I don’t know if you know Weezer’s origin story, but it’s honestly a lot cuter than I expected.
Rivers Cuomo, Weezer’s frontman, has shared on a couple of occasions exactly where the band’s name came from. The story is ridiculously adorable, so prepare yourself. “That’s what my dad called me when I was very young,” he told Conan O’Brien in a 2022 episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
The singer went on to share, “I don’t know why. I asked him, ‘Why’d you call me Weezer?’ And he said it was after the kid in The Little Rascals. There was a character named Wheezer. So I said, ‘Why him?’ And he said, ‘He’s the cool one’.” Like, how freakin’ sweet is that?!
Notably, The Little Rascals‘ character’s name was spelled “Wheezer” and, based on a 2023 Loudwire article, Cuomo changed the spelling to Weezer right before the band’s first show. Which—fun fact—was opening for Keanu Reeves’ band, Dogstar.
Rivers Cuomo was originally inspired to start a band because of his love for heavy metal
Interestingly, Cuomo also shared with Conan that it was originally his love for heavy metal, and some classmates who inspired him to start a band. “Last day of eighth grade, there was a performance by some other eighth-grade boys,” he recalled. “They went up and did ‘Metal Health’ by Quiet Riot in front of the whole school. These were kids I knew, and they were just regular kids, and they were playing these instruments, and it just sounded incredible. Just magic.”
Cuomo continued: “I was like, ‘I should be able to do this’, and I got a guitar and started a cover band, did a bunch of metal songs and then moved out to LA with my metal band, and we thought we were going to make it like that, but it didn’t pan out.”
The Weezer guys all met through Rivers Cuomo’s Tower Records job
So with his metal band Avant Garde—later dubbed Zoom—in tow, Cuomo headed to Los Angeles in 1989. That band didn’t last a whole lot longer, but eventually Cuomo met Patrick Wilson and Matt Sharp through some Tower Records co-workers.
“Getting the job at Tower really helped me,” Cuomo explained. “I got exposed to all different kinds of music. Not just the latest cool music, but also going back to the 1960s and hearing the Beach Boys and the Beatles and then talking to other employees there, just so knowledgeable.
“I met the Weezer guys through my co-workers there,” he added. “And we formed the band.” The rest is rock history.
Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
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