Mojo Nixon passes away

Photo Credit: Nixon Family / Freedom Records

Alternative musician, DJ, and actor, Mojo Nixon, best known for the ‘80s novelty hit ‘Elvis is Everywhere,’ passes away at age 66.

Mojo Nixon, whose birth name was Neill Kirby McMillan Jr., was found dead on Wednesday (February 7) onboard the annual Outlaw Country Cruise, where he had just performed the night before and was a regular presence each year as a performer and co-host. According to his family, his cause of death was cardiac arrest. He was 66.

Best known for his breakthrough 1987 novelty hit, “Elvis is Everywhere,” Mojo Nixon’s music career saw him recording several albums both as a solo artist and with various collaborators, such as The Toadliquors and Jello Biafra. He shifted gears into radio in the late ‘90s and eventually landed a DJ position at SiriusXM.

“How you live is how you should die. Mojo Nixon was full-tilt, wide-open, rock hard, root hog, corner on two wheels, and on fire,” said his family in a statement on Facebook. “Passing after a blazing show, a raging night, closing the bar, taking no prisoners, and a good breakfast with bandmates and friends.”

“A cardiac event on the Outlaw Country Cruise is about right, and that’s just how he did it; Mojo has left the building,” the statement continued. “Since Elvis is everywhere, we know he was waiting for him in the alley out back. Heaven help us all.”

Nixon also dabbled in acting, including playing drummer James Van Eaton in the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis biopic, “Great Balls of Fire,” and a role in the widely panned 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. film.

“I don’t have that much talent, but what I do have is an enormous amount of enthusiasm,” Nixon said of himself and his career. “Mojo Nixon wanted to be Richard Pryor; he’s like Richard Pryor’s stupid cousin if he was white and played in a rockabilly band,” he continued.

Many of his biggest novelty hits skewered pop music figures of the time, such as “Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child,” “Don Henley Must Die,” and “Bring Me the Head of David Geffen.”