Teresa Taylor, the longtime drummer for Butthole Surfers, has died at age 60 following a battle with lung disease. The band announced the news on Twitter early on Tuesday, 20th June, writing that Taylor has passed away peacefully. “She will live in our hearts forever. RIP, dear friend,” the band wrote.
Taylor – who was also known as Teresa Nervosa – was also well known for a small but very memorable part in Richard Linklater’s classic film Slacker, which came out in 1990. According to Pitchfork, Taylor entered hospice last year.
Teresa Taylor Dies At 60
Taylor was born in Texas in 1962, and joined Butthole Surfers 1983. She would play with the band throughout the 1980s, working on albums like Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac, Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, and more.
Taylor left the band in 1989 as she was having seizures caused by a brain aneurysm – she had surgery in 1993. The band went on to have the huge commercial hit ‘Pepper’ in the late ’90s; Taylor joined the band for a few shows together in 2009.
Taylor also had a brief but very memorable scene in Linklater’s Slacker – she was cast as the ‘Pap Smear Pusher’, who turns up in one scene to sell a jar of what she claims is Madonna’s pap smear. According to Deadline, in an oral history about the film published by Salon, Taylor was reportedly uncertain about how the scene would be received.
“When I finished my scene, about a week later, I had a sort of breakdown where I decided that I had humiliated myself so publicly, I even considered going to their house and getting my reel,” she recalled. “I didn’t want the movie to come out and me not to have done my bit. So I signed.”
“I don’t get recognized,” she said in 2006. “Nobody recognizes my face, but when I’m in public, and I’m going off on something, people will be, ‘Are you the chick from Slacker?’ But it’s always because I’m ranting and raving about something.”
Further Reading
‘The Girl from Ipanema’ Singer Astrud Gilberto Has Died Aged 83
Algy Ward of Tank, The Saints and The Damned Has Died Aged 63
