A new documentary is now available about one of my musical idols…Mojo Nixon. The film The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon has become available to buy or rent on iTunes.
Early in my days doing the morning show on WAPL, I was introduced to the music of Mojo Nixon. We immediately began playing his song, Burn Down the Malls which was so much more than just a plea to all Americans to set fire to all of the country’s temples of commerce, but also a rant about the ludicrousness of what was then the new 21 drinking age.
Yes, I knew about Mojo Nixon long before the punk band The Dead Milkmen sang the words, “If you don’t know about Mojo Nixon, your story could use a fixin’” on their “hit” Punk Rock Girl.
A year later, Mojo and his washboard strumming sideman Skip Roeper, released their next album and I couldn’t wait. Their song Elvis is Everywhere gleaned dozens of requests every day from WAPL listeners and became a staple of what was then called the Nelson and McNeal Show. The song not only celebrated the king of rock ‘n’ roll better than last year‘s movie, it also managed to name-drop the likes of Joan Rivers, Billy Idol, and the anti-Elvis himself; Michael J Fox. (Mojo claims that his religious holy trinity are Elvis, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis the drunk from The Andy Griffith Show)
Even Mojo’s record company took note of how frequently we played the song and offered to fly me to Nashville to sing back-up during a weekend recording session for a song on his next album. The fact that I can’t sing a lick didn’t matter, and probably says as much about Mojo as anything. It was the weekend they were recording the song Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child.
Sadly, I had a familial obligation at that time and was unable to make the trip. It remains one of the great regrets of my life. Seriously!
