Tom Waits

Tom Waits (born Thomas Alan Waits, in Pomona, California, on December 7, 1949) is a prolific American singer, songwriter, composer, and actor. He started his career in the early 1970s as a singer in spit 'n' sawdust bars. Initially, he was deeply influenced by the beat generation, novelists like Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, and poets like Allen Ginsberg and Charles Bukowski. Waits is often compared to Charles Bukowski, being similar both in content and lifestyle, although Waits's views are more egalitarian than Bukowski's. Read more about Tom Waits on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.