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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. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, began his music career in high school with his band The Plebes along with Jay Farrar, also in the band. The Plebes later became the alternative country band Uncle Tupelo.
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. The latter received a Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Album in 2005.
During his career Tweedy has released 20 studio albums including four with Uncle Tupelo, twelve with Wilco, Sukierae, a solo acoustic album, three solo studio albums, along with numerous collaborations with other musicians, most notably Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg.
Tweedy's mother bought him his first guitar when he was six years old, although he did not begin to play it seriously until he was twelve. Apparently Tweedy told people that he knew how to play the guitar once he got his first guitar, even though he did not know how to play.
When he was twelve, Tweedy was injured in a bicycle accident and was laid up for the summer. He decided to learn how to play a few chords before somebody "called him out" on the lie. On an appearance of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he remembered attending an X concert as a youngster in St. Louis. The Replacements opened, and Paul Westerberg, their guitarist and vocalist, fell off the stage while performing. Tweedy recalls thinking "That looks like fun!"
In 1981, when Tweedy was fourteen years old, he befriended Jay Farrar during an English class at Belleville Township High School West. All of the members of Farrar's family enjoyed playing music; he already knew rock and roll music very well. By that time, Tweedy was a fan of The Ramones and country music while Farrar enjoyed The Sex Pistols. Tweedy attended Belleville Area College and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
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. Around this time, Tweedy began developing problems with alcohol, leading to tensions between Tweedy and Farrar. While he never refused to play a gig, Tweedy was forced to sit out in place of Henneman at some performances. Tweedy quit drinking entirely after meeting future wife Sue Miller, although he replaced this habit with smoking marijuana. However, after developing a dependence on marijuana, he quickly quit using it, as well. After releasing Still Feel Gone, the band formed a friendship with Peter Buck of R.E.M., who produced their third album March 16–20, 1992 for free. Uncle Tupelo left the Rockville label in favor of Sire Records (Warner Brothers) later in 1992 because Rockville refused to pay the band any royalties for their albums. After the signing, Max Johnston and John Stirratt joined the band as Mike Heidorn was replaced by Bill Belzer who was later replaced by Ken Coomer. The five-piece band recorded Anodyne, which sold over 150,000 copies and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, but was the last album Uncle Tupelo released.
Wilco signed with Reprise Records/Warner Records and began recording AM almost as soon as the band was formed. After recording, Tweedy was introduced to Jay Bennett, who then joined the band. Also during this time, Tweedy quit smoking marijuana after a particularly bad experience with some . A.M. did not fare as well commercially in comparison to Son Volt's first album, only reaching number 27 on the Heatseekers chart while Son Volt's debut Trace hit the Billboard 200. Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum invited Tweedy to join him in a supergroup named Golden Smog with Gary Louris and Marc Perlman of the Jayhawks, Kraig Johnson of Run Westy Run, and Noah Levy of The Honeydogs. Under the pseudonym Scott Summit, Tweedy released Down by the Old Mainstream with Golden Smog in 1996.
Tweedy and Wilco began to explore new styles and broke from the style of previous recordings on the seminal sprawling double album Being There in 1996. Tweedy did not write music for many of the songs ahead of time, and welcomed unexpected sounds into the recording. Wilco recorded nineteen songs for the double-CD album, and wanted the label to release it with a retail price comparable to a single-CD release. Being There was a commercial success, selling 300,000 copies and peaking in the top half of the Billboard 200. Reprise records invested $100,000 in the single "Outta Mind (Outtasite)", but received little radio exposure. While on tour, Tweedy began to spend time reading books by William H. Gass, Henry Miller, and John Fante. As he read their books, Tweedy decided to place more of an emphasis on writing. 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.
Before the release of Summerteeth, the daughter of the late folk legend Woody Guthrie contacted folk rock singer Billy Bragg, who in turn contacted Tweedy about recording an album of unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. Tweedy was indifferent to the idea of working with Bragg, but Jay Bennett's enthusiasm about the idea convinced Tweedy to get the band involved in the project. As a result of Tweedy's feelings on the political nature of some of the lyrics, Bragg recorded mostly political songs while Wilco recorded more neutral songs. Almost all of the songs that appeared on Mermaid Avenue and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II were recorded over a six-day period in December 1997. The first Mermaid Avenue album and a second Golden Smog album ( Weird Tales) were released in 1998, Summerteeth was released in early 1999, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II was released in 2000. Tweedy received his first Grammy nomination when Mermaid Avenue was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1999.
Reprise Records' parent company Time Warner merged with America Online in 2001, and the recording company was asked to cut costs. 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. Reprise did not consider the album commercially viable and was not interested in releasing the album. David Kahne (Head of A&R) agreed to release Wilco from Reprise under the condition that Wilco got to keep all legal entitlements to the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. After an article in the Chicago Tribune publicly described these managerial practices, CEO Gary Briggs quit. Shortly after leaving the label, Briggs remarked:
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was originally scheduled to be released on Reprise on September 11, 2001, prior to the band's departure from Reprise. Seven days later, Tweedy decided that he would stream the entirety of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on Wilco's official website. Over thirty record labels offered to release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot after the departure from Reprise was official. One of the thirty was Warner Brothers affiliate Nonesuch Records, who signed Wilco in November 2001. 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. The album was released on April 23, 2002 to significant critical acclaim, including being named the best album of the year by The Village Voice. 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.
In November 2003, Wilco began recording a fifth studio album. Unlike their previous albums, all of the songs were originally performed in the studio and then later adapted for playing at concerts. Wilco released A Ghost Is Born on June 22, 2004, and it attained a top ten peak on the Billboard 200. The album was awarded with Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package in 2005. A few weeks before the album's release, Tweedy released a book of forty-three poems entitled Adult Head on Zoo Press. The following year, the band released their first live album, a two-disc set entitled , recorded at The Vic Theater. Kicking Television: Live in Chicago liner notes
In early May 2009, former Wilco member Jay Bennett sued Tweedy for breach of contract. Bennett died later that month of an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl. In June 2009 Wilco released their seventh studio album Wilco (The Album), followed by The Whole Love in 2011, Star Wars in 2015, Schmilco in 2016, Ode to Joy in 2019, Cruel Country in May 2022, and Cousin in 2023.
Tweedy has partnered with Mavis Staples on three acclaimed albums. In 2010 they released You Are Not Alone, in 2013, One True Vine, and in 2017 If All I Was Was Black. Tweedy played an array of instruments on these albums and wrote many of the songs.
Tweedy worked with the psychedelic-influenced garage rock group White Denim on their record Corsicana Lemonade, recording some songs at Wilco's Chicago studio The Loft. In 2015 the album Still by Richard Thompson was released. The album was produced by Tweedy in The Loft Studios and features Tweedy on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals.
Tweedy has appeared as a fictional singer-songwriter on 2014 episodes of Parks and Recreation and Portlandia.
On June 4, 2014, it was announced that he had formed a new band called Tweedy with his son Spencer. The band's debut album Sukierae was released on September 16. The release was followed by a world tour in which half of the set consisted of new songs off Sukierae performed by a touring band including Spencer. The latter half of the set Tweedy plays solo, typically performing Wilco and Uncle Tupelo classics.
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. In November 2018 Jeff Tweedy released a memoir titled Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) and his first solo album of new material, titled Warm. A companion album to Warm titled Warmer was released on April 13, 2019, as a Record Store Day exclusive.
In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic Susan Tweedy and her family created a recurring video series on Instagram dubbed The Tweedy Show featuring Jeff and their sons performing original and cover songs. During the shelter-in-place Jeff Tweedy also wrote and recorded his third solo album titled Love Is the King which was announced to release on October 23, 2020 and wrote his second book titled How to Write One Song which was announced to release on October 13, 2020, on the E. P. Dutton publishing label. His third book, World Within a Song, was released in November 2023.
In September 2025, Tweedy released a triple-album of new solo material, Twilight Override. He wrote the album over a two year period and recorded the 30 tracks in collaboration with friends and both of his sons, Sammy and Spencer.
Tweedy is married to former bookkeeper Sue Miller and lives in the Irving Park area of Chicago. He first met Miller when he was trying to get Uncle Tupelo booked at Cubby Bear, where Miller worked. Miller also worked in a club in Chicago named Lounge Ax in 1989, and booked Uncle Tupelo for 16 shows over four years. They began dating in 1991 and were married on August 9, 1995. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2014. During a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Tweedy said "she's doing great now."
Tweedy also said that music is a healthy distraction in such difficult times. They have two sons: Spencer Tweedy and Sam. Spencer was the drummer for pre-teen rock band The Blisters and a new band called Tully Monster. 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. Tweedy has converted to Judaism. His wife is Jewish people; their sons both had Bar Mitzvah ceremonies. During the ceremony for his older son, Tweedy played an acoustic version of Bob Dylan's "Forever Young".
In November 2019 Tweedy's home in Irving Park was shot at least seven times in an attack described by his son as "not targeted". No injuries were reported.
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