Wesley Willis

The prodigious output of US singer-songwriter Wesley Willis belied the fact that he suffered from schizophrenia. Viewed by his fans as a cult hero to rank alongside the equally troubled and equally prolific Daniel Johnston, his interest in music was awoken at the start of the 90s when he picked up an electronic keyboard. After releasing a large number of home-made albums, (all featuring gleefully lewd and scatological song titles, such as ‘Suck A Pitbull’s Dick’, ‘Pop That Pussy’, and ‘Eat That Mule Shit’) Willis enjoyed a brief period of notoriety in the mid-to-late 90s when Alternative Tentacles put together two of his compilations, and American Recordings released two new albums. Willis died in August 2003 after a lengthy battle with leukaemia.