Anecdotes

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.

Frito-Lay used an unauthorized sample of his song "Step Right Up" in one of their commercials. He successfully sued for an undisclosed amount of money. Frito-Lay unsuccessfully counter-sued.

Shops at hardware stores for items to be used as percussion instruments.

Owns obscure and custom-made instruments, such as a Chamberlin Music Master 600 (an analog synthesizer manufactured in the 1960s) and a photon clarinet ("[It] sounds like a keyboard lobster dying on a campfire.").

A big Baz Luhrmann fan.

Beyond the aforementioned Bob Dylan and Captain Beefheart, Waits is a big fan of Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, the Rolling Stones, Gavin Bryars, the Lounge Lizards, The Pogues, Leonard Cohen, Little Richard, James Brown, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello, Paul Simon, and Prince. His number one favorite album of all time is "In the Wee Small Hours" by Sinatra.

Is a good friend of Keith Richards, who makes frequent appearances as a guitarist on his albums.

Being a family friend of the Coppolas, he performed at the wedding of Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze.

All of his recent original songs are credited as being written by both Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, although some of them are written solely by Waits.

In Oslo, Norway, there is an annual Tom Waits pub-crawl marathon run taking place around May every year, gathering about a thousand contenders. The marathon starts at a pub somewhere in Oslo and continues through various drinking spots, though they make sure every year that the route continues through the ruins of Clemens church, before it ends at the same establishment, Café Fiasco, the final pub. This is why the run has earned the nickname: "From ruin to fiasco".

Before she was an established actress, Winona Ryder once babysat for Tom's children.

He has said that Bob Dylan is his favorite songwriter and his main influence for initially getting into music. He contributes his shift to more experimental, eccentric music starting with the album "Swordfishtrombones" to the influence of Don Van Vliet. Ironically, Dylan's more recent work has been said to be comparable to Waits' music.

Originally slated to play Lefty, one of the singing cowboys in The Last Show (2006).

Children: Kellesimone (b. 1983), Casey Xavier (b. 1985), Sullivan (b. 1993).

His album "Rain Dogs" is mentioned in the script for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

His role in Domino (2006) is immediately preceded by his own song "Jesus Gonna Be Here", from his 1992 album "Bone Machine".

Close friends with the Coppola family including Nicolas Cage; often cast in Francis Ford Coppola movies.

Member of the "Sons of Lee Marvin", along with Jim Jarmusch (founder). It is a private and clandestine organization consisting of invited members who could plausibly be Lee Marvin's son.

Close friend of Chuck E. Weiss, a fellow L.A. scenester and co-founder of The Viper Room with Johnny Depp, and frequently mentions him in lyrics and liner notes on his records.

His maternal grandmother, Olga Regina Olsen, was the daughter of Norwegian parents (her family was from Oslo). Tom's other ancestry is English, Scottish, Scots-Irish/Northern Irish, German, Swiss-German, and Welsh.

Lives in Sonoma County, California.

His father Frank was a teacher at Belmont High School, the largest high school in Los Angeles.

Lives in California. (août 2001)