With his fractured vision and his frantic singing and playing style, Mojo Nixon perhaps best personifies what is meant by “psychobilly”; he is a native of Chapel Hill (real name: Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr.). Steve Huey provides a cogent synopsis of his mystique in his biography for Allmusic: “One of the most out-sized personalities on college radio in the ’80s, Mojo Nixon won a fervent cult following with his motor-mouthed redneck persona and a gonzo brand of satire with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Nixon had a particular knack for celebrity-themed novelty hits (‘Elvis Is Everywhere’, ‘Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child’, ‘Don Henley Must Die’), but he was prone to gleefully crass rants on a variety of social ills (‘I Hate Banks’, ‘Destroy All Lawyers’, ‘I Ain’t Gonna Piss In No Jar’), while celebrating lowbrow, blue-collar America in all its trashy, beer-soaked glory. All of it was performed in maximum overdrive on a bed of rockabilly, blues, and R&B.”
(January 2015/2)
