Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis ( born May 31, 1963; † August 21, 2003 in Chicago ) was an American artist and musician from Chicago. His music is characterized by simplicity and partly bizarre acting texts, like a stream of consciousness. Throughout his musical career (1989-2003), he composed more than 1000 songs.

In his art career (1976-2003) he was mainly architecture of Chicago; preferred motifs were there buses, highways, fast food restaurants and skyscrapers.

In 1989 he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The music helped him to his own words, to fight the voices in his head. These issues have (see filmography ), picked up the song from the demons of Wesley Willis (Album Lenin, 2006) The Golden Lemon with which Willis has toured the United States.

In the early days of peer-to -peer file sharing who became known on the Internet celebrity. But even in the divisional music channel VIVA Two were for example in the show Kamikaze ( with the moderator Niels Ruf ) excerpts some of his videos shown.

Willis died from the effects of chronic myeloid leukemia.

Movies

• Golden Lemons (aka the center of frenzied stasis) - Documentary by Jörg Siepmann on a U.S. tour of Wesley Willis with the Golden Lemon in the opening act. Germany, 2003.
• The Daddy of Rock 'N' Roll - documentary by Daniel Bitton, 2003.