The Butthole Surfers are an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but the core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been together since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second drummer from 1983 to 1985 and from 1986 to 1989, and they have employed a variety of bass players, most notably Bill Jolly and Jeff Pinkus.

The Buttholes are best known for their chaotic and disturbing live shows, black humor, a sound that incorporates elements of punk rock, psychedelia, heavy metal, noise rock, and electronica, as well as their use of sound manipulation and tape editing. The Buttholes have a well-reported appetite for recreational drugs, particularly psychedelics, an evident influence on their sound.

Although they were respected by their peers and attracted a devoted fan base, the Butthole Surfers had little commercial success until 1996’s Electriclarryland, their only gold record to date. The album contained the hit single “Pepper” which climbed to number one on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart that year.

Pre-history

The Butthole Surfers had their genesis at San Antonio, Texas’ Trinity University in the late 1970s, when students Gibson “Gibby” Haynes, and Paul Leary Walthall (later just Paul Leary) met for the first time. Though it was their overall strangeness and shared taste in non-mainstream music that caused them to become fast friends, both appeared to be headed for very conventional careers.