Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, singer songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Wilco.

After Uncle Tupelo broke up Tweedy formed Wilco which found critical and commercial success, most notably with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.

[4] Bob Tweedy (died August 4, 2017[5]) worked for Alton & Southern Railroad in East St. Louis; JoAnn was a kitchen designer.

"[6] In 1981, when Tweedy was fourteen years old, he befriended Jay Farrar during an English class at Belleville Township High School West.

[1]: 10, 17 [8] Tweedy pushed The Plebes away from the rockabilly music that they had been playing, which caused Dade Farrar to leave the band.

[10] The Primatives went on hiatus in 1986 after Wade Farrar left the band to finish his engineering degree at Southern Illinois University.

During times when Uncle Tupelo was not touring, Tweedy and Farrar played as Coffee Creek, a short-lived cover band with The Bottle Rockets' Brian Henneman and Mark Ortmann.

Tweedy quit drinking entirely after meeting future wife Sue Miller, although he replaced this habit with smoking marijuana.

[1]: 74–75  The five-piece band recorded Anodyne, which sold over 150,000 copies and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, but was the last album Uncle Tupelo released.

Tweedy was enraged that Farrar decided to break up the band without notifying him, and this led to a series of harsh verbal exchanges.

Tweedy has also participated in a number of side groups including Golden Smog and Loose Fur, published a book of poems, and released a DVD of solo performances.

[1]: 125 [18] While on tour, Tweedy began to spend time reading books by William H. Gass, Henry Miller, and John Fante.

[1]: 136  Representatives in the A&R department of Reprise wanted a radio single from Summerteeth, and Wilco reluctantly agreed to a re-working of "Can't Stand It".

The single was a top five hit on adult album alternative radio stations, but failed to cross over to a larger audience.

[19] Jeff Tweedy was invited to play at Chicago's Noise Pop festival, and was told that he could collaborate with a musician of his choosing.

O'Rourke offered to bring drummer Glenn Kotche to the festival, and the trio formed a side project named Loose Fur.

Tweedy asked O'Rourke to remix several songs on the album that had been mixed by Bennett, which caused tensions within the band to escalate.

Howie Klein, the CEO of Reprise Records, considered Wilco to be one of the label's core bands, but was offered a lucrative buy-out by AOL Time Warner.

AOL Time Warner paid Wilco to make the album on Reprise, gave them the record for free, and then bought it back on the Nonesuch label.

[23][24] The album became the biggest hit of Jeff Tweedy's career and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over 500,000 copies.

The disc includes performances and conversations gathered over five nights on Tweedy's February 2006 solo acoustic tour, with footage from concerts at Seattle's Moore Theater, Portland's Crystal Ballroom, Eugene's McDonald Theatre, Arcata's Humboldt State University, and The Fillmore in San Francisco.

The DVD was directed by Christoph Green and Fugazi's Brendan Canty, the creators of the documentary series Burn to Shine.

[40][41] In June 2017 Jeff Tweedy released a solo acoustic album of eleven songs spanning his career from Wilco, Loose Fur, and Golden Smog titled Together at Last.

Tweedy would frequently read issues of magazines such as Rolling Stone, and began to purchase punk rock albums such as The Clash's London Calling and X's Wild Gift.

Belleville crowds did not respond well to punk music, so while Tweedy was a member of The Primitives they played covers of country songs at much faster tempos.

[1]: 110–111  One of the most influential albums for Tweedy was Bad Timing by Jim O'Rourke, which helped to inspire Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born.

[53] In 2004, he entered a dual diagnosis rehabilitation clinic in order to receive treatment for an addiction to prescription painkiller Vicodin.

[54][55][56] Tweedy quit smoking the next year; John Stirratt claimed afterward that significantly improved the focus of the band.

Miller also worked in a club in Chicago named Lounge Ax in 1989, and booked Uncle Tupelo for 16 shows over four years.

[61] In 2008, Spencer joined Wilco on stage at Madison Square Garden to play drums on their song "The Late Greats," while opening for Neil Young.