How Rivers Cuomo’s bizarre surgery changed Weezer’s fortunes
In 1995, it looked as though Weezer were on top of the world. However, the reality of their situation was starkly different, despite how it seemed on paper. Then, all of a sudden, tragedy struck. However, it all turned out to be beneficial for the group in the long run.
At the time, Weezer were on the rise following the release of their debut record, the Blue Album, which enabled the band to tour the world. However, throughout their time on the road, singer Rivers Cuomo was in a dark place mentally and developed an inferiority complex. Despite their success, Cuomo felt Weezer were more simplistic than their peers and was desperate for a break.
Cuomo had begun work on the group’s second album, but it wasn’t going the way he envisaged. Following the end of the tour, he finally underwent the surgery he’d needed for many years, which was to lengthen his left leg, which was 44mm shorter than the right.
Before the surgery, the frontman planned to make a rock opera called Songs From The Black Hole, but his surgery turned him off. Suddenly, Cuomo found himself in a dark zone and needed to express those feelings through song, which eventually birthed Pinkerton.
Speaking about the evolution of the album during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2010, Cuomo recalled: “I had this really painful surgical procedure on my leg, which lasted 13 months in all and it took me to a place, emotionally, where the whole idea of this whole rock opera started to feel too whimsical for where I was emotionally, going through the pain of the procedure. And so I scrapped the whole idea and went to a more serious and dark place.”
Furthermore, Cuomo also enrolled at Harvard, which changed his outlook on life, and picked him out of his rut. He added: “I was overjoyed to be at Harvard. I was craving mental stimulation for about a year and a half leading up to that point, being on the road. Touring in a van and just feeling like I was wasting my life”.
He continued: “To go back to college was so exciting to me. And on top of that, to be Harvard! Just the greatest place in the world for me to be. I was quite excited. I was pretty isolated living on my own. And I couldn’t drive, because my leg was all jacked up. Socially, I was kind of retreating into a shell after the shock of being in the spotlight in ’94 when our film was released.”
If it wasn’t for Cuomo’s surgery taking him off the road, there’s a strong chance that Weezer wouldn’t be here today. He needed time off touring to get his creative juices flowing again and to revitalise himself by being an ordinary student, operating outside the spotlight. The result was Pinkerton, which would breathe new life into his artistry, and Weezer.
A day after his surgery, Cuomo recalled the rarity ‘Glorious Moment’, which captured his instant reaction to the operation. On the track, he says: “It’s 5:30 on… the 15th… the day after my operation. Um… I’m, eating saltines, drinking juice. I actually peed… for the first time… on my own. It was… a glorious moment. It was truly glorious. Now I’m going to try to… set up some music to listen to. Goodbye.”
Listen to the game-changing Pinkerton below.
