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1. Me and Adam Petty once “covered” “Come On Up to the House” at a friend’s wedding reception. (We were four sheets to the wind, like Tom Traubert.)

2. The handshake meme, but it’s David Bentley Hart and Tom Waits over “Down There By the Train.”

3. In like 2002 or 2003, the “Eat Pray Love” lady did a profile of Tom Waits for some magazine (best thing she’s ever written) where they spend the first few paragraphs chatting amiably with a homeless schizophrenic who is carrying a wagon covered with apocalyptic messages. In another profile from around the same time (maybe it’s that one), Tom mentions that he’s going to the junkyard after he’s done talking to the interviewer and the interviewer is suddenly stricken by FOMO about the idea of missing a trip to a junkyard with Tom Waits (who surely finds all sorts of sonically interesting possibilities in a quick visit to the junkyard). In yet another profile from that era, Tom gets bored and starts reciting (or inventing) animal facts.

In conclusion, we love Tom so much

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My introduction to the guy was, I shit you not, a Spirit Magazine profile that mesmerized me on some childhood flight to somewhere (probably also around that time? Maybe also the same one? It doesn't seem to exist in any internet capacity that I can find). The guy knows how to turn in a good interview.

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