Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was an African American musician from Chicago, Illinois.

Trivia

• In concert, Willis occasionally replaced Chicago with the name of the city in which he was performing for his famous tagline, i.e. "Rock on, New York, New York" or "Rock over London! Rock on, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania".
• The Wesley Willis Fiasco released one rare 7" record, split with the popular band Sublime. The Sublime side was "All You Need." The Fiasco's side was "Get On The Bus", about Willis' need to ride a bus from show to show with the band because of his intense fear of planes. Transporting the unstable Willis was one of the causes of the band's break up.
• The Wesley Willis Fiasco recorded two cover songs, Pure Prairie League's "Amie" and Duran Duran's "Girls on Film", the latter of which they recorded for a 1997 Duran Duran tribute album.
• Jonti Picking, creator of the Internet cartoon Weebl and Bob, is a big fan of Willis. He has made an animation featuring Willis' song "Merry Christmas"http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Merry+Christmas/, as well as a Weebl episode called "Poet"http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/poet/, dedicated to the memory of Willis.
• The slogan of the music software program Winamp, "Winamp, it really whips the Llama's ass", was inspired by Willis' song "Whip the Llama's Ass" from his album Guitar Rock of Ages.
• Willis' "Rock and Roll McDonald's" was featured in the documentary Super Size Me.
• Willis' "Birdman Kicked my Ass" is the dvd menu music for the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law animated series.
• At the time of his death, Willis' total savings were less than $300.
• A Minnesota band, Screaming Mechanical Brain, recorded a song about Wesley Willis, which used many elements from Willis's style including off tune singing and repeating lyrics continuously.
• Wesley would frequently head-butt his fans as a sign of appreciation and/or anger... it was often hard to tell. The large bruise on his forehead resulted from this habit.
• His keyboard of choice was a Gem WK8 SE, as seen here: http://www.nick15.com/images/willis/200201231117936.jpg