Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis (May 31, 1963 – August 21, 2003) was a busker musician and artist from Chicago. A diagnosed schizophrenic, he gained a sizable cult following in the 1990s after releasing several hundred songs of unique but simple music, with emphasis on his humorous, bizarre stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

Not much is known about Wesley's childhood, however Illinois Department of Children and Family Services records show that Willis and his siblings spent most of their childhoods in various foster homes.
In 1989, Willis began hearing what he called "demon mullets" and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He often mentioned that his demons were named "Heartbreaker," "Nervewrecker," and "Meansucker". He called his psychotic episodes "hell rides". 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.





On August 21, 2003, at the age of 40, Willis died due to complications from chronic myelogenous leukemia. A memorial service for him was held on August 27th, in Chicago, Illinois.

At the time of his death, he had recorded over 1,000 songs but his total life savings were less than $300. Having sold out hundreds of venues across the country, the question still remains where all of Willis' money went. In a Howard Stern interview, it was mentioned that Willis would receive as much as a $10,000 advance for the production of an album, and that he would then earn a portion of the money received from album sales and live shows.