Mojo Nixon, the singer behind MTV hit, Elvis is Everywhere, has died on a cruise he was performing on, his Facebook page has said.
The rocker, behind the 1987 hit, passed away on Wednesday, (February 7). He was 66-years-old. His social media says Mojo Nixon, real name Neill Kirby McMillan Jr, died after a ‘cardiac event’ during an Outlaw Country Cruise where he was a performer. The music star had left on the cruise with his band The Toadliquors out of Miami on Sunday, lats week.
Mojo Nixon dies from ‘cardiac event’ on Outlaw Country Cruise
A post on his Facebook page paid tribute to his rock and roller lifestyle and documented his last days alive.
It said: “How you live is how you should die. Mojo Nixon was full-tilt, wide-open rock hard, root hog, corner on two wheels + on fire… Passing after a blazing show, a raging night, closing the bar, taking no prisoners + a good breakfast with bandmates and friends.
“A cardiac event on the Outlaw Country Cruise is about right… & that’s just how he did it. Mojo has left the building. Since Elvis is everywhere, we know he was waiting for him in the alley out back.
“Heaven help us all.”
Other performers on the cruise other than Mojo Nixon include Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams.
The celebrity also recorded a SiriusXM Session at Sea with the band 49 Winchester, as part of his role on the radio show Loon in the Afternoon on Steven Van Zandt’s Outlaw Country channel.
Tributes pour in for the star
The post has been liked more than 1,000 times, with almost 2,600 shares.
Fans wrote condolences to the rocker and also shared their own memories,
One wrote: “I remember seeing him play at the Blue Note in OKC when I was about 16 years old. I’m not sure why they let me into the bar when I was very obviously too young, but I remember the place was so packed that I had to actually stand on the bar for the whole show. Not just so that I could see the stage; it was literally impossible to stand anywhere else. It was a hell of a show, and a really formative memory for me in terms of how crazy a tiny club show could be. RIP Mojo, you absolute legend.”
Fellow singer-songwriter Steve Poltz said: “The world is a little darker.
“My buddy, my hero, my teacher, my spiritual advisor, my guru has left the building.
“I’m so sad and can’t believe he’s gone. I really thought he’d outlast us all. My friend Bill Davis of Dash Rip Rock broke the news to me. Mojo died on The Outlaw Country cruise.
“Mojo was a fireball and every time.
“I saw him, I always felt better. He took my band The Rugburns out on tour many years ago, and it was a nonstop, full on party of sweaty rock n roll to the nth degree.”
He sang a savage song about another rocker
Mojo Nixon, known for his project Bo-Day-Shus!!!, which had the song Elvis is Everywhere, reached number 187 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
But he had another hit with Don Henley Must Die, a brutal record snubbing Eagles frontman from his 1990 solo album Otis.
However, years later Nixon told the Austin Chronicle, Henley appeared at one of his gigs in Texas years later and there wasn’t any bad blood. When he was performing at the venue Hole in the Wall in 1992, Henley asked to join Nixon on stage.
He said: “He was s***-faced and he goes: ‘I want to sing that song, especially the part about not getting together with Glenn Frey!’
“He was beltin’ that s*** out, screaming like he was Johnny f*****g Rotten”.
Outside of music, he also worked as an actor. He appeared in the 1989 biopic Great Balls of Fire! about Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as being cast as Toad in the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie.
The star, born in North Carolina in 1957, moved to California in the early 1980s. After he arrived, he teamed up with fellow musician Skid Roper. The pair released six albums between the mid-1980s until the next decade. Roper would play washboard when Nixon strummed the guitar, singing his lyrics.
A documentary about the star, The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon, released in 2022. It debuted at the South by Southwest film festival, and was released online last year.
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