1- Tom Waits met his future wife, Kathleen Brennan, on the set of One From the Heart. She was working as a script analyst at the movie studio. They married in August 1980 and now have three children, Casey, Kelly and Sullivan, the oldest of whom, Casey Waits (21), is the drummer on his father’s current tour.
2- Tom Waits was once quotes as saying, “I wasn’t thrilled by Blue Cheer, so I found an alternative, even if it was Bing Crosby” His very favorite sound is silence; his favorite album is The Best of Marcel Marceau, which features 40 minutes of silence.
3- Tom Waits was nominated for an Oscar for his soundtrack to the 1980 Francis Ford Coppola film One From the Heart.
4- Although his songs would indicate that he was a bit of a loner, he resided at this rock ‘n’ roll hang out in 1975. The hotel also served as the temporary abode of Jim Morrison, Blondie and Led Zeppelin. The Tropicana was torn down in 1988.
5- Long before there was an Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Waits kept a notebook full of interesting facts. Underneath that cool exterior beats the heart of a true geek.
6- Tom Waits was born Thomas Alan Waits on 7 December 1949, one day after Blues legend Leadbelly died in New York. His parents were teachers who divorced when he was 10.
7- Tom Waits had a band in the early 70s called The Nocturnal Emmissions.
8- The first of Waits’ 25 appearances as a screen actor was in the 1978 movie Paradise Alley, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. Waits played a drunken piano player named Mumbles.
9- Bookmakers put him at 10-1 to be Christmas number one in Ireland last year when an Irish blog site launched a campaign to make the 1978 Waits track ‘Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis’ top of the charts. The attempt fell short, but the song did reach 28 in the singles sales chart and 11 on iTunes, ahead of ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Wizzard.
10- On March 14, 2011, Tom was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Neil Young.
11- Tom Waits keeps a notebook full of interesting facts, including gems such as the fact that the average cockroach can live up to two weeks after decapitation.
12- In 1982, Asylum Records refused to release his seventh album, the now legendary Swordfishtrombones. Label President Joe Smith warned, ‘with this record you will lose all your old fans and gain no new ones’. Waits was subsequently dropped by Asylum and the album had to wait a year until 1983 to get its release on Waits’ new independent label, Island. The album is regarded by many as his finest record.
13- The Eagles made his song ‘Ol’ 55’ a hit in 1974. He described their version as ‘antiseptic’.
14- Tom Waits’ favourite contemporary artist is Missy Elliot.
15- Waits was born one day after Blues legend Leadbelly died.
16- During the Asylum years Waits toured hard as a support act for various bands including Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention and Martha and the Vandellas. The crowds didn’t take to him and he was frequently jeered and spat at.
17- Tom Waits has released at least 28 albums and contributed to at least 50 films. His newest album, Bad As Me, is scheduled for release on October 25, 2011. (thanks, Bertrand – Paris, France, for contributions)
18- Of the many rare instruments used on his recordings through the years including the calliope (or steam piano) and a bow-played, water-filled, tubular creation known as the waterphone. Waits’ favourite is the Chamberlain Music Master 600; an early analog synthesizer that contains inbuilt samples of everything from galloping horses to owls hooting.
19- Tom Waits worked at Napoleone’s pizza restaurant in National City, and both here and at a local diner he developed an interest in the lives of the patrons, writing down phrases and snippets of dialogue which he overheard
20- When Tom Waits sings, glass doesn’t break, it rusts. Must be why plastic beer cups are so popular at Tom’s shows.
21- After Island Records were taken over by multinational Polygram, Waits jumped ship to the smaller Anti Records, releasing his label debut, Mule Variations, in 1999. He signed the contract with Anti’s parent company, Epitaph, after, he claims, they bought him a brand new Cadillac.
22- Tom Waits has won two Grammy awards – for Bone Machine (1992) and Mule Variations (1999).
23- ‘There ain’t nothin’ funny about a drunk.’ Despite an early career built on his persona of the world-beaten, cocktail-lounge boozehound, Waits has been sober for the past 16 years. In 1977 he told Rolling Stone journalist David McGee ‘You know, I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out.’
24- Tom Waits also starred in Jim Jarmusch’s 1986 film Down by Law. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.
25- The term “5 o’clock shadow” was invented by Tom Waits, because instead of wearing a watch, Tom Waits simply measures time according to his stubble growth. The term “midnight muttonchops” hasn’t caught on for some reason.
26- Tom Waits describes his wife Kathleen as “An incandescent presence in everything I do.” He credits her with cowriting songs, steering him away from alcohol, and ultimately saving his life.
27- Five different versions of the Waits song ‘Way Down The Whole’ have been used in the opening credits of each of the seasons of hit US TV show The Wire. Performers include Waits himself, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Steve Earle and a group of Baltimore middle-school students.
28- Tom Waits’ favourite sound is bacon frying in a pan.
29- He has worked as a composer for movies and musicals and has acted in supporting roles in films, including Paradise Alley and Bram Stoker’s Dracula
30 – A recording of France’s premier mime artist entitled The Best of Marcel Marceau is Waits’ favourite dinner party soundtrack. It features 40 minutes of silence followed by two of thunderous applause. He gets annoyed when people talk across it.
31- Tom Waits’ has worked as a club doorman, in a pizza restaurant, for the US Coastguard and has driven an ice cream truck. ‘The hardest thing about driving an ice cream truck’ he once said of his teenage job ‘is getting the little bell out of your head at night.’
32- In 1992 Waits won $2.37m in a lawsuit against the potato chip company Frito Lay, (who make Doritos and Walkers crisps in the UK) when, after Waits refused permission to use the song ‘Step Right Up’ in an advert, the company recorded and used a jingle with a sound-alike.
33- It is widely reported that Waits cried when he first saw This is Spinal Tap, finding it a little too familiar for comfort.
34- Tom Waits is included among the 2010 list of Rolling Stone‘s 100 Greatest Singers as well as the 2015 list of Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.
35- In 1988 Waits reworked ‘Heigh Ho’ from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for a film song compilation album.
36- In a press conference video released in May this year, Waits claimed the tour route of his 12 US performances was planned to follow the shape of the constellation Hydra.
37- Aged 19,Tom Waits was a doorman at a San Diego music hole called the Heritage Coffeehouse. He eventually took to its stage as a performer. but he made less money: $8 an hour on the door, $6 on stage.
38- There have been 13 outings of the Tom Waits festival, Waitstock, held on a farm in Poughkeepsie near New York. Highlights from 2003 included a potato cannon, ‘Tom Waits Gong Show’ and the release of several black cats during ‘Mystery Hour’.
sources
https://www.list.co.uk/article/10157-25-things-you-might-not-know-about-tom-waits/
http://www.wiki-zero.net/index.php?q=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvVG9tX1dhaXRz