“I didn’t really identify with the music of my own generation, but I was very curious about the music of others.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“[Thelonious Monk’s] Solo Monk lets you not only see these melodies without clothes, but without skin. This is astronaut music from Bedlam.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“Lead Belly is as much a part of the natural world as crows are, children playing in the yard are, trains are, second floor apartments are, and his songs are safe on the other side” – Tom WaitsRead more
“Lead Belly was loud… He was as strong as Jack Johnson, he was louder than Caruso. Songs climb up some folks like a vine climbs a trellis.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“The first time I saw him I thought this was a criminal case and he was a criminal, and when he left the court the first time, we thought he was getting away” – A juror, on seeing Tom Waits, who was suing Frito-Lay for using his musicRead more
“A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion but doesn’t.” – Tom Waits, frequent accordion playerRead more
“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.” – Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”, 1976Read more
“You got to get behind the mule in the morning and plow” – Tom Waits, Get Behind The Mule, 1999Read more
“When I finally discovered what a bullhorn can do to your whole sound, it was a big moment for me.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“Don’t you know there ain’t no devil theres just God when he’s drunk” – Tom Waits, Heart Attack & Vine, 1980Read more
“[Lead Belly] died the day before I was born, and I like to think I passed him in the hall and he banged into me and knocked me over.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“Songs just like being around some folks more than others. They won’t live just anywhere.” – Tom WaitsRead more
“This is just a tree of life. This record is the watering hole.” – Tom Waits, on The Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street”Read more
“Are you still jumping out of windows in expensive clothes?” – Tom Waits, Who Are You This TimeRead more
In 2016, Alligator Records released “God Don’t Never Change: The Songs of Blind Willie Johnson”, with covers by Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Derek Trucks Sinead O’Connor, Blind Boys of Alabama and more.Read more
Willie nelson covered Tom Waits’ “House Where Nobody Lives” on his 2024 “Last Leaf on the Tree”.Read more
Rickie Lee Jones’ 1979 song “Chuck E’s in Love” was singing about Chuck E. Weiss, the same person Tom Waits name-checks in several songs including “Jitterbug Boy” & “Wish I Was In New Orleans”. All three lived at L.A.’s Tropicana Motel in the early 1970s.Read more
Tom Waits starred alongside Crystal Gale in the 1982 Francis Ford Coppola movie “One from the Heart”Read more
David Bowie sang backing vocals on Scarlett Johansson’s 2008 cover of Tom Waits’ “Fannin Street”.Read more
Tom Waits’ song “Fannin Street” from the 2006 “Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards” follows in the footsteps of Lead Belly’s 1939 song of the same name, about a raucous street in Houston, Texas.Read more
Tom Waits played a prospector in the Cohen Brothers’ 2018 movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.Read more
Tom Waits’ song “Little Drop of Poison” was first written & performed for the movie SHREK 2 — the full recording only officially appearing on Waits’ album BAWLERS over two years later.Read more
Tom Waits wrote his 1980 song “Jersey Girl” about his future wife & writing partner Kathleen Brennan.Read more
Gov’t Mule covered Tom Waits’ gritty, bluesy song “Make It Rain” on their 2021 album “Heavy Load Blues”.Read more
Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite played the harmonica on Tom Waits’ masterpiece 1999 album “Mule Variations”.Read more
