When I heard that Mojo Nixon died today at 66 of a "cardiac event" after performing last night on the Outlaw Country Cruise, it took me a minute to believe it.
This guy -- who invented a crazy style of wild, funny, out-of-control, totally disrespectful, punk-abilly music -- was so full of energy and love of living, it seems impossible that he's gone.
Today, while the cruise ship was docked in San Juan, his family posted on Facebook what must be the best rock'n'roll obituary ever. Here's a little excerpt..
August 2, 1957 — February 7, 2024 Mojo Nixon. How you live is how you should die. Mojo Nixon was full-tilt, wide-open rock hard, root hog, corner on two wheels + on fire…. Passing after a blazing show, a raging night, closing the bar, taking no prisoners + a good breakfast with bandmates and friends. A cardiac event on the Outlaw Country Cruise is about right… & that’s just how he did it, Mojo has left the building...
Just a few weeks ago, I made a friend listen to my favorite Mojo song, 1990's "Don Henley Must Die." And I couldn't stop laughing at the plea in the chorus: "Don't let him get back together with Glenn Frey." If Mojo's story is true, Don Henley actually loved the song's outlandish insults and joined Mojo onstage once to sing it. You can enjoy a full-Mojo live performance of it on Youtube:
Even if you've never heard about Mojo, trust me -- I was one of many life-long fans. Winona Ryder favored him too and appeared in the Youtube video of his classic song "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child."
Lest you worry that Mojo ran out of icons to remove from their pedestals, think back to the heyday of MTV in the 1980s when VJ (video jockey) Martha Quinn was loved by one and all. Sometime after I reported a story about her for People Magazine, Mojo released the memorable "Stuffin' Martha's Muffin." Poking fun at the video channel that was too mainstream to give him much attention, he managed to rhyme "music television" with "jism." He also did some scat-like singing that would make Ella Fitzgerald wonder how things could have come to this. You can hear it on Youtube.
One must also remember that the Dead Milkmen honored Mojo in 1988's "Punk Rock Girl" -- one of my all-time favorite songs -- with these lyrics:
The security guard followed us to a record shop
We asked for Mojo Nixon
They said, "He don't work here."
We said, "If you don't got Mojo Nixon, then your store could use some fixin'"
Definitely worth watching the Youtube video of that song for some very gentle punk rock nostalgia -- and you'll see Mojo's cameo:
A year earlier, Mojo and his musical partner Skid Roper earned their first bit of fame for their song "Elvis is Everywhere" -- with a Youtube video that was funny and mainstream enough to reach a larger audience.
Which brings us to the object that I couldn't -- and now never will -- throw out. Even though my CD collection has been viciously purged many times since my days as a record reviewer, I've held on to Mojo's 1990 album Otis, which includes "Don Henley Must Die." In one of my other favorites "You Can Dress 'Em Up, But You Can't Take 'Em Out," Mojo belches out lyrics that some of us find irresistible. Here's my treasure:
In his later years, Mojo -- who was born as Neill McMillan Jr. in Chapel Hill North Carolina -- had some small roles in the movies "Great Balls of Fire," "Super Mario Bros." and "Car 54, Where Are You?" Then he became a DJ in San Diego and Cincinnati and the host of three Sirius radio shows. Just in case you took a listen and want to dive deeper into his biography, a 2014 documentary about him, The Mojo Manifesto, is expected to be available on-demand this March. (You can also read his obituary on NBC News.)
In the meantime, I've got a CD to remind me of the impolite fun created by this one-of-a-kind, don't-give-a-flying-f*** musician. I'll be jumping around and laughing which, I think, is what he'd want.
For more of the musical memories that I couldn't toss, including interviews with Joni Mitchell, 2Pac, Eazy-E and others, listen to I Couldn't Throw It Out podcast.
