It still feels surreal to say I wrote this movie with Tom Stern. Not just because it’s a movie about my favorite band, that I got to write with one of my favorite directors, but because who writes a documentary? You’d be surprised at the amount of narrative work and literal hours of actual WRITING we put into this thing. Countless late hours were spent hanging out with Tom at his (sadly burnt down) house in Altadena, structuring and writing this movie to not just be wild and hilarious, like the band, but to be emotional as well, also like the band. My goal throughout was to give this movie the James L Brookes treatment. Make it relatable, heavy, bittersweet. I hope we did that. Who knew Butthole Surfers could make you weep? If at least one person had a slightly damp eyeball in the Paramount theater tonight, they made it all worth it. Even if that individual was me. I can’t believe that I get to call Tom Stern my mentor, co-writer, and friend. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect, zany, psychotronic, hilarious, kind, and sweet guy like Tom being my guide through movie making. Yes, he’s taught me countless things about filmmaking and art, such as always breaking glass in a scene when you get the chance. But he’s also taught me so many personal things about life and how to live it. About never giving up and always plugging away. About trying to be an optimist no matter what. About taking chances. The film industry, nay, the world, needs more Tom Sterns. There are about 3 true creative wild men in filmmaking: Sam Raimi, Shinya Tsukamoto, and Tom Stern.Neil, Nick, Scott, Chris, Noa, Adrian, Al, David Yow, Jeff, Paul, King, Gibby (just to name a few fellow Butthole crew members). Every day I’m so thankful you guys came into my life and that I can call such an amazing group of people my close friends. Mike Watt once said “Our band could be your life.” The 80s American underground music scene really latched onto that damn phrase. I was born 18 years after the inception of Butthole Surfers. I was two when they released their final album. But somehow: 100%, yes. This band, every single one of their EPs, LPs, compilations, bootlegs, are my life. They’re constantly shooting through my ears. That’s all that needs to be said about the power of their terrifying, grimy, maladjusted, hilarious, beautiful music. Not a day goes by where I don’t think about the band at least 10 times. Im honored to be a part of this bands life, too. Even if it’s just as a, I don’t know, lifeguard? For Butthole Surfers? Whatever. Words don’t do justice to what these people, these songs mean to me. That’s why we made a movie about them. So please just go watch it. Because then we can start working on this movie we wanna do about these freaks from Arizona called the Meat Puppets.
