Llama-Whippin' Good
My 19-year-old cousin's hipster friend has a picture of Wesley Willis for an avatar on MySpace. I wonder if they know anything about him. I got to talk to him a bit in the middle 90's. He was a big dude and seemed to be a little unstable at first - especially when he head butted Jay in the bathroom ("Say RA!") at a Rod Almighty show. I found out that he knew a ton about local music and was out at shows all the time. The shows he liked turned into songs. Whether it was Jay's exhuberant reaction to the head butt ("now you say 'Rod!'")or we really did whoop the rhino's ass, Wesley put a song called Rod Almighty on a record called Delilah's in 1995.
At the time, playing the Double Door was the most exciting thing that had happened to me. Finding out about the song - priceless. Catchy tune - too bad he didn't use it more. ;)
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I remember his handshake was unsettlingly soft for so large a man. He liked to look directly (and I mean directly) into your eyes as well. I'm jealous he never wrote a song about any of the bands I've been in. I guess the rhino's ass whipped us...
if any other dekalb band deserved a willis song it was "Ms. Phil".
That DD show was one of the best Rod shows, too.
I don't remember for sure but it's possible that it was Stan from Otto's/Wilco doing sound that night. I do distinctly remember the sound guy (whoever it was) telling Jay to turn his tower of speakers totally sideways on the stage (facing himself directly) which was a huge breakthrough because he finally turned his amp down a bit and let the sound guy do his job.
He headbutted Jen F.
And said to me "Bitch, you wanna buy one-a my rock n roll CDs? I know you got the money."
Then there was that time Mike S. and rode on a mostly empty bus with him. Westly informed us repeatedly that he "was not gonna be an asshole like my cousin."
RIP, Westly.
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