Randy "Biscuit" Turner

Randall J. Turner stood tall as an architect of American hardcore punk. Born in Gladewater, Texas, Nov. 25, 1946, he migrated to Austin in 1970 as so many of his generation did, attracted by the capital's liberal nature and vibrant arts community. Turner delved into the city's counterculture, reveling not only in the freedom to express his sexual orientation, but also an infamous music scene in which to eke out his own place. With the arrival of punk rock in the late-1970s at Raul's on Guadalupe Street, he took punk's do-it-yourself ethic and founded a band called the Big Boys with Tim Kerr, Chris Gates, and Fred Schultz. The music on their debut, 1982's Fun Fun Fun, was harder and more intense than the poppier styles of local peer acts such as the Skunks and Standing Waves, and Turner's flamboyant front persona and style of dress made him an instant star on the local scene. He began his art career along the way, creating posters and the graphic identity of the Big Boys; during that time he assumed the beloved nickname "Biscuit." With tours to California, the Austin quartet redefined the genre's garage-rock beat and melded it with the fierce sound that became known as skate punk, or hardcore. Along with the Dicks and the Stains, the Big Boys influenced a variety of bands locally and across the national scene, particularly on the West Coast, where they were associated with Minor Threat, X, Fugazi, and Danzig. After band politics split the group in the mid-1980s, Biscuit struck out on his own over the next 10 years with other bands, first Cargo Cult, and later Swine King. In the 1990s, he became more dedicated to art, developing his cartoony love for found objects and bright colors into multimedia presentations. Biscuit continued on his art-and-music path, playing with the Texas Biscuit Bombs, right up to August 2005, when he was found dead from cirrhosis of the liver due to hepatitis C. In a painful irony, he died the week of his biggest art show, never having lived to see himself on the cover of The Austin Chronicle. – Margaret Moser

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Blues/Gospel Classical Country/Bluegrass DJ/Electronica Experimental Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Hip-hop Jazz New Age Pop/Rock Punk R&B/Soul/Funk Reggae Singer-Songwriter/Folk Spoken Word Tex-Mex/Conjunto World Music

Born: November 25, 1946

Died: August 18, 2005

1984: Hall of Fame Inductee

ALL RANDY "BISCUIT" TURNER ARCHIVES