Wesley Willis
Photo: MTV News

Wesley Willis, one of the most unusual characters in music, died Thursday evening, most likely from heart failure. He was 40.

The schizophrenic singer from the streets of Chicago had been recovering at an Illinois hospice after undergoing emergency surgery on June 2 to suppress and identify the source of internal bleeding, according to his record label, Alternative Tentacles, which noted that Willis died peacefully.

Willis, famous for greeting fans with a head butt, was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia at the end of 2002 and his health had been deteriorating rapidly.

"[Wesley's] music, lyrics, drawings, insight and the way he put them together are like no one else. Ever," Alternative Tentacles founder/ex-Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra said in a statement. "As I got to know Wes, what really struck me was his sheer will power, his unrelenting drive to succeed and overcome his horrifically poor background [of] child abuse, racism, chronic schizophrenia and obesity, among other things. He was the most courageous person I have ever known."

Willis, with his distinctive frame and forever-bruised forehead, was well-known on the streets of Chicago in the early 1990s for his off-key commentaries put to the tune of rudimentary Casio keyboard melodies.

His simple songs covered a variety of topics over the years, but he was notorious for his homages to other musicians, including tracks titled "Hootie and the Blowfish," "Nirvana" and "Morbid Angel" — all featured on 1996's Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die. "Is there any band he saw that escaped being in their own song about how much he loved their show?" Biafra said.

By the mid '90s, Willis' popularity had soared and he had signed with Rick Rubin's American Recordings, which released Fabian Road Warrior and Feel the Power, both in 1996.

Hours after Willis signed with the label, he did his first and last interview with MTV News, telling reporter Tabitha Soren he struggled with a demon in his head (see "Wesley's Big Ride"). "It talks to me with profanity I do not want to hear," he said. "The demon thinks I'm a bum, a jerk and an a-hole."

Willis had a minor hit with his song "Alanis Morissette," but was dropped from American the following year. Still, he continued recording and touring, doing occasional albums and shows with his punk band, the Wesley Willis Fiasco.

In 1997, the band covered "Girls on Film" for The Duran Duran Tribute Album, which also included the Deftones, Jimmy Eat World and Less Than Jake (see "Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, Wesley Willis Revisit Duran Duran" ).

Altogether, the singer recorded more than 50 albums, according to Alternative Tentacles, which released three of them and already had plans for a fourth, Wesley Willis Greatest Hits Vol. 3, due in October. Some of his classics include "I Whupped Batman's Ass," "Rock N' Roll McDonald's" and "I'm Sorry That I Got Fat."

Biafra said there will likely be a memorial concert or gathering in Chicago to pay tribute to Willis.

"Wes was deeply religious," Biafra said. "He was afraid that if he died he would no longer get to go see bands play. If there is a hereafter I hope he's right up front with Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, his beloved Otis Redding and his dear friend Bradley [Nowell] from Sublime 'storming the stage' as the crowd 'roars like a sea monster.' All opening for Wesley, of course.

"It will be hard now that he's gone, but I'm not going to let myself stop enjoying the funny stuff, or the look on people's faces when they first hear 'Rock N' Roll McDonalds,' or the memories of the good times and Wesley's many adventures," Biafra continued. "He wouldn't want it any other way."

• Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis
Photo: MTV News

Even if rambling oddball singer Wesley Willis doesn't know any better, someone at his record label should have realized that you can't covet someone else's logo, even if it is written with the penmanship of a preschooler.

In February, indie label Cornerstone R.A.S. released Wesley Willis Fiasco: Live E.P., featuring what appears to be a crudely drawn WWF logo on the cover's upper left corner. Now, attorneys for the World Wrestling Federation have sent the label a cease-and-desist notice, a Cornerstone spokesperson said, claiming the letters "WWF" are written in a "confusingly similar manner" to that of the sports-entertainment organization's copyrighted logo.

Calls to the WWF were not returned by press time.

A second pressing of the EP, with a new cover, should be out by mid-June, the Cornerstone spokesperson said.

The eight-track Wesley Willis Fiasco: Live E.P. features Willis and a full backing band, the first record to do so since an out-of-print 1995 disc. Recorded in various venues nationwide between 1992 and 1994, the EP includes "The Bar Is Closed," "Blood, Guts & Firetrucks" and "I'm Going to Kill You," among others.

Chicago-based Willis, a schizophrenic former street singer, gained notoriety in the mid-'90s after groups such as Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins began heralding him as a simple-minded genius.

The novelty quickly wore off but wasn't soon forgotten, since after he was dropped from American Recordings following Fabian Road Warrior and Feel the Power, both released in 1996, Willis released Black Light Diner (1997), SMD Promotions (1998), Dr. Wax (2000) and January's Shake Your Piggy Bank.

• Wesley Willis

October 7 [14:00 EDT] -- In case you thought that Duran Duran's songs were good in theory, but not in practice, an armload of artists have taken a stab at these 80s gems.

Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Deftones, and the incomparable Wesley Willis show their Duranie sides on a collection simply titled "The Duran Duran Tribute" which arrived in stores on Tuesday.

On the album, Goldfinger sends "Rio" careening into a tribute to metal shriek-master Ronnie James Dio, and Wesley Willis brings his unique vocal style to "Girls On Film" [500k Audio File] on two of the album's more creative cuts.

Here's who else you'll find on the collection:

• Goldfinger - "Rio"
• Buck-O-Nine - "Hold Back The Rain"
• Home Grown - "Planet Earth"
• Deftones - "The Chauffeur"
• Wise Crack - "Come Undone"
• Reel Big Fish - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
• Less Than Jake - "The Reflex"
• Riverfenix - "Ordinary World"
• GOB - "A View To A Kill"
• Björn Again - "Girls On Film"
• The Wrens - "The Seventh Stranger"
• Eve's Plum - "Save a Prayer"
• Jimmy Eat World - "New Religion"
• Mr. T Experience - "Is There Something I Should Know"
• Wesley Willis Fiasco - "Girls On Film"

If you'd rather catch the original version, Duran Duran itself will release a new album called "Medazzaland" next week, and this coming Sunday the band will join some of the acts on that tribute album for a live concert in the parking lot of Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

• Duran Duran
• Goldfinger
• Wesley Willis

April 19, 1996 -- Just out this week is the debut album by the Wesley Willis Fiasco, called "Spooky Disharmonious Conflict Hell-Ride." Willis is a most unusual, 6-foot-5-inch street musician and artist from Chicago, who introduces himself to fans with a head-bump instead of a handshake.

Willis has also been diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, a mental disorder accompanied by delusions and hallucinations. Rock and roll history has had its share of mentally troubled creators, for instance Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett, Rocky Erickson, Wildman Fisher, and most recently, Daniel Johnston.

Time will tell where Willis ends up in the pantheon. He'd put out 15 self-produced albums before signing a deal with Rick Rubin's American Recordings label at the South By Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas last month. While some critics wonder if Willis is being exploited as a novelty act, I caught up with him in Austin, and found that for Willis, music is a vital form of therapy.

TABITHA SOREN: Tell me what happened today. I heard that you signed a record contract.

WESLEY WILLIS: I signed a record contract at least 20 minutes ago.

SOREN: What was that like? How did that make you feel?

WILLIS: I made me feel great in the head.

SOREN: Did it make you feel rich?

WILLIS: I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be the richest black man for the rest of my life until the day that I die off this Earth.

SOREN: But it's more about the music than the money, right?

WILLIS: It's more about the music and the money.

SOREN: What's in here?

WILLIS: What's in my bag is my portable CD player. I use the CD player to go on bus rides of joy, but then I go on bus rides to hell.

SOREN: I see...

WILLIS: But the demon in my head talks to me with profanity. I do not want to hear. The demon thinks I'm a bum, a jerk, and an a-hole.

SOREN: So whatever you're playing knocks all that out of your head?

WILLIS: Whenever that CD player that I play puts music on.... it keeps me on the joy ride. It keeps out the hell-bus.

SOREN: When you were outside, how did you feel about all those strangers coming up to you and talking to you?

WILLIS: I loved them, and I loved them like super-chicken.

SOREN: Isn't that annoying, having people come up to you that you don't even know?

WILLIS: I just want to meet them. As long as they are nice I can meet them.

BRENDAN MURPHY, The Wesley Willis Fiasco: He's got his music, his medication, and when we get to a club people are paying attention to him, and bumping heads and buying CD's off of him. Then he's very happy.

DALE MEINERS, The Wesley Willis Fiasco: People, like, kind of point him out as being schizophrenic, and a hard guy to deal with. He's not. Wesley's really cool. You know, I've dealt with guys who are addicted to heroin, and stuff like that. That is a real bad time, you know? Did you ever see the Chuck Berry video? These guys... There's some very strange rock stars out there. Wesley in comparison is very cool.

SOREN: What do you get out of being an artist?

WILLIS: I just get... I get myself on the right track and get on the rock n' roll superhighway joy ride.

SOREN: I cuts down on the voices, the demons?

WILLIS: It keeps the demons out of my head sometimes, and sometimes the demons try to shoot my jam session down.

SOREN: How do you overcome that?

WILLIS: I take my medicine all the time, every day, and that's what stops them dead. Music helped me solve the problem. Music helped me change my life. And playing rock music, that's the way to go. That's the way to go on a harmony joy bus ride, rather than on a freakout hell bus ride.

• Wesley Willis