I was doing some searching online today for work and I came across a documentary about Andrew W.K. On a complete tangent, I decided to look up to see who the hell this guy was? I remember seeing that infamous picture of him with blood streaming out his nose and down his neck and chin – that image was burned into my mind. But judging from several offhand comments I have heard from people, it looks like he has quite the cult following, and I wanted to know more about what the big deal was.
A quick wikipedia search revealed this:
“Many sources have regarded Andrew W.K. as an actor, and possibly a “front man” hired to play the role of “Andrew W.K.” and perform the A.W.K. music. Contradictory versions of Andrew W.K.’s history and rise to celebrity have coexisted, and while some of the contradictions have seemingly coming from Andrew himself, the source of the confusion is difficult to pin down. As a result, some have claimed he is an actor who tried out successfully for the part of a rock star, possibly as a front for some sort of songwriter or songwriting team. It has even been suggested that Andrew W.K.’s entire “image” was created by this entity, and was provided for him to use in public. Rumors have circulated that before there was an “Andrew W.K.” the press was holding interviews with a “Steev Mike” whose image and sound later became known as “Andrew W.K.” (the first appearance of “Steev Mike” was inside the pages of the cutting-edge UK magazine “Dazed & Confused”. An issue from early 2000 supposedly featured a full page story on “Steev Mike” but it’s nearly impossible to find this back issue). These rumors appear to have started in response to some strange events involving Andrew, including a live performance in December of 2004 where some audience members supposedly believed that the performer was not, in fact, Andrew W.K (evidence regarding this incident, however, is completely apocryphal). The debate about these events and the resulting dissection of Andrew’s history has continued, while Andrew himself has been conspicuous in his silence on the matter. Although some of Andrew’s fans take these rumors very seriously, some of the “theories” are absurdly farfetched and difficult to take seriously, notably rumors linking Andrew W.K. to Tom Cruise and/or Nicole Kidman. This has led many to suggest that the entire controversy surrounding Andrew is part of a complicated and nearly impenetrable series of layers, each one revealing simultaneously more – and less – about the entertainer and his ultimate truth.
In 2005, many websites directly linked with Andrew W.K. started appearing on the internet. These websites contained strange pictures and lines of code related to Steev Mike. These pages have been taken off line, but archived versions can be found at http://www.awk.dudeguy.com. Deep analyzation of the websites, as well as other things, can be found at http://awilkeskrier.homestead.com/.”
find that interview with the onion. it was probably like 2000 or so it came out? maybe earlier?
never heard any of this stuff above before, but it sounds a lot like this to me:
http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/12/09/erasing-personal-history/
which is very much in keeping with what i remember that interview saying about the almost quasi-religious stance he takes towards his music