Butthole Surfers "Pepper"

People's idea of being a DJ is often shaped by what they see in the movies, in films like "Good Morning Vietnam," where Robin Williams' character seems to be improvising and free-associating at all times.

That's not reality, of course.

No, even if you are a BIG Personality with all the latitude in the world so say what you want (I'm thinking Howard Stern here), there are still things that you HAVE TO say, like it or not.

You have to do the station IDs like your boss wants you to.

You've got to say the name of the song, no matter how stupid you feel saying "That was Crash Test Dummies with 'Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.'"

And you've got to do commercials.

One of my most awful moments was back in my early days at mvyradio, when I was in charge of producing the station's commercials. I had I received copy for a high end clothing store.

Among the items as part of the upcoming weekend's trunk sale, were these fur pieces, from a particular woodland creature.

Yes, the copy required that the jock say---with a straight face---the phrase:

"Sheared Beaver."

I'm not kidding.

Just writing it feels lewd.

But my awful moment turned into one of "schadenfreude" when I realized that I, as Production Director, could assign this task to another DJ.

Yeah, Megan the DJ didn't forgive me on that one for a while.


Years earlier, I remember watching this track by The Butthole Surfer climb the charts, and I did so with a smile on my face.

I was in the unusual situation of working for a station that played Top 40 music during the day, and Alternative music at night.

We were playing The Butthole Surfers during my evening show, and I didn't have a problem saying the band's name.

But I wondered what Casey Kasem would do.

We ran American Top 40 every weekend, and sometimes I would be the one to babysit the program. You got to learn, pretty quickly, that the show was heavily formatted, and that Kasem did the same things, week in and week out.

One of the scripted parts of the show, was that he would run down the Number One songs on some of the other charts. The Number One Country Song of the week. The Number One Urban Song of the week. And the Number One Alternative Song of the week.

Guess was track was on its way to that Modern Rock top spot?

If "Pepper" reached Number One, was I really going to hear Casey Kasem say the words "Butthole Surfer"?

Against all odds, Yes, "Pepper" did become this huge hit. But Casey wussed out.

When the time came, he announced that "Number One on the Alternative charts is 'Pepper' by The B-H Surfers."

Still, it felt like a victory.

Though not as sweet a victory as getting a co-worker to say the words, Sheared Beaver.


See the video on Youtube.