Chuck E. Weiss - Biography
Chuck E. Weiss is one of those overlooked legends in their own time, a hidden gem of the Los Angeles music scene who's as likely to be writing songs with long-time pal Tom Waits as he is to appear in a small role on Married with Children or The Gilmore Girls. Weiss grew up in Denver, Colorado where his parents owned a record store and encouraged his love for music. He met Lightning Hopkins at local blues bar Ebbett's Field, and Hopkins liked his drumming so much that he took Weiss along on tour, where he met and performed with legends such as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Roger Miller, and Dr. John.
By the late 1970s, Weiss was living in the Tropicana Hotel in LA alongside Waits and Rickie Lee Jones, who wrote about him in her song "Chuck E.'s In Love." In 1999 Weiss released his debut album, Extremely Cool (Slow River Records), which features collaborations with Tony Gilkyson, Johnny Depp, and Tom Waits. Depp produced the opening track, "Devil with Blue Suede Shoes," and used it in his film The Brave. The two had previously worked together to revive faded Hollywood club The Central and turn it into the Viper Room.
Weiss and his band, The Goddamn Liars, have been purveying a distinctive blend of blues and R&B off and on since their formation in 1982, rarely leaving the Los Angeles area. Over the course of his career, Weiss has also performed with Willie Dixon and the short-lived Butthole Surfers side-project P, which also featured Depp. His newest album, Red Beans and Weiss, is out via Anti- April 15, 2014 and once again includes collaborations with Waits and Depp.
