Described as one of the last beatniks of the contemporary music, Tom Waits - in fact - had two separate careers. From 1973 (LP "Closing Time") to 1983 ("One From The Heart" soundtrack), he recorded nine LPs for Asylum Records, writing songs mainly in the manner of Tin Pan Alley, mixing them with jazz and blues. Extraordinarily, he never produced a hit, but he earned a cult following all over the world. In 1983 he signed with Island Records, and released a series of albums that stunned the music world. Beginning with "Swordfishtrombones", he introduced a whole new orchestration, which included some of the instruments invented by Harry Partch. He found a new ground for his innovations, searching in sound fields that never before were searched. This second part of his career coincided with his marriage to Kathleen Brennan, a former writer for Francis Ford Coppola (Zoetrope). His LPs "Rain Dogs" (1985), "Big Time" (soundtrack) and "The Black Rider" are today what Kurt Weill's music was once. "The Black Rider" brings music written for the show directed by Bob Wilson and staged in Germany.
Close friend of Chuck E. Weiss, a fellow L.A. scenester and co-founder of The Viper Room with Johnny Depp, and frequently mentions him in lyrics and liner notes on his records. Close friends with the Coppola family including Nicolas Cage; often cast in Francis Ford Coppola movies. Frito-Lay used an unauthorized sample of his song "Step Right Up" in one of their commercials. He successfully sued for an undisclosed amount of money. Frito-Lay unsuccessfully counter-sued. Children: Kellesimone (b. 1983), Casey Xavier (b. 1985), Sullivan (b. 1993). Uses a large collection of electric megaphones to create unusual tonal effects on his recordings. One of his favorites is a 1944 vintage issued by the US Navy Bureau of Ships, manufactured by Guided Radio Corp. of New York. Shops at hardware stores for items to be used as percussion instruments. Owns obscure and custom made instruments such as a Chamberlin Music Master 600 (an analog synthesizer manufactured in the 1960s) and a photon clarinet ("[It] sounds like a keyboard lobster dying on a campfire."). He converted a 4 cubic yard metal box (intended as a debris dumpster) into a musical instrument called a "Strata Dumpster" (aka "Dumpstalele"). He cut a 2 foot hole into one side, and streched seven piano strings across it, fastening them with two welded bridges. The strings can be plucked, strummed or bowed. He describes the sound as "trainlike and huge, like trash day with a purpose." The photo on the cover of his album "Rain Dogs" includes a man who many believe to be him. It was one of a series of photos taken at the Cafe Lehmitz in Hamburg by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen. Waits reportedly saw the photo at an exhibition, was taken by the similarity of him and the man in the photo, and asked permission from the photographer to use it as an album cover. His grandmother, Olga Johnsen, was from Oslo, Norway. Is Scottish and Irish from his father's side of the family and Norwegian from his mother's side. He has said that Bob Dylan is his favorite songwriter and his main influence for initially getting into music. Ironically, Dylan's more recent work has been said to be comparable to Waits' music. Is a good friend of Keith Richards who makes frequent appearances as a guitarist on his records. A big Baz Luhrmann fan. Bears such a striking resemblance to actor Ron Perlman that he was once credited under the name "Ron Perlman" on a movie poster. Being a family friend of the Coppolas, he performed at the wedding of Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze. Originally slated to play one of the singing cowboys in A Prairie Home Companion