Almost Famous...

Howdy folks! Where the "F" have I been you ask? Well, pretty much in my studio, holed away working on a book illustration project which I can't divulge any details about yet. But I do have a funny tale to tell y'all about. A few days ago I got an email from a fellow out in North Carolina who had a funny story to tell about an old drawing I did some years ago.

Here's the skinny;

Hello Eugene. I work for a major corporation and my job is in R&D printing t-shirts. Every now and then, I get time to do some for myself and my friends. Well, a few weeks ago I decided to google some Tweedy pictures because one of my good friends bachelor party was coming up and we love Wilco. Anyway, I get to like page 30 on google images and there is your artwork. It's perfect for a t-shirt, so I edited it and increased the resolution for printing(about 300 dpi). I put it on a shirt and give it to him and I thought that was the end of it. Well, weekend before last my friends were going to see Wilco in Charleston SC (we live in NC) and I couldn't go but my friend went and wore your shirt. He worked his way to the front(like he always does-that idiot) and believe it or not, he could tell Tweedy kept looking at him. Then after a song, Tweedy stops the show and says "that is the most disgusting shirt I have ever seen. That doesn't even look like me". Kind of joking of course. Then he plays another song and after that one he still can't let it go. So he starts talking about it some more "I look like the Geico caveman, and my nose is bigger than that". After another song, he can't take it anymore so he helps my buddy onstage and asks the crowd what they think, smiling the whole time. He even tells my buddy to hold out the tshirt and then he puts his face beside it and asks the crowd. Anyway, he had a huge smile on his face the whole time. My buddy ends up stopping the show for 5 minutes because of your artwork and he gives Tweedy a hug and shakes Nels Cline's hand as well. It made my buddy's life. Here is an excerpt from a local newspaper about it: During the show, Tweedy noticed a fan in the front row wearing a shirt with an image of the singer he found unflattering. 'I look like the Geico caveman,' exclaimed Tweedy, who proceeded to bring the fan onstage to model the image for the rest of the house.

Charleston News Story

For some context, here's the image