Biographie

He converted a four-cubic-yard metal box (intended as a debris dumpster) into a musical instrument called a "Strata Dumpster" (aka "Dumpstalele"). He cut a two/foot hole into one side, and stretched seven piano strings across it, fastening them with two welded bridges. The strings can be plucked, strummed, or bowed. He describes the sound as "trainlike and huge, like trash day with a purpose.".

The photo on the cover of his album "Rain Dogs" includes a man who many believe to be him. It was one of a series of photos taken at the Cafe Lehmitz in Hamburg by the Swedish photographer Anders Petersen. Waits reportedly saw the photo at an exhibition, was taken by the similarity of him and the man in the photo, and asked permission from the photographer to use it as an album cover.

Bears such a striking resemblance to actor Ron Perlman that he was once erroneously credited as Perlman on a movie poster.

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on 14 March 2011. The other inductees were Darlene Love, Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Leon Russell, and Dr. John.

Uses a large collection of electric megaphones to create unusual tonal effects on his recordings. One of his favorites is a 1944 vintage issued by the US Navy Bureau of Ships, manufactured by Guided Radio Corp. of New York.

Champagne for my real friends, real pain for my sham friends.

No, I don't have a drinking problem except when I can't get a drink.

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

I like to walk out of a restaurant with enough gas to open a Mobil station.

I hate Disneyland. It primes our kids for Las Vegas.