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Published
August 23, 1995: Wolfman Jack, the rock 'n' roll disc jockey whose gravelly
voice and wolf howls made him one of the nation's most recognizable personalities,
died Saturday of a heart attack. He was 57. The Wolfman collapsed shortly
after returning home earlier in the day, said Lonnie Napier, vice president
of Wolfman Jack Entertainment. He had just completed a 20-day trip to promote
his new book "Have Mercy, The Confession of the Original Party Animal,"
about his early career and parties with celebrities. "He walked up the
driveway, went in to hug his wife and then just fell over," said Napier
from the Wolfman's home, about 120 miles east of Raleigh. Born Robert Smith
in Brooklyn, the Wolfman came to prominence in the early 1960s on XERF-AM,
playing the latest rock 'n' roll on a Mexican station that broadcast at
250,000 watts, five times the power allowed on any U.S. station at the
time. His howls and yips, and the blues and hillbilly records he spun blanketed
much of the United States all night long. In between cuts, he would hawk
plastic figurines of Jesus, coffins, and inspirational literature, and
exhort his listeners to "get yo'self nekkid." Though already well known,
it wasn't until he played himself in the 1973 movie American Graffiti
that America saw the face that went with the voice. Many early listeners
assumed he was black. "It took the Wolfman from a cult figure to the rank
of American flag and apple pie," he once said of the movie. After American
Graffiti, he began doing various advertising campaigns and appeared
in more than 40 network TV shows. He also had his own syndicated TV show,
The
Wolfman Jack Show. In the 1980s, the Wolfman became host of
Rock
'n' Roll Palace on The Nashville Network, featuring performers such
as the Shirelles, the Coasters, Del Shannon, Martha Reeves and the Crickets.
"It's real American music - what rock 'n' roll originally was before people
turned it around and sideways and upside down. From 1958 to 1964, that's
real rock 'n' roll. Then the Beatles hit and everyone sounded like them.
They didn't give our boys long enough," the Wolfman said in a 1988 interview.
He also had played host on a weekly TV show called The Midnight Special
for eight years, leaving in 1982. More recently, the Wolfman had been doing
a weekly syndicated radio show for Liberty broadcasting from a Planet Hollywood
restaurant in Washington, D.C. His last show, picked up by about 70 stations,
was Friday night. "He had just done one of his best shows," Napier said.
"He was feeling really good." The portly Wolfman had recently lost 40 pounds
through diet and exercise, Napier said. "But he still smoked his Camels.
He was going to live the way he lived," he said. The Wolfman's name came
from a trend of the '50s, when disc jockeys took nicknames such as Moondog
or Hound Dog. He enjoyed horror movies, so he took the name Wolfman.
Todd Rundgren, the Guess Who, Leon Russell and Freddie King all wrote songs
about him. He credited his voice for his success. "It's kept meat and potatoes
on the table for years for Wolfman and Wolfwoman. A couple of shots of
whiskey helps it. I've got that nice raspy sound." He is survived by his
wife, Lou Lamb Smith; a daughter, Joy Rene Smith, 33; and a son, Tod Weston
Smith, 31.
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