How Nicolas Cage inspired a classic Tom Waits song
By the end of the 1990s, Tom Waits had assembled his own twisted world of creatures and characters. Littered throughout his songs were abnormal humans, demented otherworldly beings, and funhouse mirror reflections of real life. Instead of getting gentler as he aged, Waits actually managed to get more grotesque as he got older, favouring the seedier and less savoury side of entertainment.
The perfect example comes in the form of ‘Eyeball Kid’, the tenth track from Waits’ 1999 LP Mule Variations. As a carnival freakshow metaphor for the gawking and ill-reputed treatment that artists suffer through in their endeavours, ‘Eyeball Kid’ takes the bothered qualities of deformed performers and uses them to shine a light on what it’s like to live in the spotlight.
“Most of us, in some form or another, are fascinated with anything that makes us different. Most of us from time to time have felt that way and can relate on a certain level, whether it’s internal or external,” Waits told Exclaim Magazine in 1999.
Adding: “Obviously I’m making light of something [on ‘Eyeball Kid’] – and I hope it’s not at anybody’s expense, because there are people with physical deformities and I’m not poking fun at that at all. I’m just taking the idea of show business to a ridiculous place. It’s really more autobiographical than anything else.”
The character of the ‘Eyeball Kid’ had actually made an earlier appearance in Waits’ catalogue when he showed up in the lyrics to ‘Such a Scream’, the third track from Waits’ 1992 album Bone Machine. The origins of the Eyeball Kid come from the character of the same name that appears in a series of stories published by Dark Horse Comics. Waits was first introduced to the character through an unlikely source: actor Nicolas Cage.
“Actually, it was Nic Cage that reintroduced me to comic books,” Waits told Magnet in 1999. “I hadn’t thought about comic books since I was a little kid, but he seemed to carry that mythology with him. It was inspiring to see him keep alive some of those principles that we associate with childhood, to the point where he named himself after Cage, the comic-book hero.”
Cage and Waits first got to know each other on the set of Francis Ford Copolla’s 1983 film Rumble Fish, in which both men had acting roles. The pair bonded over their shared love of the obscure, namely old-timey monster movies and experimental music. When asked about his ultimate musical hero back in 2010, Cage gave the honour to Waits.
Check out ‘Eyeball Kid’ down below.