R.I.P. Mojo Nixon, “Elvis Is Everywhere” singer and psychobilly artist
The irreverent cult icon styled himself the voice of "the doomed, the damned, the weird." He was 66.
Aux News Mojo Nixon
Mojo Nixon—the incisive singer, actor, and DJ behind satirical cult hits like “Elvis Is Everywhere” and “Destroy All Lawyers”—died of a “cardiac event” onboard a country cruise he was co-hosting on Wednesday. “How you live is how you should die,” the Facebook page for his 2020 documentary, The Mojo Manifesto, posted last Wednesday night. “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.” Nixon was 66.
Born in North Carolina, Nixon (real name Neill Kirby McMillan Jr.) was drawn to music from an early age because “it’s exciting, it’s dangerous, and it makes the church people nervous,” as he said in a 2017 interview (via The New York Times). Getting his start in a short-lived punk band known as Zebra 123, Nixon collaborated with a number of different artists in the Denver and San Diego scenes before eventually linking up with instrumentalist Skid Roper (real name Richard Banke).
Together, Nixon and Roper produced six albums, including their 1987 breakout, Bo-Day-Shus!!! The success of that record is largely thanks to Nixon’s most famous song, “Elvis Is Everywhere,” a driving, goofy ode that paints the King as a godlike deity responsible for everything from the pyramids to Stonehenge to the Bermuda Triangle. Other hits include “Destroy All Lawyers,” “I Hate Banks,” “Are You Drinkin’ With Me Jesus,” “Don Henley Must Die,” and more.
Nixon’s style can be best described as “psychobilly,” a fusion of roots music and punk rock. “A lot of people had the same idea simultaneously,” Nixon said of the genre in an interview for his documentary. “I’m a rabble-rouser who does humorous social commentary within a rock-and-roll setting,” he said of his own style in a 1990 interview with The New York Times. Later, he dubbed himself a voice of “the doomed, the damned, the weird.”
Nixon went on to release five solo albums, three albums with a new band, the Toadliquors, a live album, and a soundtrack for the video game “Redneck Rampage.” He also waded into acting with roles in the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls Of Fire, the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. film, and 1994's Car 54, Where Are You?. Later in life, he took up DJing with some local gigs and eventually a regular spot on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country channel where he went by the name “the Loon in the Afternoon.”
Nixon is survived by his wife, Adaire McMillan, his sons, Rafe Cannonball McMillan and Ruben McMillan, his sister, Jane Holden McMillan, his brother, Arthur Reese McMillan, and one granddaughter.
24 Comments
I once met Rodney Anonymous of the Dead Milkmen at a show, and within 30 seconds he was telling me a story about calling a bingo game with Mojo Nixon after sharing an entire bag of magic mushrooms.Anyway, for my money, peak Mojo is his honky-tonk cover of The Smiths’ “Girlfriend In A Coma”
That is quite possibly the perfect Rodney and Mojo story. RIP.
Well shit, now Debbie Gibson has to raise their two-headed love child alone :(.
I never owned a Mojo Nixon record, but as a kid taping Dr Demento off the radio at night and listening to the Dead Milkmen on my Walkman by day, he was a legend in my mind. Bless this man.
The Dead Milkmen have a lot of references that I only got later. I still think of Jon Wurster as the idiot kid who was looking for his burrow owl in a tree.
Jumping Jesus on a pogo stick!
Saw them once in PDX. We used to have a furniture store called Tom Peterson’s and they gave away cardboard Halloween masks and the lead singer was wearing one of them for part of the performance.
Needs moar pecker.
Before “Elvis Is Everywhere”, Mojo and Skid were notorious for their homage to MTV veejay Martha Quinn, “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin”.
The true star of 1993’s Super Mario Bros. and the 1998 Troma classick Buttcrack.
I called 619-239-KING once. Got a very excited-sounding message demanding us to hassle somebody who owed him money, lmao.
I just went down to the record store and they said that Mojo Nixon didn’t work there.
That store could use some fixin’
Meanwhile, Pat Fucking Robertson still walks the earth.
I kinda skipped through, but Pat seems to kinda like Mojo.
Everyone should like Mojo. My pecker is currently tied to my leg in an act of shared grief.My point is that someone awesome is dead and Pat Fucking Buchanan is still alive.Also, I just realized I listed the wrong Pat in my original comment. Thankfully that fucking Pat is good and dead.
I saw him live once when he was performing with Jello Biafra, crazy night!
I’m impressed with Jello to be so brave. Like The Dead Kennedys, Mojo was kind of mocking punk while still being it.
Man… RIP. I have a big soft spot for psychobilly, and Mojo Nixon was one of the best. First psychobilly track I ever loved was from Mojo on the Redneck Rampage soundtrack:
I saw him scale the rigging during a thunderstorm, in the middle of Mushroom Mania, at an outdoor festival, while carrying his water jug drum — he then survived another four decades.
While it’s not a solo work I believe it to be a good song for the moment
Hilariously original and acidly funny. I think the best compliment I could give him is that I would wish Mojo Nixon to be the on the scene neighbor who the local news channel interviews after my crimes have been exposed and the manhunt is on.Picture Mojo standing there and saying “He was a quiet guy but friendly….never made a fuss and we had a few beers once in a while. He helped me build my dog’s house last summer. Can’t believe what they said he did to that busload of nuns…..”
lol Psychobilly. Haven’t heard that term in a while. Big Hot Topic and Myspace vibes.
“Passing after a blazing show, a raging night, closing the bar, taking no prisoners”An, that sucks! At least it sounds like he went out with a bang and not a wimper!