By Andrew Sanford | News | January 21, 2025 |
I love Weezer so freaking much. They are a band that spoke to me the moment I saw Rivers Cuomo singing with the Muppets. Due to my later discovery, I’m not someone who will tell you the group stopped making good music after Pinkerton. There are a couple of Weezer albums I do not care for, but those come much later, and I love the albums that followed them. They’re my favorite band. Sunday was my birthday, and I spent a chunk of the day listening to them. I love them, but I am not blind to how weird Rivers Cuomo can be.
What is “weird” is very subjective, I get that. I love plenty of “weird” things, like the guy dressed up as Rivers in the header. The word weird has been used to describe me more times than I could count, and I have embraced it. So, when I say that Rivers Cuomo can be a little weird, I mean it in the sense that he can just be… off sometimes. Odd, if you will, in a way that can make one feel like things are “weird.” Someone like Steve Lukather guitarist for the band Toto.
Cuomo is the lead singer and guitarist of Weezer, as well as one of its founding members. He’s short, wears glasses, and usually dresses in “nerdy” button-ups and pants. Sometimes, he’ll rock a flannel and jeans. There was a time he sported a mustache and cowboy hat, occasionally he’s had a beard, but the man sports the same dweeby bespectacled look that he did thirty years ago. It’s part of why I fell in love with him, but I admit it does feel odd to a 54-year-old man. But that’s not necessarily what’s “weird” about Rivers.
If you watch or listen to Rivers in interviews, he can be soft-spoken but attentive in an almost childlike way. His style leaves much to be desired by many (but I dig it, to be honest, it influenced how I dress). There was that time he turned his Twitter account over to an AI bot, and it would just spout nonsense and answer weird questions. The man does not carry himself like a rock star, but certainly is one. He replaced himself in the music video for the band’s cover of Africa with Weird Al Yankovich!
That last choice may give the newest bit about Weezer’s famed cover a little credence. After a midwestern teenager went viral for asking Weezer to sing Toto’s hit song, Africa, the band did. Then, that blew up as well, leading to an album of cover tunes by the group (not one of the albums I don’t like, but certainly low on my list). Lukather was asked about the saga recently, especially regarding Rivers’ love for the song. However, the Toto guitarist put the kibosh on that.
“I don’t know about him loving the song, man,” Lukather noted on Matt Pinfield’s KLOS radio show New & Approved. “I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think he did it to take the piss out of it and it blew up in his face and how he’s got to play it every night.” Hot damn! That’s a mighty accusation, made more believable by Rivers (and the band) not appearing in the music video. Also, it wasn’t like it was Rivers’ idea to begin with.
Lukather went on to say that he reached out to Rivers, and that’s when things got… you know. “I tried to reach out to this guy and be friendly and then it just got weird. I don’t want to get into it, but — peace and love. It was good for them, it was good for us.” Fah. Rivers getting “weird” could mean a host of things. We’ll likely never know the specifics, but Rivers Cuomo is gonna Rivers Cuomo. I love him for it, but I’m not going out of my way to spread the good word. I’ll just listen quietly in the corner, as is tradition.