Meeting Mojo Nixon and Debbie Gibson
On meeting the parents of a big foot baby
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
When I was in high school I would often fall asleep listening to the local high school radio station. It played a lot of artists that didn’t get much other airtime like Camper Van Beethoven, the Dead Milkmen and Mojo Nixon. WBFH also went to bed at the same time I did, with an FCC-mandated sign-off message at 10pm sharp.
I really enjoyed the cleverness and humor in the lyrics of all three of those bands. One of Mojo’s best-known songs was a tabloid spoof about how pop singer Debbie Gibson “was pregnant with his two-headed love child, a big-foot baby all covered in fur now.”
I’m proud to say that I’m one of probably very few people who met both parents of that baby Yeti.
I met the Dead Milkmen when I was in high school at a record signing my mom amazingly enough pulled me out of school early to go to. Later, I would shoot Camper Van Beethoven as house photographer for Metro. But I didn’t meet Mojo until 2019. He didn’t tour much anymore, but a local brewery made a beer in his honor and got Mojo to come out and play at a launch party. The show was great fun and I enjoyed every moment and remembered way too many lyrics than I should have. I caught up with him before the show for a quick selfie and hello.
I’ve tried to pass along my love of Mojo to my kids and was quite proud of a moment where I was driving past an oddly land-locked boat parked in front of a building and asked, “who needs a boat.” My son replied, “ELVIS!”
My work as a parent was done. I can leave the building.
Meeting Debbie Gibson was fun, too. The Cubs would sometimes have nostalgia music artists come through out a first pitch and sing the 7th inning stretch as part of a promotion like “70s night” or “80s night.” And having musicians there made it a music story, so I pitched my editors at Billboard.com and talked them into letting me cover these important music events.
The first year was Journey for ‘70s night. I was amazed that my photo pass issued by the Cubs granted me full press privileges, not just for the performance. So twice I got to shoot some of the game from the field press boxes. Walk between the first and third base boxes ON THE FIELD during the game. Hang out upstairs in the press box. One of those times I found Max from Poi Dog who runs some of the score boards at Wrigley (he got a World Series ring!). Max was bemused to find me in his third office (having seen me countless times in his other two, Poi’s stage and the Metro where he was a bartender and I was house photographer.) He let me punch Derrick Lee’s uniform number into the original score board when he came up to bat!
Anyway shooting the Cubs is how I found myself in the broadcast booth as first Journey (‘70s night at Wrigley, which was during the same week I shot Robin Williams getting a lifetime achievement award, as well as shows by Madonna and KISS!) and then Debbie Gibson (‘80s night) sang the 7th inning stretch. I also interviewed Debbie and took a bunch of photos of her
.
Several funny things came of that:
One, people really watch the Cubs on TV. All kinds of random friends called or emailed the next day “DID I SEE YOU ON TV????”
Two, someone made a fake Debbie Gibson baseball card using one of my photos.
And most amusingly, Debbie’s manager (her mom) tracked me down the next day and said Debbie wanted to call me because she had a couple follow-up thoughts for our interviews. I chatted my friends, “Debbie Gibson is trying to get my digits!” And she was!
14-year-old me, listening to WBFH in my room after bedtime, would have found this all HILARIOUS and also unbelievable.
As with Boy George, or Mr. T., whenever I do things to amuse my younger self my current self does not regret it. But also, in life it’s important to always work the angles. I turned a baseball story into a music story and got to stand on Wrigley Field and not get arrested because of it.
Here’s the piece I wrote for billboard.com:
Debbie Gibson itching for a comeback
The Chicago Cubs celebrated “’80s night” at Wrigley Field on Monday with ’80s teen sensation Debbie Gibson throwing out the first pitch, singing the National Anthem and performing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in the traditional 7th inning stretch sing-along. It took a while, but eventually the pitch made it over home plate for a strike. Keeping balls in the air seems to be what Deborah, as she goes by now, is good at these days. Her career is quite a juggling act.
Gibson spoke with Billboard.com about a bevy of current and future projects and about how she’s itching to get back on the airwaves. She’s got a full plate that keeps her running from movies to musicals to a week-long Deborah Gibson cruise, to a spread in Playboy and a well-timed single, “Naked.” But all this running around seems to have distracted her. While proud of the breadth of her work, “Versatility,” she says, “serves you as a writer but not necessarily as an artist.”
“After spending time in L.A. doing projects in the film and TV world and doing tons of Broadway,” she says, “I’m feeling the need to really focus on my first love, music. I’m ready for my big Tina Turner/’What’s Love Got To Do With It’ radio comeback.”
While there’s no timetable in place for getting back into the studio, she has self-released two collections of songs for die-hard fans through her Web site. She has also written a pair of songs including a “dance-pop club type” for an independent film called “Coffee Date,” that she will appear in with Wilson Cruz (“My So Called Life”). Shooting is scheduled to begin in August.
Gibson feels there is starting to be a backlash against “celebrities who are famous for being famous” and getting recording contracts. The time is coming again for “singer/songwriters who are self-created,” she believes.
She’s not alone in that feeling. Recently, old friends from the business are helping her with artist development and matching with collaborators such as Marti Frederiksen (Aerosmith). While she writes every day, she is still working on exactly what her musical direction will be. Among other outlets is studying jazz/blues piano to find a “different sophistication.”
“As you mature, lyrically, the songs get more sophisticated and you want the music to support that,” she says.