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Andy Prieboy Biography

andy-prieboy
  • Born:
  • Years Active: 1990s-2000s
  • Member of: Wall of Voodoo
  • Genre: Rock & Alternative

Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, and playwright Andy Prieboy was raised in East Chicago, IN, where he wrote his first song at the age of 12. In his late teens, he moved to New Jersey, played in a local band, and worked as a furniture mover in New York City. After the group's breakup he relocated to San Francisco and joined a combo called Eye Protection. Six years later, following a lead on a production deal offered to him by the son of a wealthy real estate developer who was secretly using the money to front his drug habit, Prieboy moved to Los Angeles. The company used Prieboy as a scapegoat, eventually suing the artist to cover the son's drug expenditures, which led to a long bout of litigation that forced Prieboy to lose ownership of his songs -- he was eventually acquitted. Prieboy's string of bad luck took a turn at a party in Los Angeles where a met an extremely drunk Bruce Moreland -- bass player for Wall of Voodoo -- who asked him to join the band as the replacement for recently departed lead singer Stan Ridgway. In 1985 the group -- with Prieboy -- released the critically acclaimed Seven Days in Sammystown, followed by 1987's Happy Planet and a live recording called Ugly Americans in Australia in 1988. That same year, after the band's demise, Prieboy wrote a song called "Tomorrow Wendy" for Concrete Blonde's breakthrough record, Bloodletting, and began work on what would become his debut, Upon My Wicked Son. Released in 1990 on the Doctor Dream label, the record combined Prieboy's fascination with vaudeville, art, opera, and satire, and was generally well received but did little damage commercially -- although "Loving the Highway Man" was covered by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in 1999. An EP followed in 1991 called Montezuma Was a Man of Faith, which featured a country version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" sung with Concrete Blonde's Johnette Napolitano. In 1995 Prieboy's most ambitious project was released: the sprawling Sins of Our Fathers, which took on the record industry, psychotic ex-lovers, and religion with a wit and precision that established Prieboy as a true underground hero. His current project is White Trash Wins Lotto, a play loosely based on the life of Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

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