San Antonio-born band the Butthole Surfers was known for chaotic live shows, mind-skewering sounds and a surprise ascent of the Billboard charts with the mega-hit “Pepper.”
Now, a feature-length documentary titled The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt purports to tell the group’s story “warts and all: Sex, drugs, rock and roll, the beautiful, the ugly, and the weird.” The film debuted Wednesday at Austin’s SXSW multimedia festival. “Through exhaustive interviews, archival footage, cutting-edge animation and graphics, surreal reenactments, and more,” the film was made “in the anarchic spirit of the band,” the team behind the film told the Current via email.
The Butthole Surfers were formed after singer Gibby Haynes and guitarist Paul Leary met at San Antonio’s Trinity University in the late 1970s. Though they shared a love for non-mainstream music, both were headed for Squaresville. Haynes became an accountant and Leary was working toward his MBA.
Both proved to be too weird for their respective career paths.
One semester short of earning his MBA, Leary dropped out and followed Haynes to California. When they returned to San Antonio, they started an experimental rock band that would later become the Butthole Surfers.
The band toured relentlessly, building an audience for its bizarro blend of post-punk noise, darkly surreal humor and Texas-style psychedelia. After years in the underground, the band’s 1996 album Electriclarryland yielded the smash hit “Pepper,” which claimed the No. 1 slot on the Billboard Modern Rock charts.
Matching the timbre of the band, the filmmakers behind The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt describe their documentary as “irreverent and funny.” But the production also has moments that are “sincere and heartfelt at times as we get these post-punk rock legends to look back on their strange and extraordinary lives.”
In addition to members of the band, the documentary includes interviews with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, filmmaker Richard Linklater, Black Flag singer Henry Rollins and rapper Ice-T.
The film is written and directed by Tom J. Stern and co-written by Simon Weinstein.
“The Butthole Surfers were like a safehaven for misfits, queers and artists amidst a generally unfriendly punk scene and political climate,” producer Noa Durban told the Current.
The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt is the first film Durban has produced.
In addition to Haynes and Leary, early members included bassist Jeff Pinkus as well as King Coffey and the late Teresa Nervosa, both of whom played drums. The gallery of misfits also included Kathleen Lynch, the naked dancer who performed with the band throughout the late ’80s and was part of why their live shows frequently became X-rated.
An additional screening of The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt will take place at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Austin Film Society’s AFS Cinema.
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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.
