Introduction

Amid excursions into traditional blues and jazz, beat narratives, industrial junkyard orchestrations, and brechtian cabaret choruses, the ramshackle songs of Tom Waits have pressed the boundaries of music for four decades and counting. Since the 1973 release of Closing Time, the native Angelino, with his whiskey-soaked croon, has provided a sonic complement to Bukowski and Burroughs, in relating the tedium of California barfly life and other altered states of Americana. More recently, the gruff legend has offered up a hauntingly beautiful ode to Lewis Carroll on Alice and combined grimy beatboxing with anti-war rabidity on Real Gone. With longtime collaborator and wife Kathleen Brennan, no other songwriter beyond Bob Dylan wields as singular (if subtle) an influence as Waits in today’s cultural landscape. In fact, covering songs by Waits has become a genre of its own over the years. Among those who’ve paid tribute to the grizzled maverick are Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, the Eagles, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Cat Power, Norah Jones, Robert Plant, and Alison Krauss, as well as the latest member of this honor roll, Scarlett Johansson. For her unlikely entrance into music, the starlet opted to perform ten Waits tracks on Anywhere I Lay My Head. For many, Waits first caught our attention in Jim Jarmusch’s cult indie film, Down by Law, and he similarly moonlighted in Hollywood, appearing in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, the superhero satire Mystery Men, and now Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Although slated for release in 2009, Imaginarium has received some early media attention as it marks the final performance by the late Heath Ledger. In the surreal tale, Waits plays none other than the Devil, who makes the titular doctor immortal. And really, the power of immortality comes quite easy to the 58-year-old American icon. In this PLANET° exclusive, the ever idiosyncratic Waits engages in a Q&A session — with none other than himself.

Tom Waits

I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his Nazi past, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others…. His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping sprees, the face lifts, the ski trips, the drug busts, and the hundreds of rooms in his home. The tax shelters, the public urination…I was nervous to meet the real man himself. Baggage and all. But I found him to be gentle, intelligent, open, bright, helpful, humorous, brave, audacious, loquacious, clean, and reverent. A boy scout, really. Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Please remove your shoes and no smoking, please.