Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper – (619) 239-K-I-N-G
Description
Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. (August 2, 1957 – February 7, 2024), known professionally as Mojo Nixon, was an American musician and actor best known for his novelty song “Elvis Is Everywhere”, which was an alternative staple on MTV. His style could generally be defined as psychobilly, a musical genre which blends rockabilly with punk rock. Nixon hosted The Loon in the Afternoon radio show on Sirius XM.
Early career
Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on August 2, 1957. He paired with Skid Roper in the early 1980s in San Diego. Roper mostly provided instrumental backup to Nixon’s lyrics. Nixon and Roper released their first album in 1985 on Enigma Records, Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper. The song “Jesus at McDonald’s” from that album was the duo’s first single.
Nixon and Roper’s third album, 1987’s Bo-Day-Shus!!!, featured the song “Elvis Is Everywhere”, a deification of Elvis Presley, which is his best known song (Nixon later declared his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn, and Otis Campbell).
Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper were also recorded in San Francisco during these early years by producer Sylvia Massy at CD Presents for the Rat Music For Rat People compilation album.
Throughout the late 1980s, Nixon and Roper produced several satirical pieces lampooning contemporary celebrities, such as MTV VJ Martha Quinn, in “Stuffin’ Martha’s Muffin”, and Rick Astley and Debbie Gibson, in “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child“. Nixon appeared in several promotional spots for MTV during this period, but the network’s decision not to air the video for “Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant …” prompted him to sever ties with the network. Meanwhile, Nixon and Roper also lampooned contemporary American culture and social issues in songs such as “I Hate Banks”, “Burn Down the Malls”, and “The Amazing Bigfoot Diet”.
Nixon and Roper parted ways late in 1989. The following year Nixon recorded a solo album on Enigma Records called Otis. On this album, Nixon continued his assault on pop culture, as in the song “Don Henley Must Die”, which caused a fresh round of controversy, even to the point of Nixon’s record company begging radio stations not to play it. (Henley himself was unfazed; on July 31, 1992, at The Hole in the Wall in Austin, Texas, the former Eagle jumped onstage and performed the song with Nixon, causing Nixon to praise Henley as having “balls as big as church bells”, as well as to ask, “Is Debbie Gibson here too?”)
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Mojo Nixon
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Nixon performing in 2022
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Neill Kirby McMillan Jr. |
| Born | August 2, 1957 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Origin | Danville, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | February 7, 2024 (aged 66) San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1985–2024 |
| Labels | Enigma (1985–1991) Needletime (1997) Shanachie (1999) |
| Website | mojonixon |
