About a month or so ago (is time extra wibbly wobbly for anyone else? Months and weeks collapse into a few hours and some days seem to last weeks?) Darin from Punk Rock Karaoke saw that I am an old school punk, and he offered me an opportunity to join him and his band to sing a song of my choice.
I am not musical at all. Like, I love music, and I sing along all the time, but I’m not a singer or a musician, so I was like OMG YES and then that voice in my head I try so hard not to listen to was all THEY’RE ALL GONNA LAUGH AT YOU! But I was all shut up, voice. It’s punk! I can totally fake it.
So I did. It was the single scariest thing I’ve ever done, creatively, in my life. I can not even begin to tell you how far out of my comfort zone this took me, and how happy I am with the result. It was so much fun, and I can’t wait until I can do it live with the band.
Here I am, singing the Dead Kennedys classic, Police Truck, with Punk Rock Karaoke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AK-sHrCyUY
Love The Dead Kennedys and you did fantastic!!!
So, Wil: How long must I wait for the ukulele version of this?
Awesome on so many levels.
LOL’d at the “scariest’ comment. Wil, I so totally enjoy these insights into your life and thoughts. Thank you so much for being willing to share. It really does help break down the idea that “celebrities” are somehow different from ‘everyday people’ (and yes, you are a celebrity – absolutely). Somehow I feel so much less like an imposter or screw-up every time I identify with your posts. Thank you for being brave for us all.
👍👍👍🔥
Good job on this and the band is amazing.
That was sick!! GG Wil!!
Wil, if I may, speaking as a musician with a multi-decade career, you rocked that mother. I’d pay money to see that band.
Nailed it! I knew you could do it, but this exceeded my expectations!
Punk is an attitude, and you’ve got it in spades WW.
\m/ \m/
Love It!!!!
This is brilliant!
Fantastic job sir! You have nothing to worry about regarding the voice!
Strange request maybe – would you ever consider doing a video tour of the game shelf behind you in the video? Show us what is currently in the collection?
First off…saying “shut up voice” is very punk. I approve. Secondly – YOU ROCKED THAT SHIT!
Don’t ever say you’re not musical again, Wil, or I will cut you. Do not sell yourself short. I studied voice for years and been in musicals, even opera choruses and university operas. Tell the voice in your head to STFU. I don’t know punk at.all, but you were perfectly “in pitch” and showed a great sense of rhythm and understanding of the music. Do you scream in punk music? I dunno. If so, I didn’t miss it.
You sounded great. Very self assured.
I think there’s a voice there that if you wanted to sing in a musical for fun, Broadway or punk, whatever, you definitely could.
Thanks for sharing this. I LOVED it.
I just want to second all of that. Freaking fantastic on so many levels. I would absolutely listen to an entire album of you as their punk cover front man.
For not being a singer, that was awesome!
This is GREAT!! So hard to believe you would doubt yourself–it was perfect! So glad you didn’t let fear stop you–we would have been deprived of this performance.
Never listened to much punk (I know, I know), so I went back and listened to the DKs studio version for comparison — I think I prefer yours. 🙂 Great work getting out of your own way.
You look like you’re having a blast, and I hope you were having half as much fun as it looked! <3
I think you may have found your “2nd calling”! Well done sir.
I second that
Are you fucking kidding! SING, WIL, SING OUT! DO “HOLIDAY IN CAMBODIA” NEXT!!!!!
Great job with a great song! Thank you for sharing, you’ve made my day
You look like you really enjoyed yourself up there and had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun watching it also. You were awesome! I’m so glad that you got the chance to do it and that you went for it whole hog. It was a truly radical moment!! ☺️👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Holy crap! Wil can wail! That was amaze-balls!!!
Would it be really annoying to say you CRUSHED that? Too late.
Clever … made me laugh.
That was fantastic! I mean, like, I REALLY enjoyed that, and not just in an, “Oh, this is karaoke, and it’s entertaining if someone sucks,” kind of way. Be proud of this, because it’s awesome…!
So, couple things:
– Every time I come here I feel like I discover that we have another thing in common (probably because we’re the same age and disposed to similar backgrounds and paths). In this case, old school punk. I consider anything that happened after 1988 “new.”
– Choice of song was spot on, and it made me think of how relevant so much of “the gospel of Jello Biafra” stuff is still.
– Please do more of these. This made my day!
– Pro tip! Using a mic stand and visible microphone helps a solo singer gain a quick sense of confidence, and in some ways acts as a psychological “shield” if you will. Essentially it’s a prop – a swagger stick to do stage business with. I find that it’s great to hang onto and twiddle with during those periods where a singer has to “look busy” in a static live environment while a longer non-vocal part is going on, especially a guitar solo. See the antics of Joey Ramone, Johnny Rotten, and Iggy Pop for example! (This obviously only applies if you’re not already playing a guitar as well, which is always awesome).
I wasn’t expecting that. I mean, I did not expect you to bomb it or anything, but your voice meshes really well with the song. You should do more scary things! This one was awesome!
That was pretty good, and Jello can be hard to pull off. Congrats.
ALL RIGHT! WOO HOO! (Jumping up and down and pounding on his chair)
That was so much fun!!
Okay, I’m too old to love Punk, but I loved seeing you step out of your comfort zone to do this. Even though you are a grown man, everytime I see you I smile and recall the Wesley from Star Trek. (Sorry to bore you with something I’m sure you hear a lot). What a pleasure it was seeing this video — thanks for sharing it.
So love that!
Funniest thing is: I’m just rewatching TNG (again) and I can’t get Wesley Crusher out of my head while watching you go punk 😉
I was fully expecting to come back here and comment that your lack of singing aptitude doesn’t matter, as you’re a plenty-skilled actor and writer. Wow! I couldn’t have been more wrong! Excellent work, sir! If you did a cover karaoke of “Ill in the Head” I suspect you could make your audience gasp and cry all at once. Be well, Wil !
Wil! That’s great! Ohmygosh!
I can see the moment when it changes from ‘I’m terrified ‘ to ‘ohmygosh this is so much fun!!!!’ I’m so very glad you had this experience!
Be careful… it’s addictive!! Lol
Well done and thanks so much for sharing!
Great Job Wil! That will make my playlist when I’m gardening. It’s true. Gardening is my thing. It’s what happens when rebels get old. You’ll be on there with The Cult, Iron Maiden, The Supremes, Big Audio Dynamite and others.
Holy cats, dude. You murrrdered it- you sounded SO GOOD. You can tell your imposter syndrome to go pound sand.
OMG those were the ACTUAL Dead Kennedys! You ROCKED that, dude! You are such a cool cat……
You got it, dude, you got it. 🔥 <– (closest I can get to a lighter emoji)
Well done, my dude! Between you and Anne, there is literally nothing you cannot do. Seriously, next I expect to see you both on a trapeze.
Okay so I don’t generally like punk and am unsure if I have ever even heard a Dead Kennedys song. Listening to the lyrics, this song was definitely not something I normally would listen to. That being said, I thought you did a decent job forgetting you aren’t a singer. It appeared to me that you got more comfortable as the song progressed. Very good attempt, I think you may have found a new side gig. 😁
NICE!
Um, holy shit – I expected that to have some novelty appeal, but you actually, ACTUALLY did the song justice. Nice work!! I’m curious if your voice acting experience helped you with that – it seems like singing would be a completely different skill, but you seemed really comfortable. Great song choice, too 🙂
Wow! Absolutely fantastic! Your voice, punk energy and expressions were spot on! More, much more, please!
THAT was SOOOOOO good!! You got INTO it and ROCKED it! (Or should that be Punked it???) Wil, there are no limitations. Keep on doing it!
YYYYAAAASSSS! ❤❤ LOVE THE BARITONE! gonna play this song e’vry morning.
If I could do on thing in this world, I would do musical theater. But you nailed it, Wil:
“Like, I love music, and I sing along all the time, but I’m not a singer or a musician, so I was like OMG YES and then that voice in my head I try so hard not to listen to was all THEY’RE ALL GONNA LAUGH AT YOU!”
I did do a little bit in school as a kid, but I’m terrified of it as an adult. Maybe one day, I can be as brave as you. I’m glad you did this, Wil. Thank you for the inspiration. Oh, and yes, time is very wibbly wobbly in general, and certainly right now.
*one. Obviously.
This was really good, Wil. Love, to see you in the good mood is good things. Leaving the comfort zone is one of the best things somebody can do. Greetings from Germany. Josch
This was really good, Wil. Love, to see you in a good mood by doing joyful good things. Leaving the comfort zone is one of the best things somebody can do for himself. I like this Video. Greetings from Germany. Josch
Incredible. The first few strains, I thought it was a prank where you were lip-syncing a rare recording of Jello himself. Then I heard the classic Wheaton tones, and thought, “Holy shit. He’s crushing it.” Pun intended.
It’s ironic that such a thing is joyful, while the lyrics make it simultaneously and bitterly relevant today.
I, too, come from old-school punk roots, and Dead Kennedys were a big part of that.
WHERE DO I GET THAT SHIRT?!