As you may or may not have heard by now, Wicker Park rock'n'roller and master of the head-butt Wesley Willis passed away yesterday at the age of 40. Since the Alternative Tentacles Web server seems to be down (no doubt due to a thousand bloggers all linking to the news at the same time), here's the full text of the announcement on their site:
Dear Friends and fellow Wesleynauts,
We are deeply saddened to report that one of our artists, Wesley
Willis passed away yesterday, Thursday, August 21st. Wesley will be
greatly missed by all that had the privilege to know him, as well as
the fans who have been fortunate enough to experience his genius.
Wesley was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) at
the end of 2002, and had to undergo emergency surgery on June 2nd to
identify the source of, and to suppress internal bleeding. It is not
clear if this bleeding was related to his leukemia or not, and the
exact cause of death is still unknown. Wesley had been recovering at a
Hospice in Illinois, and since the surgery his health had deteriorated
rapidly.
His songs were simultaneously disturbing, hilarious, blunt, and
intoxicating. Wesley's sheer excitement and unaffected honesty about
every cultural phenomenon, defined his music as truly individual, and
truly punk rock.
Wesley released well over 50 albums - 3 of which are on
Alternative Tentacles, and a 4th, entitled, Wesley Willis Greatest
Hits Vol. 3 (CD) had already been scheduled for release in October of
this year.
For more information on Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, please visit
http://leukemia-lymphoma.org .
Currently there are no plans for any funeral service but we will
inform you if there will be.
