Quick Refer

Quick Reference

SIMPLE TIMELINE
(further reading >>>)

  • 1949: December 7: Born at Park Avenue Hospital/ Whittier. Both his parents: Jesse Frank Waits and Alma Johnson McMurray were schoolteachers
  • 1965: Young Tom Waits gets his first job at "Napoleone's Pizza House" in National City/ San Diego (Further reading: Napoleone Pizza House)
  • 1968: Tom Waits holds a job as a doorman for the San Diego Heritage Coffeehouse. The Heritage is also the club where Waits had his first gigs (Further reading: The Heritage Coffee House)
  • 1971: Gets his break into show business as he is discovered by rock manager Herb Cohen at Troubadour's hoot night (Further reading: The Troubadour)
  • 1971: Waits does his first demo-recordings for Herb Cohen's Straight/ Bizarre label
  • 1972: Waits is signed to Elektra/Asylum after David Geffen sees Waits participating in a Troubadour hootenanny
  • 1973: Released "Closing Time"
  • 1974: Released "The Heart Of Saturday Night"
  • 1975: Released the live double-album "Nighthawks At The Diner"
  • 1976: First European tour (Further reading: Performances)
  • 1976: Waits moves to the infamous Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (Further reading: The Tropicana Motel)
  • 1976: Released "Small Change"
  • 1977: Released the album "Foreign Affairs"
  • 1978: Released "Blue Valentine"
  • 1980: January: Waits moves from LA to New York City. Disappointed, disillusioned and trying to get a grip on life. While in New York Waits is approached by Francis Ford Coppola
  • 1980: April: Waits returns from NY to LA. The whole year through he works on the soundtrack for Coppola's: "One From The Heart". (Further reading: One From The Heart)
  • 1980: August 10: Marriage with Kathleen Patricia Brennan (Further reading: Quotes on Kathleen)
  • 1980: Released "Heartattack And Vine"
  • 1982: Released the soundtrack-album "One From The Heart" (Further reading: One From The Heart)
  • Early 1983: Waits signs up with Island Records. He separates with Herb Cohen and long time friend and producer Bones Howe
  • 1983: September: First born daughter "Kellesimone" (some sources claim the right date to be October, 1983)
  • 1983: Released "Swordfishtrombones" (Island Records). First album produced by Waits himself
  • Early 1984: The Waitses move from LA to New York, where Waits gets acquainted with: John Lurie, Mark Ribot, Jim Jarmusch and Robert Frank
  • 1984: Released "Anthology" and "The Asylum Years" (LP/ cassette) WEA/ Elektra compilation albums. At this time Waits had already left Elektra-Asylum for Island
  • 1985: Released "Rain Dogs" (Further reading: Rain Dogs)
  • 1985: September 30: First born son: "Casey Xavier" (some sources claim the right date to be October, 1985)
  • 1986: Released "Asylum Years" re-issue. WEA/ Elektra compilation album
  • 1986: June 17: World premiere and theatrical debut (The Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago). Three month run as Frank in the play: "Frank's Wild Years" at the "St. Briar Street Theatre" (Further reading: Frank's Wild Years)
  • 1987: Released the album "Frank's Wild Years"
  • 1988: Released mostly live concert-album and video "Big Time" (Further reading: Big Time)
  • 1988: September/ October: About 250 radio-stations air a Frito-Lay commercial (SalsaRio Doritos) featuring a cover of the song "Step Right Up" performed by Waits impersonator Stephen Carter. In November Waits files suit against Frito-Lay/ Tracy Locke. The case went to court in 1990 (Further reading: Waits v. Frito-Lay)
  • 1989: February 3: Premiere of the play "Demon Wine" (Thomas Babe) in Los Angeles. Waits as "Curly" (Further reading: Demon Wine)
  • 1990: March 31: Premiere of the play: "The Black Rider" at the Thalia Theatre, Hamburg/ Germany (Further reading: The Black Rider)
  • 1990: April - May: Waits is granted ca. $ 2,6 mln. after taking legal actions against Frito-Lay for using a sound a like in their SalsaRio Doritos 1988 commercials (Further reading: Waits v. Frito-Lay)
  • 1990: Released the biography "Small Change, A Life Of Tom Waits" by Patrick Humphries (Further reading: Biographies)
  • 1992: Released the album "Night On Earth" (Further reading: Filmography) The movie (produced by Jim Jarmusch), was released in 1991
  • 1992: May 30: Concert appearance for the LA Riot Benefit at the Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles (Further reading: Performances)
  • 1992: Released the album "Bone Machine"
  • 1992: December 19: Premiere of the theatre play "Alice" at the Thalia Theatre. Hamburg/ Germany (Further reading: Alice)
  • 1992: Wins a Grammy Award for: Best Alternative Music Album (Bone Machine). Jim Jarmusch: "He flipped out when he got the Grammy. He hated that. Alternative to what?! What the hell does that mean?!"
  • 1993: Released the album "The Black Rider" (Further reading: The Black Rider)
  • 1993: Born, second son "Sullivan" (third child)
  • 1993 (1995?): Levi's apologizes in Billboard magazine for featuring "Heartattack And Vine" (performed by Screamin' Jay Hawkins) in a commercial for Levi's 501 jeans called "Procession" (Further reading: Waits v. Levi's Strauss)
  • 1996: February 4: Concert appearance for the Don Hyde Benefit at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. Hyde, a personal friend, and owner of the Raven Theatre in Healdsburg was accused of trading LSD. The benefit was to help Don Hyde pay for his legal defense (Further reading: Performances)
  • 1998: March 29: Concert appearance for the benefit: "Not In Our Name: Dead Man Walking, The Concert" at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The event was sponsored by: "The Hope House" and "Murder Victim's Families For Reconciliation" (Further reading: Performances)
  • 1998: Released: the album "Beautiful Maladies, The Island Years" (Island compilation)
  • 1998: June 19: Waits signed on to Californian punk-label Epitaph
  • 1999: March 20: Concert appearances at the South by Southwest music conference "A late Evening With Tom Waits" at the Paramount Theatre, Austin/ Texas (Further reading: Performances)
  • 1999: Released the album "Mule Variations" (Anti/ Epitaph)
  • 1999: June 9: Concert appearances at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland. First live performance for the Mule Variations tour (Further reading: Performances)
  • 2000: Waits is awarded the Best Contemporary Folk Album Grammy for Mule Variations. This is his second Grammy (Alternative Album Grammy for Bone Machine in 1992)
  • 2000: Released: Tom Waits biography "Wild Years - The Music And Myth Of Tom Waits" by Jay S. Jacobs (Further reading: Biographies)
  • 2000: November 21: World premiere for "Woyzeck". Betty Nansen Theatre. Copenhagen/ Denmark (Further reading: Woyzeck)
  • 2001: May 8: Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Nancy and Ann Wilson filed a $40 million lawsuit against MP3.com citing copyright infringement. (Further reading: Waits v. MP3.com)
  • 2001: May 22: Tom Waits honored with the ASCAP founders award at the 18th annual ASCAP Pop Music Awards. The award was given to him for being an "extraordinary musical storyteller"
  • 2002: May 6: Release of "Alice" and "Blood Money" (Further reading: Alice. Further reading: Woyzeck)
  • 2004: March 3: Tom Waits has won the opening stages of a legal battle against a Spanish production company that adapted his music and impersonated his voice for a television commercial for Audi (Further reading: Waits v. Audi)
  • 2004: October 4: Released: the album "Real Gone" (Anti/ Epitaph)
  • 2004: October 15: Start tour promoting Real Gone: October 2004 - November 2004 (Further reading: Performances)
  • 2005: September 15: Waits files suit against General Motors' Opel and Ad Agency for TV commercial (Further reading: Waits v. Opel)
  • 2005: September 20: Waits joins the NYC "From The Big Apple to The Big Easy" benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims (Further reading: Performances)
  • 2006: May 12: Waits joins the second annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert, honoring singer/ songwriter/ guitarist and Metallica co-founder James Hetfield and concert promoter and manager Bill Silva (Further reading: Performances)
  • 2006: August 1: Start USA tour promoting Real Gone/ Orphans August 2006 (Further reading: Performances)
  • 2006: November 21: Release of the 3-disc set: "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards." (Anti)
  • 2008: June 17: Start of the Glitter and Doom tour, June - August 2008 (Further reading: Performances)

SIMPLE DISCOGRAPHY (REGULAR ALBUMS)
(further reading >>>)

  • Closing Time, 1973. Asylum, Elektra-Asylum/ WEA
  • The Heart Of Saturday Night, 1974. Asylum, Elektra- Asylum/ WEA
  • Nighthawks At The Diner, 1975. Asylum, Elektra- Asylum/ WEA
  • Small Change, 1976. Asylum, Elektra-Asylum/ WEA
  • Foreign Affairs, 1977. Asylum, Elektra-Asylum/ WEA
  • Blue Valentine, 1978. Asylum, Elektra- Asylum/ WEA
  • Heartattack And Vine, 1980. Asylum, Elektra- Asylum/ WEA
  • Bounced Checks, 1981. Asylum, Asylum/ WEA (compilation album)
  • One From The Heart, 1982. Columbia/ Sony
  • Swordfishtrombones, 1983. Island
  • Anthology Of Tom Waits, 1984. WEA/ Elektra (compilation album)
  • Rain Dogs, 1985. Island
  • Asylum Years, 1986. Asylum, Asylum/ WEA (compilation album)
  • Frank's Wild Years, 1987. Island
  • Big Time, 1988. Island (live compilation album)
  • Night On Earth, 1992. Island
  • Bone Machine, 1992. Island
  • The Black Rider, 1993. Island
  • Beautiful Maladies, 1998. Island (compilation album)
  • Mule Variations, 1999. Anti/ Epitaph
  • Alice/ Blood Money, 2002. Anti
  • Real Gone, 2004. Anti
  • Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, 2006. Anti
  • Glitter And Doom, 2009. Anti (live compilation album)

PROMOTIONAL TOURS
(further reading >>>)

  • April - June 1973: first tour promoting Closing Time (USA)
  • November - December 1973: second tour promoting Closing Time (Canada, USA)
  • February - September 1974: third tour promoting Closing Time (Canada, USA)
  • October - December 1974: first tour promoting The Heart Of Saturday Night (USA)
  • January - September 1975: second tour promoting The Heart Of Saturday Night (USA)
  • October 1975 - June 1976: promoting 'Nighthawks At The Diner' (USA, UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Germany)
  • October 1976 - August 1977: promoting 'Small Change' (USA, Japan, Germany, Finland, Belgium, The Netherlands, UK)
  • October 1977 - March 1978: promoting 'Foreign Affairs' (USA, Canada, Japan)
  • October 1978 - December 1979: promoting 'Blue Valentine' (USA, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Denmark, Austria, UK, Ireland, Australia)
  • November 1980 - October 1981: promoting 'Heartattack And Vine' (USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia)
  • May 1982: promoting 'One From The Heart' (USA)
  • October - November 1985: promoting 'Rain Dogs' (Scotland, UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, USA)
  • October - December 1987: promoting 'Franks Wild Years' (Canada, USA, Scotland, Ireland, UK, Sweden, France, Germany)
  • June 1999 - May 2000: promoting 'Mule Variations' (USA, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Poland, France)
  • October - November 2004: promoting 'Real Gone' (USA, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, UK)
  • August 2006: promoting 'Real Gone/ Orphans' (USA)
  • June - August 2008: Glitter and Doom tour (USA, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, France, Scotland, Ireland)

NOTABLE LYRICS/ SONGS 
(further reading >>>)

SIMPLE FILMOGRAPHY (ACTOR)
(further reading >>>)

  • Paradise Alley (1978). Movie debut as pianist Mumbles. On soundtrack: "Meet Me In Paradise Alley" and "Annie's Back In Town".
  • Tom Waits For No One (1979). Hand painted animated short (directed by John Lamb) featuring Tom Waits performing "The One That Got Away"
  • Wolfen (1981). Movie directed by Michael Wadleigh. Tom Waits features in an uncredited cameo as inebriated piano player. On soundtrack: "Jitterbug Boy".
  • Stone Boy, The (1982). Movie directed by Chris Cain. Tom Waits plays "petrified man in carnival."
  • Poetry in Motion (1982). TV documentary directed by Ron Mann, featuring various artists. Tom Waits performs "Smuggler's Waltz" (aka. ''Bronx Lullaby").
  • One from the Heart (1982). Movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Soundtrack written by Tom Waits. Tom Waits features in a cameo as a trumpet player.
  • Outsiders, The (1983). Movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Tom Waits features in a cameo as Buck Merrill.
  • Rumble Fish (1983). Movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Tom Waits plays Bennie the pool hall owner.
  • Cotton Club, The (1984). Movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Tom Waits plays Cotton Club owner Irving Stark.
  • Down by Law (1986). Movie directed by Jim Jarmusch. Tom Waits plays DJ Zack. On soundtrack: "Jockey Full Of Bourbon" and "Tango Till They're Sore".
  • Ironweed (1987). Movie directed by Hector Babenco. Tom Waits plays Rudy the Kraut.
  • Candy Mountain (1987). Movie directed by Robert Frank. Tom Waits plays rich guy Al Silk. Performs: "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Once More Before I Go".
  • Big Time (1988). Mostly live concert-video directed by Chris Blum. Features live performances from 5-6 November, 1987 (Fox Warfield Theatre, San Francisco).
  • Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night (1988). TV special recorded at The Coconut Grove. Tom Waits features as guest artist (guitar and organ).
  • Cold Feet (1989). Movie directed by Robert Dornhelm. Tom Waits plays Kenny the hitman.
  • Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale (1989). Movie directed by Ann Guedes.Tom Waits plays "Punch & Judy man Silva". British film unreleased in the US. Soundtrack features "Singapore".
  • Two Jakes, The (1990). Movie directed by Jack Nicholson. Tom Waits features in uncredited one-minute cameo as plainclothes policeman.
  • Red Hot & Blue (1990). Aids benefit music video (Directed by Jim Jarmusch) featuring B&W music video for: "It's All Right With Me".
  • Fisher King, The (1991). Movie directed by Terry Gilliam. Tom Waits features in cameo as disabled war veteran.
  • Queens Logic (1991). Movie directed by Steve Rash. Tom Waits plays Monte.
  • At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991). Movie directed by Hector Babenco. Tom Waits plays Wolf.
  • Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). Movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Tom Waits plays R.M. Renfield.
  • Fishing with John (1992). John Lurie comedy series (Lagarto Productions). Tom Waits stars as himself on a fishing trip with John Lurie. Performs: "River of Men" and "World Of Adventure".
  • Coffee and Cigarettes III (1993). Movie directed by Jim Jarmusch. Tom Waits features in a conversation with Iggy Pop as himself.
  • Short Cuts (1993). Movie directed by Robert Altman. Tom Waits features as limo driver Earl Piggot.
  • Luck, Trust & Ketchup (1993). Documentary insight behind the scenes of Roberts Altman's Short Cuts. Directed by John Dorr and Mike E. Kaplan. Tom Waits features as interviewee.
  • VH-1 Storytellers (1999). Live concert documentary at Burbank Airport, Los Angeles. Show aired May 23, 1999.
  • Mystery Men (1999). Movie directed by Kinka Usher. Tom Waits plays weapons designer Dr. A. Heller.
  • Domino (October 2, 2005) Movie directed by Tony Scott. TW: actor (as a wandering soothsayer)
  • La Tigre E La Neve (October 14, 2005) Movie directed by Roberto Benigni. TW: actor (as himself). On soundtrack: "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" (first release)
  • Wristcutters - A Love Story (January, 2006) Independent feature film directed by Goran Dukic. TW: actor (plays Kneller), composer. On soundtrack: "Dead and Lovely"

THEATRE PLAYS
(further reading >>>)

  • Franks Wild Years (Tom Waits/ Kathleen Waits-Brennan): premiered June 17, 1986 at the Briar Street Theatre, Chicago/ USA (Steppenwolf Theatre Company)
  • Demon Wine (Thomas Babe): premiered February 10, 1989 at the Los Angeles Theater Center, Los Angeles/ USA. Tom Waits portrayed the character called "Curly"
  • The Black Rider (Robert Wilson/ Tom Waits): premiered March 31, 1990 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg/ Germany
  • Alice (Robert Wilson/ Tom Waits): premiered December 19, 1992 at the Thalia Theater, Hamburg/ Germany
  • Woyzeck (Robert Wilson/ Tom Waits): premiered November 18, 2000 at the Betty Nansen Theatre, Copenhagen/ Denmark

NOTABLE QUOTES
(further reading >>>)

  • 1975: "I know what works and what doesn't, strictly by trial and error. People who like what I do have come to expect this narrative; this I-don't-give-a-shit shuffle that I've been doing for a few years. I'm aware that I cut a certain sort of figure on stage. It's the difference between lighting up a cigarette in your living room, and lighting one up on stage - a whole different attitude takes over. Everything is blown up beyond proportion. I want to be able to go up and be a caricature of myself on stage." (Source: "Not so much a poet, more a purveyor of improvisational travelogue". New Musical Express. Todd Everett, November 29, 1975)
  • 1976: "I lived in San Diego, went to high school in San Diego. I was born in LA at a very young age. I was born in the back seat of a yellow cab in Murphy Hospital Parking Lot. I had to pay a buck eighty five on the meter to move. I didn't have my trousers on yet and I left my money in my other pants. I lived around LA and moved around LA. My dad's a Spanish teacher, so we lived in Whittier, Pomona, LaVerne, North Hollywood, Silver Lake, metropolitan areas surrounding Los Angeles. I was working a lot of jobs during school. I didn't find much in school. I was just getting in a lot of trouble so I hung it up." (Source: "Watch out for 16 year old girls wearing bell bottoms..." ZigZag magazine. Peter O'Brien. London. May, 1976)
  • 1976: "There's a common loneliness that just sprawls from coast to coast... It's like a common disjointed identity crisis. It's the dark, warm narcotic American night. I just hope I'm able to touch that feeling before I find myself one of these days double- parked on easy street." (Source: "Sweet and Sour", Newsweek, June 14, 1976)
  • 1976: "When you're on the road doing clubs, it's hard to stay out of the bars in the afternoons. You got time to kill before the show. Then you hang around the club all night and you're up till dawn, so you hang around coffee shops. It stops being somethin' you do - it becomes somethin' you are." (Source: "Bitin' the green shiboda with Tom Waits". Down Beat magazine. Chicago. June 17, 1976. Marv Hohman)
  • 1976: "You know I've been the opening act for a long time and now I'm just slowly starting to headline. It's another world. Used to open for groups like the Mothers of Invention and Cheech and Chong. I used to get all sorts of produce and crap thrown at me. Some nights I had enough to make a fruit salad." (Source: "The Ramblin' Street Life Is The Good Life For Tom Waits". "Rambler" magazine. Rich Trenbeth. Chicago. December 30, 1976)
  • 1979: "You know people always expect me to be a drunk, but I ain't no drunk, If I was a drunk I couldn't be an entertainer. 'cos being a drunk is a full time occupation." (Source: "Tom Waits: A Sobering Experience", Sounds magazine. Dave Lewis. August 4, 1979)
  • 1981: "I've grown a little. I think it's important now to be able to separate yourself as a performer and writer from whom you actually are. I started travelling, singing and writing at a time when I was developing as a person, and the two got very confusing. I got swept away with it, then felt I had to live up to something... I was very naive. More than once I was lucky I wasn't shot. But I realised that a guy who writes murder mysteries doesn't have to be a murderer. More than likely it's distance which has given them the vision, not closeness. I don't feel I have to live up to something anymore, which is not to say I have turned into Perry Como - although I still look up to Perry a lot." (Source: "He's A Coppola Swell". The Guardian. Mick Brown, London. March, 1981)
  • 1983: "There's nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for the first time and falls flat on his face. I don't intend to do that." (Source: "Skid Romeo". The Face magazine. Robert Elms. Los Angeles, 1983)
  • 1985: "They don't want you to sober up. Even though you've kept to your word that you'd write no more booze songs... You can't really, you know, be too concerned with what people really think of you, you just kinda have to pursue your own...you're on your own adventure of growth and discovery. Like Charles Bukowski said: 'people think I'm down on 5th and Main at the Blarneystone. Throwin' back shooters and smokin' a cigar, but I'm on the top floor of the health club with a towel in my lap, watchin' Johnny Carson.' So I mean, it's not always good to be where they think you are, especially if you subscribe to it as well, which is easily done coz, y'know, you don't have to figure out who you are, you just ask somebody else... " (Source: "The Marlowe Of The Ivories". New Musical Express magazine. Barney Hoskyns. May 25, 1985)
  • 1988: "Popular music is like a big party, and it's a thrill sneaking in rather than being invited. Every once in a while, a guy with his shirt on inside out, wearing lipstick and a pillbox hat, gets a chance to speak. I've always been afraid I was going to tap the world on the shoulder for 20 years and when it finally turned around, I was going to forget what I had to say. I was always afraid I was going to do something in the studio and hate it, put it out, and it was going to become a hit. So I'm neurotic about it. . " (Source: "Tom Waits 20 questions". Playboy magazine: Steve Oney. -- March, 1988)
  • 1987: "I really am against people who allow their music to be nothing more than a jingle for jeans or Bud. But I say, "Good, okay, now I know who you are." 'Cause it's always money. There have been tours endorsed, encouraged and financed by Miller, and I say, "Why don't you just get an office at Miller? Start really workin' for the guy." I just hate it... The advertisers are banking on your credibility, but the problem is it's no longer yours. Videos did a lot of that because they created pictures and that style was immediately adopted, or aborted, by advertising. They didn't even wait for it to grow up. And it's funny, but they're banking on the fact that people won't really notice. So they should be exposed. They should be fined! [bangs his fist on the table] I hate all of the people that do it! All of you guys! You're sissies!" (Source: "Tom Waits Is Flying Upside Down - On Purpose". Musician, Mark Rowland. October, 1987)
  • 1999: "We've been working together since Swordfish... I'm the prospector, she's the cook. She says, "you bring it home, I'll cook it up." I think we sharpen each other like knives. She has a fearless imagination. She writes lyrics that are like dreams. And she puts the heart into all things. She's my true love. There's no one I trust more with music, or life. And she's got great rhythm, and finds melodies that are so intriguing and strange. Most of the significant changes I went through musically and as a person began when we met. She's the person by which I measure all others. She's who you want with you in a foxhole. She doesn't like the limelight, but she is an incandescent presence on everything we work on together." (Source: "A Q&A About Mule Variations". MSO: Rip Rense. January/ April, 1999)
  • 1999: "I think most teenagers and most kids in their 20s believe that to be an artist, you're going to have to really dig all the way to China and come back with chow mein in your hair. [laughs] You're going to have to go to hell in a handbag. But I don't believe it. I think you can be creative and all that, but I think you can still be reliable. Those are big things for me. I've been married almost 19 years now and it's been the best thing I ever did. My wife's great, she's the best." (Source: "Tom Waits '99, Coverstory ATN". Addicted to Noise: Gil Kaufman en Michael Goldberg. April, 1999)
  • 1999: "I don't know if honesty is an issue in show business. People don't care whether you're telling the truth or not, they just want to be told something they don't already know. Make me laugh or make me cry, it doesn't matter. If you're watching a really bad movie and somebody turns to you and says, "You know, this is a true story," does it improve the film in any way? Not really. It's a bad movie." (Source: "Mojo interview with Tom Waits ". Mojo: Barney Hoskyns. April, 1999)
  • 1999: "I guess most entertainers are, on a certain level, part of the freak show. And most of them have some kind of wounding early on, either a death in the family, or a break-up of the family unit, and it sends them off on some journey where they find themselves kneeling by a jukebox, praying to Ray Charles. Or you're out looking for your dad, who left the family when you were nine, and you know he drives a station wagon and that's all you've got to go on, and in some way you're gonna become a big sensation and be on the cover of Life magazine and it'll somehow be this cathartic vindication or restitution." (Source: "Mojo interview with Tom Waits ". Mojo: Barney Hoskyns. April, 1999)
  • 1999: "My wife says I have two kinds of songs: grand weepers and grim reapers'' (Source: quoted from 1999 Mule Variations Austin show, printed in "Waits plays out 'Variations 'on a twisted persona ". San Francisco Chronicle: James Sullivan. April, 1999)
  • 1999: "I went through a period where I was embarrassed by vulnerability as a writer - things you see, experience and feel, and you go, 'I can't sing something like that. This is too tender. ' Maybe I'm finding a way of reconciling that," he says of Mule Variations. "I'm married, I got kids. It opens up your world." (Source: "The Resurrection of Tom Waits" Rolling Stone: David Fricke. June 24, 1999)
  • 1999: "I think you should fight for your independence and freedom at all costs. I mean, it's a plantation system. All a record company is is a bank, and they loan you a little money to make a record and then they own you for the rest of your life. You don't even own your own work. Most people only have a small piece of their publishing. Most people are so happy to be recording, which I was - you like the way your name looks on the contract, so you start signing. I got myself tied up in a lot of knots when I was a kid." (Source: "The Man Who Howled Wolf ". Magnet: Jonathan Valania. June/July, 1999)
  • 2000: "My wife and I collaborated on most of the [Mule Variations] songs ... and if it's really good it's probably her (laughs). Obviously she's more refined than I am. I'm more throw it against the wall ... My wife's like a cross between Eudora Welty and Joan Jett. Kathleen is a rhododendron, an orchid and an oak. She's got the four B's: beauty, brightness, bravery and brains. She rescued me. I'd be playing in a steakhouse right now if it weren't for her. I wouldn't even be _playing_ a steakhouse. I'd be _cooking_ in a steakhouse." (Source: "Tradition With a Twist Source: Blues Revue magazine No. 59 (USA) by Bret Kofford. July/August, 2000)
  • 2002: "The whole world's on fire right now. And it makes you wonder what you're doing (is) making jewellery for the ears. When was the last time you sat in a room and everyone sang the same song? . . . There's a lot of things that have to happen first before you turn on a record player. You need to be warm and fed. "I don't doubt the power of it, but I think an over-inflated sense of yourself and the value of what you do would lead you to believe writing a song is going to change the world." (Source: "A double shot of Waits." Globe and Mail (Canada) May 7, 2002 - Print Edition, Page R1 by Carl Wilson)
  • 2002: "I like beautiful melodies telling you terrible things." (Source: "No Tom Like the Present" Entertainment Weekly Magazine Issue 659. June 21, 2002 by Rob Brunner)
  • 2004: "I wanted to be an old man when I was a little kid. Wore my granddaddy's hat, used his cane and lowered my voice. I was dying to be old. I paid a lot of attention to old people. The music I listened to as a teenager was old people's music.. Yeah I heard the Beatles, but I didn't really pay attention. I was suspicious of anyone new and young. I don't know, probably a respect thing? My father left when I was about 11 - I think I looked up to older musicians like father figures. Louis Armstrong or Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole or Howlin' Wolf - I never really thought about it that way, but maybe it was that I needed parental guidance or something." (Source: "The Mojo Interview". Mojo magazine by Sylvie Simmons. Issue October 2004)
  • 2004: "But my dad - I think it was a rebel raising a rebel. That's kind of what my kids are dealing with right now." (Source: The Mojo Interview. Mojo magazine by Sylvie Simmons. Issue October 2004)
  • 2006: "It [parent's divorce] was an extreme loss of power, and totally unpredictable, as you can imagine. I was in turmoil over it for a long time. I stayed with my mother and two sisters. But when I think back on it, my dad was an alcoholic then. He realy left - this is getting a little personal - to sit in a dark bar and drink whatever, Glenlivet. He was a binge drinker. So there was no real cognisance of his drinking problem from my point of view. So he kind of removed himself - he was the bad tooth in the smile, and he kind of pulled himself out. So in a sense I come from a family of runners. And if I had followed in my father's footsteps I'd be a runner myself, and so would my kids... Like anything, the genetic pull to following your father's footsteps, whether he teaches at Harvard or died on the Bowery... there's a path that he left for you. And you get to a crossroads eventually and you see his path, and there's a magnetic quality to it, so yeah I was pulled. But he was a great story-teller, so in a way what I've done was a way of honouring him." (Source: "My Wild Years And The Woman That Saved My Life", Word magazine (UK), November 9, 2006. By Mick Brown)
  • 2006: "I'm just out here trying to build a better mousetrap. If somebody doesn't like what I do, I really don't care. I'm not chained to public opinion, nor am I swayed by the waves of popular trends. I just keep on doing my own investigations." (Source: "Tom Waits: Haunted songster's revelatory dispatch from the Twilight Zone", Now Magazine (Canada). Vol. 26, no. 11. November 16 - 22, 2006. By Tim Perlich)
  • 2006: "Sometimes we [Tom and Kathleen] put on the boxing gloves and come out fighting. My wife is a really great musician and composer. She's much more adventurous than I am. She's always trying to disrupt the whole thing and take it apart and put it back together with its tail in the wrong place. She's much more questioning and critical. I'm like, "OK, I'm done, done, done." It's something you learn how to do after a while. It's like a sack race. Once you raise kids together writing songs with your wife is pretty easy." (Source: "Tom Waits Still In The Driver's Seat", The Chicago Tribune (USA). November 21, 2006. By Greg Kot)
  • 2008: Q: What’s wrong with the world? A: "We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley’s dog made 12 million last year… and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It’s just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns." (Source: "Tom Waits - True Confessions", May 20, 2008. Glitter and Doom promo, Tom Waits interviews himself)
  • 2009: "I guess songs are just interesting things to do with the air" (Source: "Irrelevant Topics - Tom Waits & Beck Hansen". Beck official site. July 8/ 17, 2009)

*** No longer updated. Please refer to the official Tom Waits site and the Eyeball Kid blogspot ***