[Leary] You know,
we weren't cut out
for major label, I don't think.
We were signed by Hale Milgram,
who was a real music guy
and a swell guy.
And then shortly after
he signed, he's gone.
And in comes Gary Gersh.
And Gary Gersh didn't
know what to do with us.
So they kind of left us
alone to our own thing.
And then we came out
with "Pepper"
and had a number one hit.
Gary Gersh calls us up
to his office
to celebrate the gold record.
And he goes, "Hi,
I'm Gary Gersh.
I just want to let you know
I really appreciate
what you do."
I was like, wow.
This guy's all right
after all, you know,
that's pretty cool.
You know, I was feeling
all good about myself.
And then about
five minutes later,
he comes over to me again
and goes, "Hi, I'm Gary Gersh.
I just want you to know
I really appreciate
what you do."
Oh, okay.
Next thing I know, you know,
they're done with us.
Capitol Records held us
hostage, saying,
"We're not going to release
your next record,"
nor would they release us.
So we were trapped.
Then they, like, sat on us
and smothered us for years.
Those were the worst days
of our lives.
[Coffey] Thankfully,
Hollywood came to the rescue
and, like, bought
our contract off Capitol
and released the record
we were working on,
what would become
the Weird Revolution.
I love the girls
and the money
And the shame of life
"Shame Of Life," I didn't
have anything to do
with the writing of that song.
That was Gibby.
[gunshots]
- Have a terrific day.
- [Leary] And Kid Rock.
Kid Rock's my motherfucking
name, bitch
You know me,
so pass the OE
I've never worked with Kid.
[director] Didn't
he do that song with you?
Nope. I never worked
with Kid Rock.
[director]
Why am I thinking that?
I don't know.
[director] I think
Gibby wants to write
the Kid Rock thing
out of history.
I can get behind that.
Gibby just was
in no state of mind
to make a record, I don't think.
[director] I gotta
ask some questions
about unpleasant shit.
Which would be what?
[director] Well,
you know, drug problems.
Yeah, yeah.
[director] Like,
how do you look back
on all that stuff now?
[static buzz]
[Coffey] Saying that his drug
problem destroyed the band
is probably a bit much.
To be honest,
at that point, the band had
been going on for a long time.
The ship might have not
had anywhere to really go.
You know,
maybe drugs were a product
of things being expired.
[Leary] I saw the writing
on the wall early,
and that's why
I started producing.
Like, you know,
I need an escape hatch.
Then Paul gets
to, like, go on to produce.
Like, he did that,
like, the Sublime record.
Early in the morning
Rising to the street
Light me up
that cigarette
And I strap shoes
on my feet
Got to find a reason
Reason things went wrong
Got to find a reason why
My money's all gone
[director] That was a big
thing in your life?
Yeah, that was my lottery.
I love the studio.
That's the one place
where I can control
what's going on
and once I step out the door.
[upbeat music]
During the making
of our last album,
we were trying to make it work,
and we were in pretty
good spirits.
He came into the control
room and just started
chewing me out
in front of everybody.
Our manager
was there at the time,
and he was like,
"Don't you leave on me!"
I thought he was
going to beat me up,
and I had no earthly idea
what I had done.
[director] But what
if he said, you know,
"I'm sorry about last time,
but can you give me
another chance?"
That's hard to imagine.
He's not an apologizer.
[director]
Has he never apologized?
I can't remember a time.
I never thought about what
regret means very much,
other than I've sure
had plenty of them.
I was definitely not
the son my mother wanted.
And I still feel bad about that.
She took down the pictures
of me around the house,
you know, to where there
was no more pictures
of her son anywhere.
And if her friends
asked how I was doing,
she just wouldn't say anything.
[director] That's got to hurt.
It did a little bit,
but I deserved it, you know.
I was a disappointment
to myself, too.
And she died before
we had a number one hit song.
- [director] Well, right--
- Right as it was breaking.
But by then she was
in the hospital.
[director]
And she couldn't really--
No, she had other things
on her mind at that point.
We probably should have
walked away for a while.
We should have let Gibby
get some help.
We should have let Paul process,
you know, his mom dying.
You know, there's a lot.
I can remember, you know,
not seeing Gibby for a while.
Suddenly there's
a knock on my front door,
and it was Gibby.
And I was just shocked
as hell to see him, you know?
And he walks in and he looked
like a skeleton.
I could see his pants
and his shirt,
but I couldn't see anything
underneath it, you know,
it was just like a skeleton.
And he was hungry, and
he asked if I had any food.
And I said, well, you're
welcome to whatever I've got.
And he went over
the refrigerator and he was
literally eating ketchup
out of the bottle.
And I just thought
at that point, I was like,
man, this guy's not going
to last much longer.
[director] Can you name artists
that were influences on you?
Got to go with Neil Young.
[director] Neil Young.
So what about Neil Young?
What spoke to you about him?
A record, Tonight's the Night.
Friend of mine
who knows him really well,
I was talking to him today,
and he goes,
he said, Neil's kind of scary.
[laughs]
["Tired Eyes" by Neil Young]
Well, he shot four men
in a cocaine deal
And he left 'em lying
in an open field
[director] Why did he love
that record so much?
Oh, he used to,
like, sing and quote
the: "Tell me more,
tell me more, tell me more.
Was he a heavy doper
or was he just a loser?
He was a friend of yours."
He used to quote that.
Well, tell me more,
tell me more, tell me more
I mean,
was he a heavy doper or
Was he just a loser?
He tried to do his best but--
That's another one
he used to say, "He tried to
do his best but he could not."
Tried to do his best
But he could not
What's your earliest memory?
Uh...
My earliest memory,
at least one of them, is...
on Modlin Street.
Imagine that, Modlin Street
in Dallas, Texas.
And I was probably...
...four.
I was in between our houses.
And our next-door neighbor
made me pull down
my pants and he tried
to stick a Barbie doll
up my ass.
He was stronger than me.
I didn't know what to do.
There was neighborhood
awareness of this creep.
- There was?
- Yeah.
[director] Wait, you didn't tell
your parents?
- I was four years old.
- [director] Right.
I didn't know
what happened to me.
Dude next door,
he came and fucking stuck
a Barbie doll up my ass
and then fucked me
with his cock.
You can't help yourself.
[laughing]
Like, we only started talking
about real life
once we got sober
and you joke about it a lot
with the Barbie doll thing.
You know, you make light of it.
- You make light of it.
- It's kind of funny.
We use humor to deflect, Bob.
But what does humor
and shocking people do?
It gets you attention.
[Forrest] Gets you attention
and keeps people away.
We found the place.
Yeah.
In between the two houses.
[Forrest]
And this is going on.
You're not making a sound?
You're not making any sound.
I was the dumb-- I was silent.
[laughs]
Uh...
- Like out of body.
- For sure.
I could see my face.
[sighs, clears throat]
And that Wire song.
Screaming rape really loud for
some reason resonated with me.
[singing]
And like, sometimes I'll just
cling to a lyric, like a line,
I just isolate.
[Haynes] And I think that maybe my
parents saw a profound change in me
and thought that maybe
something might have happened
because when I was a child,
I would scream out for my father
to, like, bring me
a glass of water.
I did that, like, serially.
"Daddy,
I want a glass of water."
And what would he do?
He'd come in and be gentle and kind and...
Yeah, yeah.
[groans, sniffles]
I'm sorry what happened.
It's awful.
[upbeat music]
The relationship between
you and Paul changed
because you went to L.A.
Is that fair to say?
Well...
It sounds like
this is the first time
you're hearing
that Paul felt abandoned.
[indistinct chatter]
David Morgan,
he's... [indistinct]
[Forrest]
Tom, here's the thing.
I don't think he's talked
about this stuff.
You're probably going to need
to get other people to talk
about the kind side of him.
He doesn't understand it.
[laughing]
Anyway.
I feel close, close to you.
So does John, so does Paul.
A lot of people
feel close to you.
Do you feel close to them?
- Yeah.
- [Forrest] Okay.
Yeah.
- No, I love my peoples.
- Maybe you need to call Paul
and tell him you love him.
- Aw!
- You do. You do.
[upbeat music]
I feel like I'm
a survivor in that...
I became a father.
- Hey, buddy.
- Hey.
It's my buddy.
It's my buddy, Satchel.
Gibby really
should be a dead man,
but because he met Missy,
because he had a son, it gave
him a reason to want to live.
Otherwise he'd be
another rock star
who partied too hard and died.
What do you know about
my career as a rock star?
Not much.
[laughs]
[Haynes] I never thought
that I'd be capable
of being a good parent.
But I'm a good daddy.
God shed
his grace on thee
[Coffey] There's a lot
to be said for maturing.
Gibby was really volatile
and really angry
as a younger man.
From sea to shining sea
Dad, you're a horrible singer.
[Haynes] That's the point.
I think as an older man
and with a family,
I think he's found some peace.
- [director] Ah, Jesus!
- [laughs]
That's my hope at least.
But Gibby isn't the only
one who's found happiness.
[Leary] I became happy
when I met my wife, Susan.
I just never thought
I could be a happy person.
I didn't even know
what it really was.
I've always wanted to be
normal, and I've always been
looking for normalcy
until I met her.
And she's kind of normal.
This is my puzzle.
I've spent two months
trying to accomplish this.
She's able to put up
with me and keep me
straight and not too goofy.
[Susan] Paul's a born dog
lover, but I was a cat owner.
So now Paul realizes
how wonderful a cat can be.
We are very happy together.
[Coffey] I met Craig in 1991.
He and I had talked
about marriage
and I'm just kind of taking
a punk rock approach,
saying we didn't need
a document.
We considered ourselves married.
That was enough.
It wasn't till Craig
became diagnosed
with a ultimately
fatal brain disease
and that I realized
legally I am--
That I'm...
just his roommate,
just a friend.
Unless we get married.
At that particular window,
one could not
get gay married in Texas.
It was a hassle, it really was.
But we found a way
to get married.
By the time
we got back to Texas,
we were kind of married
under federal law,
but under Texas law, we weren't.
I love Texas. I'm Texan.
I love being here.
[somber music]
But it hurts.
I know Craig would be here
for me and I'm here for him,
but it's been incredibly hard
to watch somewhat decay.
[Nervosa] I guess I should
take this opportunity
to say that I've recently
been diagnosed
with end-stage lung disease.
I loved smoking cigarettes
and every pack
says that it'll kill you.
I'm not stupid.
I knew what I was doing
and I'm fine with it.
And I'm so blessed to have
so many good friends
and to have been able to live
such a cool life
and all the people I got to meet
and the shows we got to play,
it was all worth it.
King is the most Zen Buddhist
guy I ever met in my life.
I did come to believe
that he was my brother
and he was my leader.
Paul is like a solid guy.
I can't believe I got
to play drums in a band
with a guy that can
play guitar like that.
That's fucking outrageous.
Sittin' in a disco
[Nervosa] Pinkus is funny.
I think of him as like,
the only bass player
we ever found
that would put up with us.
I love Gibby Haynes.
He's the funniest
person I ever met.
I love him with all my heart.
I always have and I always will.
[soft music]
You look great, dude!
- Hug this out.
- All right.
You brought the--
You brought the--
Yeah, the thing-ulele.
Yeah. Might as well.
It's a recording studio.
The last person
to play those drums
was Teresa on that tour we did.
It's a 125 and he whittled
out the nut and set it up.
The continent of Atlantis
was an island
So great an area of land
That from
her western shores
Those beautiful
sailors journeyed
To all corners
of the earth
Let us rejoice,
let us sing and dance
Ringing anew
Hail Atlantis
Way down
Below the ocean
Where I wanna be
she may be
Nyuck, nyuck.
["Perry" by Butthole Surfers]
Hello, Perry
You think you're
so fucking scary
It's about coming of age.
It's about learning
how to do it.
It's about learning how
to experience things the way
they ought to be experienced.
It's about growing up.
It's about digging
the shit off the floors.
It's about doing the things
that you ought to do.
It's about being
a butthole surfer.
It's about doing
promotional work.
It's about-- It's about PR.
It's about all these things.
It's about loving yourself.
It's about loving your mum.
It's about loving your dad.
It's about doing the things.
It's about going
to the go kart track.
It's about loving everything.
Your pop, your kitty,
all the things.
The cat food, the little bits
of crayons,
the melted pieces,
the loving friends,
all the things you wish you had.
You're gonna make either a right
or a left or you're
gonna go straight.
Yeah. [laughs]