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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.〔 During some of Wesley Willis most creative years in the late 1980s well into the mid 1990s, Willis had found a home at Chicago Trax Recording at their Hasted Street facility. Daily, Willis would stop in to say hello, hang with his new friends - the Trax family which included, but limited to artists such as Ministry & Lard, owner Reid Hyams and his entire staff, many of Chicago's award winning and most talented artists, musicians, recording engineers and producers in the history of recorded music. Willis also wrote songs about many of the people he met at Chicago Trax and recorded them at Chicago Trax. ==Life and career== Willis was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 31, 1963. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', "Willis grew up in Chicago's projects as one of 10 children of parents who had a violent relationship and separated when he was young. He spent time in several foster homes and was essentially raised by two older brothers, who went with him from home to home." In 1989, Willis began hearing what he called "demons" and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He was institutionalized for two months after his diagnosis. He often mentioned that his demons were named "Heartbreaker", "Nervewrecker", and "Meansucker". He called his psychotic episodes "hell rides", and alternatively, he declared rock and roll to be "the joy ride music". Willis sold ink pen drawings of the Chicago cityscape on the street. In ''The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll'', Steve Albini tells an anecdote about how Willis was in one train station drawing a detailed picture of a different train station from memory. These works of outsider art appear on the covers of his albums. Willis joined musicians from the city's alternative rock scene to form the hard rock band The Wesley Willis Fiasco. Willis created a fervor in the Chicago music scene and soon caught the attention of American Recordings, an independent label distributed by The Warner Group. In early 1994, Willis recorded with the Canadian industrial-metal band Monster Voodoo Machine and appeared on their Juno Award winning debut album ''Suffersystem'' (RCA Records). In 1995, Willis was signed as a solo musician to American Recordings and went on to record two albums while producing dozens of other albums independently, becoming a minor novelty rock sensation. He toured frequently, was profiled on MTV and was a guest on ''The Howard Stern Show'' on September 26, 1996 where he played nearly identical songs about Baba Booey and Howard Stern. On May 22, 2001,Willis released an album titled Full Heavy Metal Jacket. During his tours, Willis became "famous for greeting fans with a headbutt".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Wesley Willis, Schizophrenic Street Singer, Dies )〕 This left him with a distinctive permanent bruise on his forehead.〔 Rock critic and Okkervil River frontman Will Sheff wrote that Willis's "()eriodic appearances for crowds of jeering white fratboys evoke an uncomfortable combination of minstrel act and traveling freak show."〔() 〕 Conversely, guitarist Scott Anthony, who toured with Willis in 1998, said "It's not frat boys coming to his shows and making fun of him; it's punk rock kids who appreciate that he sings stuff people are thinking." On August 21, 2003, Willis died due to complications from chronic myelogenous leukemia in Skokie, Illinois. He was 40 years old. A memorial service for him was held on August 27, in Chicago.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wesley Willis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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