A quintessentially Austin figure – subject of Bob Ray’s 2010 documentary Total Badass, self-publisher of a music zine, legendary for a SXSW wristband counterfeiting scheme back in the early 2000s – Chad Holt passed away on Aug. 18. At the time of his passing, Chronicle staff writer Kevin Curtin, a friend of Holt’s, posted a remembrance, which we’ve excerpted here:
“Chad Holt was a renegade of thought and deed. … He was a one-of-a-kind writer/publisher with his annual Whoopsy zine in which he often formatted it like it was reviews of bands but it would just be stories of his sexual exploits or brutally honest musings that challenged the conventional ways people thought about life. In [the] last two issues, 2018 and 2019, he wrote about having ass cancer in his unique, put it all on the table, kind of way. … He was what I’ve often aspired to be: a smart guy who does legendary mind-blowing dumb shit, but very few people are as brilliant as Chad.”
This article appears in September 13 • 2019.