Bowie was chosen to curate the 2007 High Line Festival, selecting musicians and artists for the Manhattan event, and performed on Scarlett Johansson's 2008 album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head.

In October 2007, Dreams confirmed that this would be Gilliam's next project and was slated to star Christopher Plummer and Tom Waits.

Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding " like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.

In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Waits was born at Park Avenue Hospital in Pomona, California, the son of Alma Fern ( née Johnson ) McMurray and Jesse Frank Waits, both schoolteachers.

Waits, who taught himself how to play the piano on a neighbor's instrument, often took trips to Mexico with his father, who taught Spanish ; he would later say that he found his love of music during these trips through a Mexican ballad that was " probably a Ranchera, you know, on the car radio with my dad.

By 1965, while attending Hilltop High School within the Sweetwater Union High School District, Chula Vista, Waits was playing in an R & B / soul band called The Systems and had begun his first job at Napoleone Pizza House in National City ( about which he would later sing on " I Can't Wait to Get Off Work ( And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue )" from Small Change and " The Ghosts of Saturday Night ( After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House )" on The Heart of Saturday Night ).

Waits signed to Asylum Records in 1972, and after numerous abortive recording sessions, his first record — the jazzy, folk-tinged Closing Time — was released in 1973.

The album, which was produced and arranged by former Lovin ' Spoonful member Jerry Yester, received positive reviews, but Waits did not gain widespread attention until a number of the album's tracks were covered by more prominent artists.

By this time, Waits was drinking heavily, and life on the road was starting to take its toll.

Waits, looking back at the period, has said, I was sick through that whole period [...] It was starting to wear on me, all the touring.

The song " Blue Valentines " was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits ' vocal.

For Coppola's film, Waits originally wanted to work with Bette Midler ; she was unavailable due to prior engagements, however.

Franks Wild Years, a musical play by Waits and Brennan, was staged as an Off-Broadway musical in 1986, directed by Gary Sinise, in a successful run at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theater.

The play opened at the Los Angeles Theater Center in February 1989 to mixed reviews, although Waits ' performance was singled out by a number of critics, including John C. Mahoney, who described it as " mesmerizing.

The project was based on a German folktale called Der Freischütz, with Wilson responsible for the design and direction, Burroughs for writing the book, and Waits for music and lyrics, which were heavily influenced by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

The following year, Waits was extremely busy working on movie soundtracks, acting, and contributing to a number of music projects by other artists.

This was the first of several collaborations between Waits and the group ; Frontman Les Claypool would appear on several subsequent Waits releases.

Edwards was extremely complimentary of Waits ' contributions, saying: Tom Waits is the one who got me my contract with PolyGram.

Lyrically, Waits ' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places — although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

In 1971, Waits moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of L. A. ( at the time, also home to musicians Glenn Frey of the Eagles, J. D. Souther, Jackson Browne, and Frank Zappa ) and signed with Herb Cohen at the age of 21.

The album also features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on " I Never Talk to Strangers.

In 1978, Waits also appeared in his first film role, in Paradise Alley as Mumbles the pianist, and contributed the original compositions "( Meet Me in ) Paradise Alley " and " Annie's Back in Town " to the film's soundtrack.

During this period, Waits appeared in a series of minor movie roles, including a cameo role in Wolfen ( 1981 ) as an inebriated piano player, and his song " Jitterbug Boy " also appeared on the movie's soundtrack.

Waits also contributed two songs to the documentary Streetwise ( 1984 ), " Rat's Theme " and " Take Care of All My Children ".

" Swordfishtrombones also introduced instruments such as bagpipes (" Town with No Cheer ") and marimba (" Shore Leave ") to Waits ' repertoire, as well as pump organs, percussion ( sometimes reminiscent of the music of Harry Partch ), horn sections ( often featuring Ralph Carney playing in the style of brass bands or soul music ), experimental guitar, and obsolete instruments ( many of Waits ' albums have featured a damaged, unpredictable Chamberlin, and more recent albums have included the little-used Stroh violin ).

Waits developed his acting career with several supporting roles and a lead role in Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law in 1986, which also featured two of Waits's songs from Rain Dogs in the soundtrack.

In the same year, Waits also contributed vocals to the song " Harlem Shuffle " on The Rolling Stones ' album Dirty Work.

" Waits also continued to further his acting career with a supporting role as Rudy the Kraut in Ironweed ( an adaptation of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ) alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, in which Waits performed the song " Big Rock Candy Mountain ", as well as a part in Robert Frank's Candy Mountain, in which Waits also performed " Once More Before I Go.

Waits also collaborated with photographer Sylvia Plachy in the same year ; her book Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour includes a short Waits record to accompany the photographs and text.

" Waits also contributed vocals to a duet with singer Bob Forrest on the song " Adios Lounge " on the Thelonious Monster album Beautiful Mess.

1992 also saw Waits featuring in Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula, as the possessed lunatic Renfield.

The album also includes the traditional hymn " I Know I've Been Changed ", performed as a duet by Hammond and Waits.

That same year, Waits was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists ' careers.

(" Tomorrow Morning, Montreal Waits for Me ")

From August to December 1971, Waits made a series of demo recordings for Cohen's Bizarre / Straight label, including many songs for which he would later become known.

Waits described the album as: ... a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

With it, Waits broke onto Billboards Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career ( a feat Waits would not repeat until 1999 with the release of Mule Variations ).

The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film One from the Heart.

Waits ended up working with singer / songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.

After leaving Asylum, the label released the first Tom Waits " Best of " album in 1981, a collection called Bounced Checks, notable for including an alternate, stripped down version of " Jersey Girl " and the otherwise unreleased " Mr. Henry ", as well as an alternate master of " Whistlin ' Past the Graveyard " and a live performance of " The Piano Has Been Drinking ".

One from the Heart received its official theatrical release in 1982, with Waits appearing in a cameo as a trumpet player as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score ( eventually losing out to Victor Victoria, by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse ).

After leaving Asylum for Island Records, Waits released Swordfishtrombones in 1983, a record that marked a sharp turn in his musical direction.

The only collection of exclusively Waits-performed material of 1991 appeared when Waits composed and conducted the almost exclusively instrumental music for Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film Night on Earth, which was released as an album the following year.

In July 1991, Screamin ' Jay Hawkins released the album Black Music for White People, which features covers of two Waits compositions: " Heartattack & Vine " ( which later that year was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits ' permission, resulting in a lawsuit ) and " Ice Cream Man ".

In 1993, he released The Black Rider, which contained studio versions of the songs that Waits had written for the musical of the same name three years previously, with the exceptions of " Chase the Clouds Away " and " In the Morning ", which appeared in the theatrical production but not on the studio album.

In 1997, Waits and Brennan wrote and performed the music for Bunny the animated short film by 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which was awarded Best Animated Short Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Another Waits cover was released in 1996, as Meat Loaf covered Martha for his concept album Welcome to the Neighborhood.