Wesley Willis
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009) Wesley Willis Willis in October 2000 Background information Birth name Wesley Lawrence Willis Born (1963-05-31)May 31, 1963 Origin Chicago, Illinois Died August 21, 2003(2003-08-21) (aged 40) Skokie, Illinois Genres Outsider music, punk rock, alternative Instruments Vocals, keyboards Years active 1976–2003 (as artist) 1989–2003 (as musician) Labels Alternative Tentacles, American Recordings Associated acts Wesley Willis Fiasco Monster Voodoo Machine Website Wesley Willis on Alternative Tentacles Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter and visual artist from Chicago. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1989, Willis began a career as an underground singer-songwriter in the outsider music tradition, with songs featuring his bizarre, humorous and often obscene lyrics sung over the auto accompaniment feature on his Technics KN electronic keyboard. Willis gained an enormous cult following in the 1990s, mainly upon the release of Greatest Hits in 1995 on the Alternative Tentacles label. The album was released at the urging of punk rock pioneer Jello Biafra who compiled its tracklist. In addition to a large body of solo musical work, Willis fronted his own punk rock band, the Wesley Willis Fiasco. He was also a visual artist long before his forays into music, producing hundreds of intricate, unusual, colored ink-pen drawings, most of them of Chicago streetscapes and CTA buses.