I think that there obviously wider educational issues regarding public perceptions/misconceptions of mental health issues. In general people display a wide range of inappropriate reactions.

If anyone knows of anybody who is selling Wesley's drawings I know of someone who would be extremely eager to buy.

he hated the dudes in his band.. they fucked him over or something. i don't really remember, except that mentioning them would set him off.

Our band is partially named after one of his songs. ("Open Up A Can Of Horsewhip"). We were on tour in Chicago a few days after his death, and inbetween songs, I mentioned that it was great to be in Chicago and that we were sad to hear of Wesley's passing a few days prior. For some inexplicable reason, we got booed. I'm hoping it's becaus the couple of people who booed weren't Wesley fans.

Wesley overcame just about aever obstacle possible and became a bona-fide rock star. That's damn inspiring.

There's a pretty great new book of Wesley Willis's drawings out. My sister got it for me for my birthday. It's not the biggest book in the world (16 pages), but it's cheap(ish), and while people are selling his original art for $1000, it's the closest I'm going to get!

Wesley Willis - North Lake Shore Drive 1990

Man, THANK YOU. I have to order this.

I saw Wesley Willis at the Fireside a few years back. This was his second to last show before his death. It was a really enjoyable night. I had never heard the man's music before hand, and it really took me off guard and made me laugh. The crowd was pretty good. I played guitar for one of the opening band's songs, so I'm quite honored to say I've shared a stage with Wesley Willis. I said Hi and got a headbutt as he was sitting down by the mixing board and drawing before any of the openers went on.

My aunt Christine knew Wesley Willis personally when she was in her 20s. She knew he was an artist, but never knew about his recordings. She was quite saddened by his death. When I heard, I made sure to give her a call and let her know immediatley.

The lead singer of my first band... his name is Nick, he ran into Wesley Willis on the red line. Wesley handed Nick a crumpled picture of Michael Jordan that Wesley ripped from a newspaper. I hope Nick still cherishes the "Michael Jordan Picture".

night_tools wrote:There's a pretty great new book of Wesley Willis's drawings out. My sister got it for me for my birthday. It's not the biggest book in the world (16 pages), but it's cheap(ish), and while people are selling his original art for $1000, it's the closest I'm going to get!

Wesley Willis - North Lake Shore Drive 1990

I had no idea he was an artist (i.e. illustrator) as well as a musician. I really like his style.

I listen to his music from time to time, and it always makes me laugh. His lyrics are spot on, his delivery is perfect, and he seems to be having such fun.

It was interesting to read all your stories on here, thanks. Seems like he was a nice, if very troubled guy.

The Burger King on Milwaukee(its closed now) had a picture that Wesley Willis drew of it, hanging up in the store. I thought that was really cool. My friend has a couple drawings done by him, i guess he used to sell his stuff at alot of Metro shows.

BadComrade wrote:I did sound for Wesley once and I have a nice soundboard recording of the show. He'd be 90% done with a song, fuck it up a tiny bit, stop the keyboard, then start the song over again. He also started off the show by talking shit about "that fiasco band", which I once edited together to make it sound like he was contacting a member of that band (who works at Touch & Go) "from the grave", but I could bring myself to let it, say... get played over the PA in T&G, since I liked Wesley, and it might weird said employee out a little bit.

Rah! Rooooll. *bump*

If you were to, say, convert that to digital and throw it up on the sendspace or EA Gmail, i'd be very appreciative.

I had several friends who were in the band Apollo Nine, and they were pretty psyched when they found out that Wesley wrote a song about them that was going to be on one of his albums for Def American. Unfortunately, he got the name wrong and called them "Pollo Nine," but it was still the closest they got to having a record out nationwide, and they thought it was pretty cool that he told the world they "kicked a mountain lion's ass."

For a guy who had a brutally awful family life, learning disabilities and severe mental illness, Wesley found a way to make his mark. Maybe a lot of hipsters laughed at him, but there's something genuinely inspiring in his story. And I agree that his artwork was really cool.