{"id":341118,"date":"2026-06-18T09:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341118\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T09:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:09:11","slug":"big-boys-documentary-celebrates-austin-skate-punk-pioneers-but-tim-kerr-is-still-looking-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/341118\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Boys documentary celebrates Austin skate punk pioneers \u2014 but Tim Kerr is still looking ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

A documentary celebrating Austin punk legends The Big Boys<\/a> premieres Sunday, June 21 \u2014 fittingly on Go Skate Day<\/a>,\u00a0a connection their guitarist Tim Kerr says is no coincidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig Boys would have never started if it wasn\u2019t for skating,\u201d Kerr told Texas Standard. \u201cEverybody that skates, get out there and get on your board.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kerr playing guitar with The Big Boys in an undated photo. Courtesy of Pat Blashill<\/p>\n

The film, \u201cYou Can Color Outside the Lines<\/a>,\u201d revisits the band\u2019s outsized influence on punk, skateboarding and Austin\u2019s creative culture. But Kerr is quick to push back on the idea that the Big Boys were ever interested in fitting neatly into the punk scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen this all first started, there really wasn\u2019t any kind of rules,\u201d he said. \u201cWith self-expression, you\u2019re not supposed to be having any rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Kerr remembers an Austin creative community that was much smaller than its mythology suggests \u2014 musicians, skaters, artists and zine publishers making things simply because they wanted to.<\/p>\n

His message today remains much the same as it was when the Big Boys closed their shows: \u201cGo start your own band.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lifetime of making things<\/p>\n

Since the Big Boys, Kerr has never stopped creating. His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 spans bands including Poison 13<\/a>, The Lord High Fixers<\/a> and more, along with decades of painting, photography, murals and old-time music. His newest project is the bluegrass-inflected folk of Up Around The Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kerr says he signs his artwork with an invitation for viewers to become creators themselves.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEverybody has their own self-expression that they can do something with,\u201d Kerr says og his decision to sign his artwork \u201cYour Name Here.\u201d Courtesy of Tim Kerr<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at the bottom of this thing to see who did this and you see \u2018Your Name Here,\u2019 it\u2019s like, yep \u2014 come on,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can make clothes, you can do radio shows, you can do music. Everybody has their own self-expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

That philosophy has held firm as Kerr undergoes chemotherapy. Rather than changing his outlook, he says the experience has reinforced something he learned years ago: Celebrate the people around you while you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring Lord High Fixers, [vocalist Mike Carroll] had been gone. And when he came back, nobody knew exactly what had happened \u2014 he could have easily been dead or whatever,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cAnd when he came back, it was that realization that here\u2019s somebody that you really loved and they\u2019re back in your life. And that means that this could be the last time me and you are sitting here talking right now, so you better hug and celebrate things that are happening all around you at that point in time because you don\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen next.\u201c<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next? Kerr isn\u2019t interested in reliving the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I haven\u2019t seen the best thing yet,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Can Color Outside the Lines\u201d premieres June 21 \u2014 Go Skate Day<\/a> \u2014 at 29th Street Ballroom in Austin.<\/p>\n

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