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The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds

Ep548: After the Astronaut - Butthole Surfers' Lost Album w Paul Leary & King Coffey

The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds

Nate Goyer

Music, Music History, Music Interviews

4.7 • 579 Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary and King Coffey trace the band's unlikely major label journey — from America's top-grossing indie act to MTV hitmakers to a lost album finally resurrected after nearly three decades.

Preorder "After the Astronaut" LP here

Topics Include:

  • After the Astronaut releases June 26 after sitting unreleased for 28 years.
  • Capitol signed Butthole Surfers when they were America's top-grossing indie band.
  • Label president Hale Milgram believed in them; his firing changed everything.
  • Pepper was written on the spot after a producer demanded one more song.
  • Pepper won radio call-in polls for a month and played MTV hourly.
  • The hit turned them into a "follow-up band," which was never their thing.
  • John Paul Jones produced Worm Saloon and taught Paul Leary how to produce.
  • Jones and the band shared a Lagavulin obsession, running up a $20,000 scotch bill.
  • Capitol's big budgets contrasted sharply with Touch and Go's approach.
  • After the Astronaut was a deliberate return to experimental, art-school Butthole Surfers DNA.
  • Mark Ryden painted the original cover; getting dropped handed it to Marcy Playground.
  • Declining a Hellraiser soundtrack placement created the first real rift with Capitol.
  • Their manager's heroin relapse coincided with the band getting dropped mid-promo cycle.
  • Promo cassettes already pressed now sell for $800–$1,000 on the secondary market.
  • Hollywood Records funded Weird Revolution; Rob Cavallo showed up once a week for ten minutes.
  • Finding two-inch master tapes in a storage locker triggered the After the Astronaut remix.
  • Documentary The Whole Truth and Nothing But took director Tom Stern five years to make.
  • Rob Reiner called it one of the best music docs ever — hours before his murder.
  • A potential box set looms, but Paul prefers naps, his cat, and his bicycle.

High resolution version of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds.

0:10.0

Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer.

0:13.0

Well, hello, everyone, it's Nate.

0:16.0

Welcome to episode 548 of the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds.

0:22.6

And dear people, I'm going to be sharing an incredible episode today, a conversation with

0:26.9

Paul Leary and King Coffee of Butthole Surfers, who are currently celebrating the release of

0:32.4

their lost album after The Astronaut, recorded some three decades ago when they were at an absolute

0:39.1

commercial high. The album was rejected by Capitol Records, which became them finally being

0:45.0

dumped by the label altogether, and this record has been locked away for decades languishing

0:50.4

until 2026. You'll hear the full story today. In fact, we cover a lot of ground from the early days of the band at Touch and Go to the signing of Capitol Records, working with John Paul Jones. And of course, we talk about that stratospheric hit Pepper and the high expectations that that song created. And finally, the capital kicking them off the label and

1:12.4

locking away the lost album after the astronaut, which is finally seeing a release in June of

1:18.2

2026. You could pre-order your copy today at sunset boulevard.com at sunset boulevard. You know how

1:25.0

you shorten that. I put the links in this episode page. You can go right to it and grab your copy. Today we also talk about the butthole Surfer's documentary, the whole truth and nothing but. And when we're going to see that available around the world? There's been some screenings around, but when can those of us outside of some of those major centers be able to watch it in the comfort of our own homes?

1:48.2

They talk a little bit about that today.

1:50.1

So strap yourself in for this incredible conversation with Paul and King.

1:54.5

And by the way, for fans of the band, we recently had Gibby on the podcast, Episode 509.

2:02.1

And, of course, you could follow this podcast anytime and get access to hundreds of other incredible artists talking records, music, and more, including Greg Gin of Black Flag and SST Records.

2:12.5

He joined us, Episode 547, Brett Gurowitz of Epitaph and Bad Religion, Episode 500.

2:19.7

Michael Girard of Swans, Episode 498.

2:23.4

Movie director Kevin Smith and Josh Roush.

2:26.5

Talking Punk Rock Cinema, Episode 516.

2:29.2

We even had Zach Wild on the show a few weeks back, talking about the last days of Ozzie and what's next episode 544 and literally hundreds more conversations follow

...

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