What was on wesley willis forehead

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He decided, 'I'm going to become a rock star' and became a rock star. The show was the greatest on the earth. The rock 'n' roll was perfect. It is the powerful feeling to my artwork. With a 6-footinch, Whopper-fed frame that weighed in at more than pounds, Willis was all loping legs and big belly. I'm glad to meet you! But put Willis onstage, said Meiners, and "he completely commanded the crowd.

People could not take their eyes off him. In the mid-'90s, Willis' career with the Fiasco took off and the band began opening for a host of alternative bands; in Chicago, Willis and the Fiasco regularly packed small clubs, with crowds of fortysomething Baby Boomers and twentysomething Gen Y'ers alike chanting for Willis classics such as "The Chicken Cow," "Cut the Mullet" or "Casper the Homosexual Friendly Ghost.

Accompanied by his pre-programmed Technics KN keyboard, Willis sang from the hundreds of spiral notebooks in which he had meticulously penned his lyrics. His songs addressed subjects ranging from hellish bus trips to male body parts, from presidents to friends he loved "like a milk shake. And the kicker to every song was an ad slogan: "Allstate, you're in good hands"; "Wheaties, breakfast of champions"; "For all you do, this Bud's for you.

He could be threatening. His opinions, whether you loved them or hated them, were all his own. His continued significance in particular to fans who face similar struggles bears that out.

Anyone who attended the recent Wesley Willis Tribute Night at Beauty Bar with such heady critical questions in mind -- not to mention images of remarkably raucous crowds from the old days -- encountered something much more subdued. Several dozen fans mingled about, taking in Willis-inspired art, watching a screening of The Daddy of Rock 'n' Roll , and bopping along to the Jollys, a local garage-pop outfit that could have easily provided source material for a Willis ode were he alive today.

There was little in the way of moral anxiety or fraught spectatorship. Thirteen years of distance helps that, so too does our collectively more nuanced critical capacity -- an embrace of craft and deliberation that complicates narratives of self-taught artists as unstudied, unaware vessels. Rock on, Wes. Stephen Gossett is a Thrillist contributor who just now cut the mullet.

Follow him on a harmony joy ride: gossettrag. Skip to main content Chicago Entertainment. Make Fun.