Paul Westerberg biography
Paul Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band. In recent years, he has cultivated a more independent-minded approach, primarily recording his music at home in his basement.
Early Life
Paul was born in Minneapolis and was born and raised Jewish. "I didn't start celebrating Christmas until I met my first wife, as Westerberg is a very Jewish name and I have a very Jewish nose. I grew up only experiencing Chanukkah."
In the late 1970s Westerberg was working as a janitor for U.S. Senator David Durenberger, and one day while walking home from work, he happened to hear a band practicing Yes's "Roundabout" in a basement. He talked his way into the band by convincing the singer that the other band members - Bob Stinson, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson -Â were going to fire him. The singer quit and Westerberg joined the group. The band was originally called "The Impediments," and played their first gig in the basement of a church, playing to members of a nearby halfway house who did not appreciate their drunken shenanigans, but they soon changed their name to "The Replacements" after several venues declined to advertise the band under their original name.
The Replacements quickly made a name for themselves in the Twin Cities punk scene, largely thanks to Westerberg's songwriting. The band made several critically acclaimed albums for local label Twin/Tone before signing to Sire Records in 1985. Despite the jump to Sire, the Replacements never translated their critical success into commercial sales.
By 1990, the band had run its course. The 1990 Replacements album All Shook Down was for all intents and purposes a Westerberg solo project. There are numerous guest performers and the other three members of the band (including Slim Dunlap, who had replaced Bob Stinson three years earlier to tour in support of Pleased to Meet Me) made minimal contributions. Mars left the band during this project. After touring for the album (which was critically well-received) with replacement Replacements, Tommy and Paul went their separate ways.
Solo work
Westerberg's first official work appeared in the form of two songs, "Waiting For Somebody" and "Dyslexic Heart," for the soundtrack to the 1992 Cameron Crowe film
Singles, for which he is also credited with composing and performing the score. The following year Reprise Records released his first solo album,
14 Songs. During the interim between solo albums, Westerberg songs appeared on
Melrose Place ("A Star Is Bored") and
Friends (his cover of Jonathan Edwards' "Sunshine" and "Stain Yer Blood") television soundtracks, in 1994 and 1995 respectively. In 2007, "Dyslexic Heart" was used in
Smart People movie trailer, a selection made by music supervisor Serena Undercofler.
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