Teresa Taylor (aka Teresa Nervosa) has died of lung disease, her former bandmates in Butthole Surfers announced. The drummer and actor known for her role in Richard Linklater’s 1990 Slacker was reportedly placed in hospice last year. Taylor was 60 years old.
Taylor was born in Arlington, Texas, in 1962. In high school, she took up the drums after playing in various marching bands in Austin and Fort Worth alongside fellow Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey. Taylor joined the band in 1983 after letting the band members practice in a warehouse space she was renting at the time. Taylor played with the band through much of the 1980s, performing on Psychic… Powerless… Another Man’s Sac, Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis, Rembrandt Pussyhorse, Locust Abortion Technician, and Hairway to Steven, among others.
After a period of extensive touring, Taylor left Butthole Surfers in 1989 after experiencing light-induced seizures that led to her diagnoses with a brain aneurysm. In 1993, she underwent brain surgery and was able to perform again, joining Coffey’s band Rubble.
In between bands, Taylor made a brief appearance in Richard Linklater’s breakthrough film, Slacker, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1991. Credited as Pap Smear Pusher, Taylor’s character attempts to sell a jar containing a pap smear she claims belongs to Madonna to two friends on the street. The character is featured on official posters and packaging for the film, which has since become associated with the culture of downtown Austin during the 1980s and 1990s.
“I don’t get recognized. Nobody recognizes my face,” Taylor told Salon in 2006. “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.”
