Bad News Sucks

[alantig]

Being that today was a work-at-home day, I fired up the laptop to listen to the Bob & Tom show like I do most days. Today, I did it later than usual, which turned out to be kind of good, because it meant that for a couple hours I was not aware that comedian Tim Wilson had died. Tim was a regular guest on B&T, and man, what a fascinating guy. Whip smart, big music fan, absolute character. He did some great songs on the show, and some great standup material as well.
On top of that, he was pretty much an expert on, of all thing, Ted Bundy. The serial killer. Even wrote a book about him (there's a great episode of the podcast Off The Air With Chick McGee - number 70, to be exact - with Tim discussing all that).

Sadly, I never got to see him perform live - he never really got close to where I am.

Strangely enough, he died 20 years to the day that one of my true comedy idols, Bill Hicks died.

RIP, Tim - I already miss hearing him.

Keeping it SFW, this was one of my favorite songs of his:

In case you ever wondered what it would sound like if Strother Martin sang Led Zeppelin...

And possibly my all-time favorite Tim Wilson bit...

 

[Goldtop]

Man, I hadn't heard this either. Really sad news. I thought Tim was soooo funny. Sharp, quick-witted, and unique. His Strother Martin/Stairway is a classic in my book.

Thanks you for posting this Alan.

Lloyd

 

[Goldtop]

Here is Tim Wilson on the subject of Southern Accents. Thankfully, he didn't get to Texas... :laugh:

Goldtop/Lloyd

 

[captdg]

Gold.....Top....Loved Mr. Wilson...As far as Texas accents go its a cross between "W" ,LBJ , and Foghorn Leghorn.. That bomb we dropped on Hiroshima was 'Nu-clar" ahh say Nu- Clar".. Plus a real Texan would put his right foot on a chair, take off his Stetson and wipe his forehead with his forearm for added emphasis.

 

[alantig]

Just FYI, B&T did another tribute show to Tim today. They had calls from Tommy Johnagin, Ron White and Billy Gardell. The Gardell call is really touching - Tim was a huge booster of Billy's for years, and Billy has given him tons of credit, and even made sure Tim was on the first episode of Road Dogs. Does a great Tim impersonation, too. All on their Sound Cloud page. Here's the Billy Gardell call...

https://soundcloud.com/bobandtom/billy-gardell-shares-stories

Also saw this linked to from somewhere - very cool song, and as one commenter said, I can hear him making these arguments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhkWELXITMo

And both yesterday and today, B&T closed the show with Tim singing a song that starts "Life's too short to hang out with a bunch of a$$bags...". Way too short.

 

[Solocaller]

He will be missed. I always looked forward to the shows that he was going to be on. Tim told the same kinds of stories that I like to tell; the stories about life and growing up. He had a positive way of spinning a bad experience and making it funny.

 

[alantig]

Billy Gardell was on The Talk today and mentioned Tim, which I thought was a classy gesture. My wife and I watched it tonight, and that was the only thing we watched from the show, and we both said we couldn't watch that show if our lives depended on it. That is just awful.

 

[jfb]

RIP TW!

 

[BigdaddyRN]

I use to hear him on the John Boy and Billy, Big Show. Very funny man.

 

[alantig]

Bob and Tom did a benefit show for the Tim Wilson Memorial Fund, to help his kid out. Lots of the usual suspects from the radio show were there. Pics are up on the B&T web site (bobandtom.com), but this pic from the end said it all...

 

[alantig]

Two more bits from the tribute show...

Bob Kevoian (the Bob of Bob & Tom) did a tribute song for Tim. Very cool, very touching.

This guy opened for Tim for about 300 shows. In this clip, he plays a song that Tim insisted he play at every show (does a pretty good Tim Wilson impression when he tells the story, too).