It's pretty much common knowledge that Johnny Depp took his inspiration for the character of Captain Jack Sparrow from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones but my son just told me that the late Heath Ledger got his inspiration for his Academy Award winning performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight from singer Tom Waits.
Keith Richards on stage with the Rolling Stones... No, wait,maybe that's
him as Pirate Captain Teague. Hard to tell...
I saw Tom Waits once as I was parking my car to go to work and he was about to cross the street to visit his manager whose office was on Sunset Blvd. (I assume that's where he was headed). I called out, "Hey Tom, I like your music" and he answered, "Thanks, man," in the exact same voice he uses for singing.
I wasn't kidding either as Closing Time and (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night were two albums I listened to a lot back then. I still do. His haunting beautiful San Diego Serenade always takes me back to my college days at San Diego State even though the only mention of San Diego in that song is in the title and Diamonds On My Windshield seems to be about a drive from San Diego to Hollywood and even mentions a "Duster" which what I drove at the time (a Dodge Duster) so I always like to think he actually wrote that about seeing me on the highway heading home for the weekend.
The job I was going to that day I saw Tom Waits was on an animated movie and one of the background painters, a guy we all called Napoleon, was the illustrator who drew the album cover for Heart Of Saturday Night (a color pencil drawing). Small world.
I wonder how many other actors have based their memorable characters on old rock stars? It goes to show how unique the world of Rock & Roll is, that people from that world are different enough that they make good fictional characters. When the rest of the world is getting homogenized because of national television news and the disappearance of regional accents, it's nice to know the alternate universe of Rock & Roll still has some character and individuality left.
No comments:
Post a Comment